Reviewing the Field of External Knowledge Search for Innovation: Theoretical Underpinnings and Future (Re‐)search Directions

Abstract

The field of external knowledge search for innovation has a long tradition and has inspired several schools of thought resulting in a rich and burgeoning body of research. However, the field suffers from two key limitations. First, the pluralism of research across multiple disciplines impedes our attention to the field as a whole, including its intellectual structure and core ideas. Second, recent developments in the business environment and key new ideas in the field complement taken-for-granted approaches and provide new opportunities for knowledge search. Based on a systematic co-citation analysis, we provide a reflective review of the literature and make several contributions. We integrate existing research across disciplines and offer a synthesis of a fragmented research landscape to present a global view of the field. Moreover, we propose a novel external search concept and introduce the idea of "decoupled search." Leveraging our synthesis and conceptualization further, we recommend future research directions for the entire field of external knowledge search for innovation. Practitioner Points • This article systematically integrates existing research across several disciplines and offers a synthesis of the field of external knowledge search for innovation.

Social Media Analytics as an Enabler for External Search and Open Foresight—The Case of Tesla's Autopilot and Regulatory Scrutiny of Autonomous Driving

“…Literature on foresight is related to the field of research increasingly referred to as external knowledge search for innovation. A recently published literature review on external knowledge search [13] provides a starting point for situating our paper in this broader field and within literature on foresight. In their coverage of this growing yet diverse domain of literature since 1997, Ehls et al [13] observed that organizations are increasingly interested in external search rather than internal.…”

“…A recently published literature review on external knowledge search [13] provides a starting point for situating our paper in this broader field and within literature on foresight. In their coverage of this growing yet diverse domain of literature since 1997, Ehls et al [13] observed that organizations are increasingly interested in external search rather than internal. Here, external search is defined as "all organizational activities that involve the creation and recombination of knowledge from a wide range of external sources outs" (p. 1).…”

“…Broadly speaking, foresight can be regarded as a collection of practices and methods for identifying actions and their effects ( [6], [28]). As such, literature on foresight therefore partly belongs to the large and diverse body of research referred to as external search for knowledge [13]. Approaches like scenario-planning, Delphi techniques, and technology roadmapping are presently well established (e.g., [30]), but it is clear that the emergence of various IT tools offer potential for both more effective and efficient foresight activities [41].…”

“…In light of these studies, however, it is presently unclear how multiplatform approaches across the social media landscape can be employed and how platforms differ with regards to their foresight potential. At the same time, previous research has highlighted that strategic foresight can be obtained by scanning the periphery [11] and that the operationalization of ongoing trends is of critical importance for business performance [24], but that firms are increasingly pressed by cognitive constraints related to search overload [13]. The expanding domain of open foresight therefore holds the potential to further enhance the strategic search for knowledge and foresight of firms, but more research is needed regarding how this can be done.…”

“…Third, by showing that different platforms exhibit considerable variations in terms of their contents as forums, blogs and Facebook exhibited particularly strong indications of the regulatory scrutiny in contrast to Twitter and Instagram. When taken together, these contributions underscore that discussions on platforms in social media hold considerable potential for decoupled search and open foresight as they are shown to provide valuable indicators at an early point making it possible to scan the periphery [11], monitor stakeholder perceptions, and user concerns, while possibly avoiding the search overload that previous literature has identified as a critical challenge [13].…”