Innovation as clarifications: lessons from bat and ball sports

Abstract

I suggest that the process of innovation can be understood broadly as comprising clarifications over values and rules. This yields four categories of innovations: progressive, ideational, practicable and prototypical. The basis for this characterization rests on the evolution of cooperative conditions in competition, which is a strong condition for an innovation process that is nonlinear and recombinant. When played in teams, sports are, therefore, interesting cases; they also require the consideration of broader social conditions than do traditional markets and are based on tacit or explicit rules, traditions and social preferences. I, therefore, consider the class of bat and ball sports from a broad historical perspective as a case study to adumbrate the idea of innovation as clarifications.