Argument and innovation: Theoretical and empirical explorations in knowledge claim evaluation

PhD ceremony: Rr. K. Peters, 12.45 uur, Academiegebouw, Broerstraat 5, Groningen

Dissertation: Argument and innovation: Theoretical and empirical explorations in knowledge claim evaluation

Promotor(s): prof. R.J.J.M. Jorna, prof. R.J.F. van Haren

Faculty: Economics and Business

Innovation is of vital importance for many organizations. Organizations innovate to benefit from the introduction or application of new ideas, processes, products or procedures. Examples of benefits are gaining (more) profit, providing better services and producing new sustainable products. In order to innovate, organizations have to create, evaluate, transfer and apply knowledge. Knowledge Management offers insights into how organizations innovate through knowledge creation, transfer and application. Little is known about the way organizations evaluate what constitutes valid knowledge. Peters refers to this underexposed activity as knowledge claim evaluation.

The literature review reveals three theoretical approaches: the Open approach, the Managerial approach and the Entrepreneurial approach. Each approach offers an alternative explanation of how organizations should evaluate knowledge claims. Nevertheless, they have difficulties to explain knowledge claim evaluation in real-life innovation settings. In an attempt to fill this gap, this thesis explores a new theoretical approach based on informal argumentation theory, and presents three case studies of innovation projects. The companies and innovation programs involved in the research are Siemens Building Technology (Switzerland), GEON (Netherlands) and KodA (Netherlands).