Purpose

This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of novelty emergence in the context of an “off-line” open innovation system. Several contributions address novelty generation implying open innovation that is typically mediated by IT systems, while fewer address open innovation that takes place off-line, through new forms of collaboration happening in the so-called “physical spaces” and in widespread creativity contexts involving whole cities and territories. This research aims to clarify what the critical elements for novelty generation are, and how and why they interact in producing novelty.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents the case study of the Blackshape, a high-tech start-up that has become the Italian symbol of a new bottom-up economy that is grounded on high-education, a mix of territorial competencies and young initiative, and produces the development or growth of territories experiencing present or foreseen economic retardation for various reasons. This is a case in which novelty is emergent and takes place through exaptation. The case is used to elaborate an inductive understanding of the process of novelty generation through exaptation and follows a “conceptual composition” format (Berends and Deken, 2019).

Findings

This paper shows that initiatives building widespread creativity on the territory play a prominent role for emergent novelty generation, as they provide the context that sustains the efforts to keep on trying of entrepreneurs, welcomes unforeseen interaction and keeps interesting people on the territory that can be involved in random encounters. This paper adds that crucial contributions for the definition of the innovative project come from contributors that are expected to provide suggestions in other areas. Such prominent contributors are engaged in a sense “by mistake”, and here the randomness perceived by the actors experiencing it, because they are perceived to be able to provide some contributions, while they provide others that are more important to the project. This paper argues that such “perceived randomness” sustains a mechanism of selection of novelty generation partners that allows to go beyond the ability of actors themselves to design and foresee other actors’ contribution into the project. Finally, two other elements play a role: how the project is narrated, as well as, how the entrepreneurial team communicates their entrepreneurial competence for the project.

Research limitations/implications

This theoretical understanding builds on only one case study; further research might validate the critical role of our understanding of novelty generation elements and help develop their dynamics further.

Practical implications

Many elements in our understanding of novelty generation have typically been understood as resulting from luck and randomness, leaving, therefore, very little hope to actors’ interest in supporting them. This paper claims that such elements and such dynamics can be sustained and novelty generation can indirectly be supported, for instance, by suggesting a high openness and sharing of one’s own project even to accidentally encountered actors, as one’s own ability to foresee how they might contribute to the project is very poor.

Originality/value

This paper provides a tentative understanding of the elements and dynamics of novelty generation through exaptation building on theoretical elaboration that is inductively triggered and stimulated by empirical evidence.

中文翻译：

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通过适应产生新奇：寻找特性和动力

目的

本文旨在在“离线”开放式创新系统的背景下，有助于理解新颖性。针对新颖性的暗示有几项贡献，这意味着通常由IT系统进行调解的开放式创新，而通过所谓的“物理空间”和涉及整个整体的广泛创造力环境中发生的新形式的协作，解决离线发生的开放式创新的提案就更少了。城市和地区。这项研究旨在阐明新颖性产生的关键要素是什么，以及它们在产生新颖性中如何相互作用以及为什么相互作用。

设计/方法/方法

本文介绍了Blackshape的案例研究，这是一家高科技初创企业，现已成为意大利新的自下而上的经济的象征，这种新的自下而上的经济立足于高等教育，领地能力和年轻主动性的结合，并产生了由于各种原因而经历或预见的经济衰退的地区的发展或增长。在这种情况下，新颖性是通过应征而出现并发生的。该案例用于通过归纳阐述对新颖性产生过程的归纳理解，并遵循“概念构成”格式（Berends和Deken，2019年）。

发现

本文表明，在该地区建立广泛的创造力的举措对于新兴的新生事物起着举足轻重的作用，因为它们提供了维持企业家继续努力的努力，欢迎无法预见的互动并将有趣的人留在该地区的背景。在随机的相遇中。本文还补充说，对创新项目的定义至关重要的贡献来自有望在其他领域提供建议的贡献者。这些杰出的贡献者在某种意义上是“错误地”参与的，这里的参与者所经历的随机性是偶然的，因为他们被认为能够提供一些贡献，而他们却提供了对该项目更重要的其他贡献。本文认为，这种“感知的随机性”维持了选择新奇一代合作伙伴的机制，该机制允许参与者自身设计和预见其他参与者对项目的贡献超出能力。最后，还有两个要素起作用：项目的叙述方式，以及创业团队如何交流其对项目的创业能力。

研究局限/意义

这种理论上的理解仅基于一个案例研究。进一步的研究可能会验证我们对新颖性生成元素的理解的关键作用，并有助于进一步发展其动态性。

实际影响

我们对新颖性产生的理解中的许多要素通常被理解为是由于运气和随机性导致的，因此，对于演员支持它们的兴趣几乎没有希望。本文声称，这样的要素和这种动力可以持续存在，并且可以间接地支持新颖性的产生，例如，通过建议高度开放和分享自己的项目，甚至是偶然遇到的参与者，作为自己预测他们如何做出贡献的能力。去这个项目很穷。

创意/价值

本文通过经验阐述的归纳触发和激发的理论阐述，对通过新颖性产生的新颖性的要素和动力学提供了初步的理解。