What Helps And Hinders

Innovation?
Magazine: Fall 2009 • Research Highlight • October 01, 2009 • Reading Time: 1 min 

Daniel Tzabbar

Recent research explores the interdependencies between various

approaches to innovation.
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Many organizations commit large amounts of resources to maintain their
competitiveness through innovative activities. How do they ensure that those resources
are allocated to the uses that are most likely to yield innovations? Answering this
question is the focus of a study that I, along with several other researchers, recently
conducted in the biotech industry. (A full description of the study was published in the
November 2008 issue of Strategic Organization.)

In this research, my coauthors and I set out to explore the

interdependencies between various factors that may impact innovation
success — and whether or not those factors work effectively together to
help foster greater innovation. In particular, we researched the
relationship between a company’s intellectual capital
(what the organization knows through its codified
patents), human capital (the proportion of the RELATED RESEARCH

company’s scientific staff that consists of star

scientists, as measured by prior innovation success)
D. Tzabbar, B.S. Aharonson, T.L. Amburgey and A.
and collaborative capital (the company’s alliance
Al-Laham, “When Is the Whole Bigger Than the
portfolio and capabilities of working with others). Sum of Its Parts? Bundling Knowledge Stocks for
Innovative Success,” Strategic Organization 6, no. 4
We used data from 843 biotech companies founded (November 2008): 375–406.
between 1973 and 1999; during this period, the
companies collectively generated about 9,000 patents.
Analysis of the data found that, to a statistically
significant extent, the development of greater human capital, in the form of a higher percentage of star
scientists, can decrease the likelihood of a company
developing new intellectual capital. Apparently, the presence of star scientists reduces a company’s
creativity, as they rely on their existing knowledge to approach technological problems instead of seeking
new ideas and solutions.

We also found that a high level of collaboration via alliances promotes innovation, as it encourages a free
flow of ideas among the people who must work together to discover new solutions to problems. However,
the existence of a high level of star scientists (human capital) inhibits both innovation and collaboration.
Stars may have too much vested in their current thought processes — and organizations may have too much
vested in their stars — to seek collaboration or new intellectual capital. Thus, from our study, it seems that
in an innovative organization, a star-oriented culture has a dark side.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel Tzabbar is an assistant professor of entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Central
Florida. He gratefully acknowledges the contributions of Robert C. Ford, a professor of management at the
University of Central Florida, in the preparation of this article.
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