Radical innovation: crossing knowledge boundaries with ...

perhaps by exploiting emerging technologies or changes in markets. It also requires
successful exploitation of new ideas, carrying them through to new products, new
services, new ways of running the business or even new ways of doing business (Cox
2005).
In these analyses, interdisciplinarity becomes associated with the creation of new
boundary-crossing ideas, and innovation with the economic consequences of such
ideas. There is a concern with identifying uniform dynamics across many sectors of
the knowledge economy, so that interdisciplinary and ‘innovative’ academic research
and education could become the basis of more competitive ‘interdisciplinary’ and
innovative business activity. In this project, we therefore set out to do further research
into how knowledge sharing takes place as a social process, what it achieves, and
what interdisciplinarity might mean for those involved in research and innovation
carrying this label. Rather than restricting our research by establishing more precise
definitions, we investigated the experiences of those individuals who have been
identified by their peers, within the current policy climate, as being the exemplars of
successful ‘interdisciplinary innovation’. While it is clear that there are many
components of innovation, encompassing both creativity and exploitation, it also
became clear that there are many targets for innovative activity in different sectors,
encompassing the development of products or services for commercial exploitation,
curiosity-driven academic research, problem solving of various scope, and the
creation of social value through specific intervention. We describe each of these
below:
� Commercial exploitation of new ideas, technologies and processes is a primary
concern of innovation, enshrined in definitions from bodies such as the former
UK Department for Trade & Industry. The objective is to create, develop,
implement and sell products or services. To this end, commercial innovation is
likely to be purposeful and managed. The result may be incremental - a minor
development of an already marketed or used product, service or process - such
as improved fuel efficiency for a car using a differently shaped roof having
better aerodynamics. More spectacularly, commercial innovation may be
radical, characterised by a greater degree of novelty, perhaps with a capacity
to disrupt previous business, as in the introduction of the Apple iPod.
� Curiosity-driven research is most often found in the academic sector, for
example when a paleontologist works to understand the anatomy of a dinosaur
or a mathematician explores an abstract theorem. It seeks knowledge and new
insights, creating unifying theories and models that describe a new
understanding of phenomena we see around us. Those phenomena might be
equally well in the domains of science, of humanities, of arts and creative
industries, of sociology, or of politics and policy. The aim is insight, not
necessarily with the intention of action or intervention.
� Problem-solving activity is directed toward identifying some new approach
that solves a recognised problem. Investigating how to prevent a particular
disease, or employing a consultant engineer to prevent further cracks
appearing in a wall, are examples of contexts in which such innovation occurs.
Innovation and Interdisciplinarity 11