Search and recombination are important mechanisms in the creativity phase of innovation. Digital transformation and the resulting pervasive digitalization of the innovation function have often been associated with increasing possibilities for search and recombination. In this paper, by systematically integrating the search and recombination literature with the literature on digitalization, we demonstrate that digitalization may engender new idiosyncratic tensions in the organizational antecedents of search and recombination and, by implication, in their likely outcomes. We propose that, depending on the interactions among the idiosyncratic tensions identified herein, knowledge recombination might spur very different outcomes, including knowledge layering, knowledge integration, knowledge grafting, or even no recombination at all (which we label “search for the sake of search”). These outcomes may not always be the initially planned desired outcomes. Finally, we provide implications of our integrative framework pertaining to product development and to organizing for innovation.

中文翻译：

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创新功能中搜索和重组的数字化转型：张力和整合框架*

搜索和重组是创新创造阶段的重要机制。数字转换和由此产生的创新功能的普遍数字化通常与搜索和重组的可能性增加相关。在本文中，通过将搜索和重组文献与数字化文献系统地整合在一起，我们证明了数字化可能会在搜索和重组的组织前因以及可能的结果中引起新的特质张力。我们建议，根据本文确定的特质张力之间的相互作用，知识重组可能会激发非常不同的结果，包括知识分层，知识整合，知识嫁接，甚至根本没有重组（我们将其标记为“为了搜索而搜索”）。这些结果可能并不总是最初计划的预期结果。最后，我们提供了与产品开发和创新组织有关的集成框架的含义。