Technology exaptation as an innovation strategy

On September, 21 2022, in the Strategic Management Society (SMS) Conference 2022, ENI was present sharing some of the early findings of the research project we are conducting on how companies find new functions for existing technologies in their portfolio – joint work by Dr. Andreas Wahl, Dr. Ferran Giones and Tim Schweisfurth (Uni Twente). This phenomenon, described in the technology innovation literature as exaptation, is at the core of some of the research projects of the Institute of Entrepreneurship und Innovation Science. We believe that by understanding how we can find new functions we can also uncover new applications, opening up opportunities for our researchers at University of Stuttgart to make discoveries that have broader impact.