An empirical analysis of factors influencing the creation of new knowledge during product innovation in small firms

This paper presents the findings of a study aimed at investigating the influence that some factors describing the cognitive, social and management environment during technical problem-solving have on the generation of new knowledge in small manufacturing firms. Ninety-one cases of technical problem-solving occurred during product innovation within 35 small firms were studied. From the literature and a multiple case study analysis, the authors identified a set of factors affecting learning which were ranked by order of influence. In that analysis, they considered each factor as affecting learning independently of the others. Here, they remove the simplifying hypothesis that these factors are independent and consider the contingent effect of the learning frame in which technical problem-solving occurs. The learning frame is defined by the factors that more critically influence learning. From, their study it emerges that the learning patterns differ accordingly to different learning frames and some factors that foster learning within a specific frame can inhibit it within a diverse frame.