The Strategic Management Society
10,463 followers
3d • 🌎
…
Engineering Serendipity: Unlocking Growth in “Old” Research 🚀
Is your next breakthrough hiding in your archives? New research in the Strategic Management Journal by Xirong (Subrina) Shen (2026) reveals how top firms “engineer” success from shelved innovations. By analyzing the deep learning sector, Shen identified a strategy to turn dormant research into market-leading capabilities.
Strategic Insights for Leaders:
🔍 Reinvest in “Shadow Options”: Treat old research as a portfolio of dormant opportunities. When external shocks, like a 98.5% training cost reduction from GPUs, make tech viable, successful firms radically increase internal investment.
📢 The Disclosure Paradox: Instead of using patents to exclude others, leading firms use open-science publications to signal their development paths.
🤝 Foster Mutual Learning: Disclosure attracts a wide range of external innovators. Firms then “learn from those who learned from them,” building on external experimentation to find new applications.
🛡️ Leverage Brand Reputation: Firms with strong brand names (high ad spending) respond faster to opportunities and better capture value from newly discovered sectors.
The Takeaway: Don’t view shelved R&D as a sunk cost. By co-evolving with external partners, you can turn past ideas into future growth.
Is your next breakthrough hiding in your archives? New research in the Strategic Management Journal by Xirong (Subrina) Shen (2026) reveals how top firms “engineer” success from shelved innovations. By analyzing the deep learning sector, Shen identified a strategy to turn dormant research into market-leading capabilities.
Strategic Insights for Leaders:
🔍 Reinvest in “Shadow Options”: Treat old research as a portfolio of dormant opportunities. When external shocks, like a 98.5% training cost reduction from GPUs, make tech viable, successful firms radically increase internal investment.
📢 The Disclosure Paradox: Instead of using patents to exclude others, leading firms use open-science publications to signal their development paths.
🤝 Foster Mutual Learning: Disclosure attracts a wide range of external innovators. Firms then “learn from those who learned from them,” building on external experimentation to find new applications.
🛡️ Leverage Brand Reputation: Firms with strong brand names (high ad spending) respond faster to opportunities and better capture value from newly discovered sectors.
The Takeaway: Don’t view shelved R&D as a sunk cost. By co-evolving with external partners, you can turn past ideas into future growth.
👍
💡
115
19 comments • 12 reposts
👍 Like
💬 Comment
🔁 Repost
✈️ Send
Leave a Reply