Standing on the shoulders of others: The role of universities and individual inventors in firms’ exploration of general-purpose technologies

Firms often seek innovative paths for their products to effectively satisfy market demand. Such exploration entails venturing beyond existing resources and knowledge boundaries, but its uncertainty and costs push many firms to favor exploitation over exploration. This attitude may discourage innovation, as firms tend to capitalize on others’ successful exploration outcomes, rather than embarking on their own (Levinthal & March, 1993). To mitigate uncertainty, firms leverage collaborative efforts with ecosystem players, such as other firms, universities and research institutions (URIs), and individuals (Peeters et al., 2020). Yet, a more comprehensive view of how firms manage these partnerships to prioritize exploration is missing. A salient case for investigating firms’ exploration is offered by General Purpose Technologies (GPTs), characterized by several possible application areas. Nevertheless, the identification of the most profitable application areas is highly uncertain for emerging and science-based GPTs. This recombination effort is expected to be highly reliant on other ecosystem players, as the capabilities required to be effective in devising novel application areas differ quite significantly from those required to develop new technology (Messeni Petruzzelli et al., 2023). This paper analyses the exploration dynamics within the wearable haptic technology (WHT), which facilitates tactile interactions through skin-contact devices (Pacchierotti et al., 2017). Initially designed for visually-impaired individuals, WHT applications cover several areas, including telemedicine and gaming. Bucaioni et al. (2023) identify all WHT patents, discussing its GPT nature and relationship with science. The present paper focuses on 699 WHT patents filed by 433 firms, resulting in 735 patent-firm pairs (due to co-patenting between firms). This unit of analysis has been categorized on exploration levels using IPC codes. Firms engaging in “global exploration” introduce novel IPC codes in WHT, while “local exploration” and “exploitation” involve varying degrees of familiarity with existing IPC codes. Through a 2-stage analysis, the research aims at unveiling the drivers of firm exploration and its subsequent impact on exploitation within WHT. Key variables include the firm’s prior invention scope and utilization of academic knowledge in patent development. This study enriches the literature on firm exploration in the context of emerging GPTs, clarifying the role played by other firms, URIs, and individual inventors.