Five stories that illustrate three generalizations about radical innovations

Why do organizations resist radical innovations? How can organizations make radical innovations when they want to do so? This paper offers three generalizations about the processes that generate radical innovations, and it illustrates these generalizations with five symbolic stories. Two stories tell about organizations that had trouble innovating but ultimately succeeded, and three stories tell about tremendously successful radical innovation. The generalizations assert that radical innovation is a discovery process that yields unintended outcomes, that participants in radical innovation have to market their innovations to intended coworkers, funding sources, and potential customers, and that social interaction can stimulate, reinforce, and steer radical innovation.