Breakthrough inventions are most likely to emerge when knowledge categories are blurred. Research by Gianluca Carnabuci, professor of organizational behavior at ESMT, and Balázs Kovács, professor at Yale School of Management, shows that patents in low-contrast categories, which have ambiguous or overlapping boundaries, catalyze more disruptive technologies than patents in clearly defined ones. The study draws on an analysis of 3.1 million U.S. patents granted between 1975 and 2013.
Patents in fuzzy, overlapping categories can catalyze breakthrough inventions
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