Innovation Processes Track: The Ambiguity of Failure: How Innovation Failure Affects New Industry Emergence

Abstract

Failure plays an undeniable role in shaping firms’ innovation trajectories and the evolution of industries. Its impact is even more pronounced in the early period of industry emergence when new entrants and stakeholders experience extreme multidimensional uncertainty and ambiguity (Moeen, Agarwal, and Shah, 2020; Zuzul and Tripsas, 2020). This panel symposium aims to expand the theoretical conversation around the role of failure in new industry emergence. To this end, we have convened a panel of leading scholars in the field of new industry emergence to explore a set of directions for future research on the intersection between failures and new industry emergence based on various theoretical lenses, including technology management, entrepreneurship, learning and knowledge development, and entrepreneurial identity and cognition. It is intended to generate valuable discussions by highlighting a) the definition of failure at different levels of analysis, b) the ambiguity associated with the causes and consequences of failures, and c) temporal aspects of failures in industry emergence. Addressing these themes will fuel future inquiry into the role of failure in developing new technologies and creating new industries.