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| The Failure Rescue of Science-based Innovation:from the Perspective of Exaptation |
| Ma Jia1,Li Tianzhu2 |
| (1.School of Management, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610103, China;2.School of Business Administration, University of Science and Technology Liaoning, Anshan 114051, China) |
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Abstract Science-based innovation has become the key for China to break the technology blockade from aboard, accomplish the catching-up and achieve the leapfrogging development. science-based innovation is characterized by the huge uncertainty and failure rate. The failure rescue of science-based innovation can reduce the waste of innovation resources, and improve the innovation performance in science-based industries, which has considerable economic value and social significance. Based on the long-term observation and follow-up studies, it has been found that the failure of science-based innovation is mainly related to the failure of a specific product or innovation project, and it is not equivalent to the failure of the scientific discovery of this product or innovation project. In reality, there are a large number of innovation projects that initially failed, and they are reborn because the new transformation directions and application fields for the scientific discovery have been refound. In these cases, the exaptation is an important theoretical perspective that needs to attract great attentions in failure rescue of science-based innovation.#br#The main feature of exaptation is the discovery of certain unexpected functions, which has important enlightening significance and guiding value for the failure rescue of science-based innovation. Before science-based innovation is launched, the rational decision-makers have already conducted the greatest possible analysis of factors related to the success of the innovation, such as the characteristics of scientific discoveries, the market demand, the competitive technologies, and the supporting environments etc. They strive to find a convergence point between the uniqueness of science-based technology and the scarcity of the market. If science-based innovation still fails after such rational analysis, a new application direction ought to be found in a new application field to obtain the failure rescue opportunities by the functional transformation, unexpected and accidental element involvements, and so on. Therefore, exaptation is the highly valued guiding ideology in the failure rescue of science-based innovation.#br#A multi-case study is conducted to explore the process mechanism about how to rescue the failures of science-based innovation from the perspective of exaptation. The four cases of Dapoxetine, Minoxidil, Sildenafil and Thalidomide have been selected as the samples. In data collection, the extensive secondary data have been gathered from heterogeneous sources, including the official websites, industry websites, academic research literatures, and public audio and video interviews with relevant scientists and enterprise executives. The proceduralised grounded theory has been applied in data processing , and the step-by-step coding has been carried out following the process of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. The analysis framework based on the existing theories, such as science-based innovation and innovation ecosystem, provides guidance for the labeling, conceptualization and categorization of data in the coding process.#br#The research findings reveal that the exaptation reflects an important failure rescue mechanism of science-based innovation. The failure rescue process of science-based innovation is composed of three stages. (1) In the first stage of the sense-making of the new function, the innovators establish a link between the potential function of scientific discovery and the needs in a new application area, forming a product conception based on the potential function and defining a new product to meet the market demands in that application area. The serendipity triggers the formation of the failure rescue opportunities based on exaptation, which is the way humans perceive the unknown world. (2) In the second stage of the commercialization based on the exaptation, the existing innovation ecosystem for the exaptation is an important condition for the failure rescue of science-based innovation. In the process of the failure rescue of science-based innovation, the basic architecture of the innovation ecosystem must be set up before the former scientific discovery is transferred into the new application areas. The existing innovation ecosystem can support the potential function definition, commercialization of the exaptation by providing the necessary sources and capabilities for the innovations. (3)In the last stage of continuous exaptation, the multiple exaptation can release the innovation value of the failed projects constantly. With the successful sense-making of the potential value of the failed project and the successful commercialization in new application areas, the innovation ecosystem around exaptation has also been developed. The interactions between the innovators are more frequent, and the flows and impacts of information, resources and talents from heterogeneous sources are further reinforced, which increase the occurrence possibilities of a new round of serendipity, promoting continuous exaptation based on more potential functions.Moreover, this study finds that exaptation reflects the failure rescue mechanism both in science-based innovation and the technology-based innovation. In these two kinds of innovations, there are differences in the conditions of innovation ecosystem and the key activities in the failure rescue process.#br#
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Received: 26 September 2021
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