“Chicken or the egg” : the interplay of non-technological and technological innovations in a high-tech high-growth context

Vlahović, Olivera (author), Aleksić, Darija (author), Černe, Matej (author), Hernaus, Tomislav (author), Škerlavaj, Miha (author)

Understanding how technological and non-technological innovations interact remains a critical, yet underexplored challenge in innovation management. Some scholars argue that technological advances trigger organizational change, while others claim the reverse. To address this tension, we conducted an inductive, grounded theory case study of a high-tech, high-growth laboratory that specializes in control systems for particle accelerators. We complemented the primary data collected via interviews and observations in 2013 with a post-hoc digital netnographic and historical analysis based on secondary data for the decade following. The findings show that in the mentioned context technological innovations often precede and necessitate non-technological innovations—such as managerial, marketing, and open innovation practices. In turn, the latter enable successful exploitation and scaling. We also identify the presence of a supportive regional or national innovation ecosystem as a critical boundary condition of this interplay. The study contributes to theory by proposing a context-dependent model of innovation sequencing and highlighting the role of managerial practices in integrating the dispersed knowledge held in inter-organizational networks.

• Language: English
• Keywords: enterprises, innovations, company performance, technological innovation, non-technological innovation, high-tech context, national innovation ecosystem
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 10 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 10, iss. 5, article no. 100767
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-173765
• UDC: 005.336.1
• ISSN on article: 2530-7614
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jik.2025.100767
• COBISS.SI-ID: 241565955
• Publication date in RUL: 22.09.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of innovation & knowledge
• Shortened title: J. innov. knowl.
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 2530-7614
• COBISS.SI-ID: 147590403

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: podjetje, inovacije, poslovanje podjetja

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0441-2023
• Name: Regeneracija ekonomije in posla

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: J5-4574-2022
• Name: Omejitve agilnega dela: Preučevanje učinkov agilnosti na spanje in inovativnost