Innovation on technological “islands”: domain contrast, boundary spanning, knowledge depth and breadth
研究了技术领域边界的清晰度（清晰边界与模糊边界）对创新产出的影响，发现跨越清晰边界更可能产生高影响力发明但不确定性也更高，并探讨了发明人的知识深度和广度如何调节这种效应。
Abstract Prior literature has long examined innovation as a recombination process within or across the boundaries of technological domains. However, limited attention is paid to boundaries per se. Building upon recent development of categorical contrast, this study distinguishes domains with crisp boundaries from those with fuzzy boundaries and examines their effects on innovation outputs. Analyzing a large sample of US patents, we find that spanning crisp boundaries is more likely to generate impactful inventions but at the same time leads to significantly higher recombinant uncertainty. We continue to explore what types of inventors are better able to span such types of domain boundaries. Focusing specifically on the role of inventors’ knowledge expertise, we find that while both knowledge depth and breadth enhance the impact of technologies that span crisp boundaries, knowledge breadth is also found to escalate the associated uncertainty. Our emphasis on the contrast of technological domains contributes to the literature on recombinative innovation and boundary spanning.