ONGOING INNOVATION THROUGH KNOWLEDGE COMBINATION ROUTINES

This study examines how organizations maintain simultaneously stability and change for ongoing innovation. Case studies of sixteen project-based firms reveal that firms repeatedly produce novel outcomes by means of knowledge combination routines (KCRs). Stability of KCRs enables organizations to carry out a repeated pattern of actions for organizing distributed knowledge. The change of KCRs allows organizations to reflect the uniqueness of problems on its knowledge combination. Innovation can occur both as a direct output of KCRs and as these routines undergoes change. The stability and changes of KCRs explain how organizational capability for ongoing innovation arises out of routinized actions. It implies that organizational routines-which are patterned-enable ongoing innovation. KCRs consist of three stages: problem definition, team formation, and project execution. Different organizational contingencies influence each stage in the process. Knowledge combination experiences generate learning that changes routines and guides subsequent performances. By identifying and analyzing KCRs, this study explains the knowledge combination process for ongoing innovation in organizations.