Article
Converting inventions into innovations in large firms: How inventors at Xerox navigated the innovation process to commercialize their ideas
Vinokurova, N., & Kapoor, R. · 2020 · Strategic Management Journal, 41(13), 2372–2399
Summary
The article examines how inventors inside large firms help commercialize breakthrough inventions despite organizational inertia. Using historical cases from Xerox PARC, the authors show that inventors do more than generate ideas: they actively attract resources by navigating different evaluation criteria across organizational units. Two key strategies are identified: searching for units with more favorable evaluation criteria and shaping the criteria used to judge the invention.
Method
Historical case study of three Xerox PARC inventions: office workstations, personal computers, and laser printers.
Limitations
The study is based on one firm and a specific historical context, so the findings may not generalize directly to all large organizations or innovation settings.
Future research
Future research could compare inventor agency across firms, industries, and time periods, and examine when searching or shaping evaluation criteria is most effective.
APA 7 citation
Vinokurova, N., & Kapoor, R. (2020). Converting inventions into innovations in large firms: How inventors at Xerox navigated the innovation process to commercialize their ideas. Strategic Management Journal, 41(13), 2372–2399. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3209