Radical innovation: crossing knowledge boundaries with ...

different language). Rather, they have different kinds of knowledge - the knowledge
that is valued, bounded, and whose boundaries are crossed, in one sector is not
necessarily even recognised as being knowledge when viewed from another sector.
The ways in which disciplinary practices shape our thinking is, in all likelihood, much
underestimated. It is through these particular ‘frames of reference’ (Goodman 1978:
2-3) that we structure and make sense of the world as professional practitioners.
These differing perspectives are not necessarily commensurable with one another.
It is this fact that made our project so difficult at the outset. In taking a cross-sectoral
approach, both when choosing our expert witnesses and recruiting our research team,
we guaranteed that our common concern would be difficult to formulate. In fact, we
have been investigating patterns of boundary-crossing behaviour. However, the
crossings are experienced in relation to boundaries that not all participants may
perceive, being boundaries around objects that in themselves we might not all
recognise (see Leitner and Wilson 2007).
3.3.3 Research
Research has a special role in the innovation; one that is complicated by
misconceptions and associations from many domains and driven by different
stakeholders’ perceptions of the role of research
Research is seen as being one source of creative ideas that may be exploited as
innovations and, especially in the linear model of innovation, as a wellspring from
which can flow a stream of value, realised by a ‘pipeline’ of development activities.
Hence the typical commercial pairing of ‘research’ with ‘development’. Increasingly
companies are acknowledging the role of others in providing ideas; staff from outside
R&D, customers and, through open innovation, suppliers, partners, consultants and
universities.
However, the creative step is not limited to the first step of an innovation process.
While a concept is being prepared for market there will be many creative steps, often
of greater magnitude and impact that the first seeding idea. This is typical of real
world innovation that entails iteration and is better described by design models of
innovation rather than a linear model.
Iterations will involve the creation of models of the innovation – models of gradually
increasing fidelity and representation of the final incarnation. Some of these will be
theoretical models, perhaps computer-aided design models or, as importantly,
business models of the envisaged exploitation route. Others will be physical
prototypes. Later versions may be pilots, created to test the innovation in practice
before undertaking the expensive and risky task of scaling up to full volume. In each
case these models, be they mathematical, visual representations, physical prototypes
or full scale pilots, are a form of embodied knowledge that can allow communication
between disciplines, across organisational functional boundaries, between levels of
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