Recognising radical innovation: The importance of perspective and level of analysis

Abstract

Radical innovation is known to differ drastically from incremental innovation, both in terms of process and outcome. This paper discusses how radical innovation can be recognised in a valid way. The presented logic is based on a longitudinal single case research. The research demonstrates that the link between an innovation project’s ex ante potential for radical innovation and the radical nature of its actual end result(s) may be too absolute in extant theory. This paper provides at least two important contributions. First, it is explained how ex ante and ex post identification of radical innovation take place according to different criteria. Second, it is argued that one innovation can have an ex post incremental or radical level of innovativeness at the same time in different application industries in an economically viable way. In the latter case, an innovation’s actual level of innovativeness is assessed by taking perspective and level of analysis into account.