This chapter focuses on the contribution of case studies to the theory building on the area of innovation. Starting from the analysis of the old concept of 'unintended consequences', it examines its shortcoming and puts forward the idea that collaterality or collateral effects, as a corrective to the negative bias of the former concept as well as to the problem of linearity and fatality in the study of the innovation process. To support the demonstration, the chapter develops two case studies in the field of medical innovation (concerning telemedicine and problem of prolapsed organs). Then, the author argue that collaterality consists on a series of occurrences and ramifications arising from but different from an initial innovation process, and which thereby multiply it. The contribution shows and questions the way to pursue and to renew conceptual production and theoretical shifts, according to the perspective developped.
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Front Matter
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Part I: VISIONS OF INNOVATION
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Part II: THEORIZING INNOVATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE FOUNDATIONS
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Part III: ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO INNOVATION
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Part IV: ALTERNATIVE TYPES OF INNOVATION
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Part V: SUPPORTING INNOVATION: REFRAMING THE INSTRUMENTS
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Part VI: IMMUNE DISCIPLINES AND FORGOTTEN THEORIZATIONS
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Part VII: THEORIZING THE THEORIES
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Back Matter
