The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the process of innovation through knowledge combination in organizations. My particular interest is how firms manage knowledge combination to produce ongoing novel outputs. Central to my framing is a conceptualization of knowledge combination as an organizational capability expressed in routines. Knowledge combination experiences generate learning that changes routines and guides subsequent performances. Ongoing innovation occurs both as a direct output of knowledge combination routines and as such routines themselves undergo change. These distinctive characteristics of knowledge combination are extended and clarified using exploratory empirical studies based on 16 project-based firms and agent-based computer simulation modeling.
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