Industry Convergence and Its Implications for the Front End of Innovation: A Problem of Absorptive Capacity

This paper explores industry convergence and its implications for the front end of innovation. Conventional practice of idea generation and selection seems to be difficult in times of convergence, since actors face new knowledge and competencies owned in different industries. Given these particularities of industry convergence, this paper analyses decision processes at the front end of 54 R&D projects by using a mixed‐method research design. Findings indicate that there are different approaches of how firms engage in innovation in industry convergence. A central implication is the need to differentiate between the market and technological side of a firm's absorptive capacity.