The universe of knowledge is vast. Is there any rhyme or reason to searching through it? What kind of knowledge is most likely to be useful for an innovator?
This is a big literature, but today I want to look at three papers that use different metrics to suggest knowledge which is distinct but close to your existing knowledge tends to be most useful.
This is an audio read through of the (initial version of the) article Adjacent Knowledge is Useful, published on New Things Under the Sun.
Articles mentioned
Lane, Jacqueline N., Ina Ganguli, Patrick Gaule, Eva Guinan, and Karim R. Lakhani. 2020. Engineering Serendipity: When does knowledge sharing lead to knowledge production? Strategic Management Journal: https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3256
Clancy, Matthew, Paul Heisey, Yongjie Ji, and GianCarlo Moschini. 2020. The Roots of Agricultural Innovation: Patent Evidence of Knowledge Spillovers. NBER Working Paper 27011. https://doi.org/10.3386/w27011
Cornelius, Philpp B., Bilal Gokpinar, and Fabian J. Sting. 2020. Sparking Manufacturing Innovation: How Temporary Interplant Assignments Increase Employee Idea Values. Management Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3673