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Innovation

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management
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Abstract

Innovation is the uncertain process of moving from an invention to successful commercial exploitation. Because theory is a weak guide to practice, it depends on incremental experimentation and firm-specific learning. Firms can therefore strategically build and exploit firm-specific capabilities, both internally and in their supplier and customer networks, to create and capture value. As the division of innovative labour has expanded, innovation has become a more distributed, networked strategic activity that can disrupt existing market structures and transform industries. As industries are transformed, the capabilities and ways of thinking about customer offerings that drove past success can constrain effective strategic change.

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Correspondence to Paul Nightingale .

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Nightingale, P. (2018). Innovation. In: Augier, M., Teece, D.J. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-00772-8_391

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