Out of the Darkness and Into the Light: The Antecedents and Impact of Unsponsored R&D Projects

It is clear that many established organizations rely on autonomous, unsponsored R&D projects to sustain and support corporate renewal. These projects emerge out of the dark corners of the organization, as often a result of individual’s proactive and deviant creative efforts. Yet, little is known about the precise origins of these projects and what impact these projects will have on the organization. We argue that there will be a curvilinear relationship between inventors’ network position and status on their participation in autonomous inventive projects. In addition, we expect that, despite having lower average quality, these projects will be more likely to generate breakthrough inventions than sponsored projects. Using a unique dataset of invention disclosures from a global technology-based firm, we find support for our hypotheses. From the analysis, we develop implications for theories of creativity, enriching understanding of proactive and deviant forms of creative efforts, and the origins of breakthroughs in mature organizations.  (It is joint work with Oliver Alexy (TUM), Paola Criscuolo and Dmitry Sharapov (Imperial College London)

Biography
Ammon Salter is a Professor of Innovation at the School of Management at the University of Bath. At Bath, he currently serves as the Head of the Strategy and International Management Group and Associate Director of the Institute for Policy Research. From 2009-2013, he was the Research Director of the UK Innovation Research Centre (a collaborationwith the University of Cambridge). He was educated at Queen’s and Concordia University in Canada and the University of Sussex in the UK, where he received his doctorate from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU). From 2003-2013, he worked at Imperial College London, helping to establish the Department of Innovation & Entrepreneurship. He has published over 40 refereed journal articles and three books. His work has appeared in a wide range of journals, including Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Organization Studies, California Management Review, Research Policy, and Industrial and Corporate Change. He has collaborated with a range of public organizations, including the European Commission, the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, The Royal Society, and businesses, such as IBM, Arup, and GSK, on innovation-related issues. Professor Salter's research interests focus on open and distributed innovation, social networks and innovation, and university-industry collaboration.