Increased Variation or Higher Fences? Understanding Typological Evolution in Radical Innovation Management

This paper addresses a key issue of typological confusion in relation to radical innovation management research. Previous research has emphasized the need for a more parsimonious understanding of innovation typology, where a myriad of types are still present. We use a dataset of the radical innovation typology created through a systematic literature review to map and understand the typological evolution in the field. By following a scientometric research methodology and utilizing “popularity-based” and Social Network Analysis(SNA) research approaches, this study is empirically evaluating the evolutionary process of “radical innovation” as an innovation type. We comment and discuss critical points in time where the typology evolves. This allows us to precisely determine if an added innovation type or attribute indeed was a novel contribution. We discuss the novel contributions made over time, and also which innovation types did very little to contribute to our current understanding of the typology