Contrary Forces of Innovation

Why do innovations tend to 'explode' into multiple versions when inventors seek to realize them? Why do most innovators seem to promise too much certainty about the future? And why is it so hard for innovations to succeed in finding use and establish a market? Thomas Hoholm presents a real-time study of the messy realm of industrial innovation. The complexity and the tensions of industrial innovation processes are fleshed out through the analysis of an intriguing case study from the food industry. By drawing together insights from innovation studies, science and technology studies, and studies of industrial networks, the controversies of innovation are investigated. Particular attention is given to the interaction between the mobilising of actors-networks and the exploration of knowledge, as well as to the interaction among the networks of interconnected processes called 'industry'. Through an ethnographic case study of innovation between the biomarine and agricultural industries, Hoholm has followed innovation processes from idea to commercialization. His study adds to our understanding of innovation dynamics, particularly related to path creation, network friction, and the relationships between divergence and convergence in industrial innovation processes.