Aging, Obsolescence, and Organizational Innovation

This paper investigates the relationship between organizational aging and innovation processes to illuminate the dynamics of high-tech industries, as well to resolve debates in organizational theory about the effects of aging organizational functioning. The paper tests hypotheses based on 2 seemingly contradictory consequences of aging for organizational innovation. The seemingly contradictory outcomes are intimately related and reflect inherent trade-offs in organizational learning and innovation processes. Multiple longitudinal analyses of the relationship between firm age and patenting behavior in the semiconductor and biotechnology industries lend support to these arguments.