Spanning Temporal Boundaries in Pharmaceutical Innovation: A Process Model

Abstract

Prior research suggests that firms must search knowledge across multiple domains, spanning technological, geographical, organizational and temporal boundaries in order to develop new products. The temporal dimension of knowledge search, however, has received disproportionately lower research attention compared to other dimensions. To investigate the anatomy of the process through which firms span temporal boundaries to develop new products, we undertook an in-depth qualitative case study of Aboca, a pharmaceutical firm that remarkably used historical knowledge from traditional herbal medicine to develop new drugs that challenged major industry players. We found that the temporal boundary spanning process does not follow the conventional phases often assumed in the knowledge search literature, and identified three distinct sub-processes involved: recovery, revival and renewal. Moreover, we found that the temporal boundary spanning process is more varied than it is commonly thought, and that the sequence of sub-processes involved has unanticipated effects on innovation outcomes. Thus, our study advances novel insights regarding the search and use of temporally distant knowledge in innovation, contributing to theories about how firms innovate by overcoming the temporal boundaries of existing knowledge.