Breakthroughs need knowledge, not just cross-collaboration

While previous research has shown that most high-impact innovation happens when knowledge and people from different fields are brought together to create something new, a new study from the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management says that a truly new, paradigm-busting ideas with long-term potential need profound knowledge in a narrow domain. Organisations that ignore that in favour of recombining what's already known will miss out on the greatest potential breakthroughs.

Recombining existing knowledge is only one piece of the puzzle, says Sarah Kaplan, a Rotman professor of strategic management who has co-written a study paper on the subject."Managers are going to have to design organisations for both deep-dive research and recombination," says Kaplan.

Previous researches have measured levels of innovation by looking at how frequently a patent is cited in subsequent patent registrations. That measures the idea's economic usefulness, but not how truly new the idea is, say the current study's researchers.