The Hidden Side of Innovation: Why Thinkerers Matter

31 Pages Posted: 11 Apr 2014

See all articles by Marco Bettiol

Marco Bettiol

University of Padua

Vladi Finotto

Ca Foscari University of Venice - Department of Management

Eleonora Di Maria

University of Padua - Department of Economics and Management

Stefano Micelli

Ca Foscari University of Venice - Department of Management

Date Written: April 1, 2014

Abstract

Theories of innovation have drawn on the dominant form that the process took in the 1960s and 1970s: one characterized by high-tech endeavors, usually based on formal research and scientific investigations, involving patenting and corporations’ research laboratories. Those specific assumptions and conceptions of the innovation process overshadowed the role of material action and of materiality in creating new knowledge. The paper points out how materiality – in particular the physical creation of artifacts out of available resources – is a fundamental element in innovation, in particular in generating novel knowledge. We advance an analytical and theoretical framework to think about the role of “making” things – defined as “tinkering” – in innovation processes. We identify three functions to tinkering. First, tinkering is conceived as a form of epistemic action that generates abstract knowledge in and of itself. Second, tinkering orients the emergence of filieres and artifacts towards contributions to specialized innovative labor. Finally, we posit that tinkering is a way of framing innovation and of mobilizing resources and attention to obtain legitimation in industries and in markets. In order to ground our definition and conceptual framing of tinkering, we illustrate the case of the airplane and of the historical development of the aircraft industry as an example to clarify our propositions. The paper closes by proffering avenues for further investigations.

Keywords: innovation, tinkering, bricolage, materiality

JEL Classification: O32, M1

Suggested Citation

Bettiol, Marco and Finotto, Vladi and Di Maria, Eleonora and Micelli, Stefano, The Hidden Side of Innovation: Why Thinkerers Matter (April 1, 2014). Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia Working Paper No. 2014/8, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2423486

Marco Bettiol

University of Padua ( email )

Via 8 Febbraio 1848, 2
Padova, Vicenza 35122
Italy

Vladi Finotto (Contact Author)

Ca Foscari University of Venice - Department of Management ( email )

San Giobbe, Cannaregio 873
Venice, 30121
Italy

Eleonora Di Maria

University of Padua - Department of Economics and Management ( email )

Via del Santo, 33
Padova, 35123
Spain

Stefano Micelli

Ca Foscari University of Venice - Department of Management ( email )

San Giobbe, Cannaregio 873
Venice, 30121
Italy

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