Forget the rules and innovate: contesting a myopic view on the impact of rules on innovation

A persisting stance in practice is that obliteration of rules creates innovation paradise. Although it seems tempting, this view neglects that regulations may also constructively support innovation adoption processes. To stress these different roles that exist between regulation and innovation, scholars call for a careful empirical analysis of innovation contexts. Recent CM case studies, therefore, explore how standards emerge in new practices. Despite this, however, literature limitedly addresses the dynamic nature of the innovation context itself. This study, therefore, investigates how interactions between regulation contexts and innovation systems change during different innovation adoption phases. We explore this interaction by analysing two innovation trajectories: the Dutch Utility Information Exchange system and the Ground Penetrating Radar. During this desk study, we identified key innovation stages, standards and regulations; categorized these; and, allocated them to different product lifecycle phases. Outcomes reject the 'obliterate rules' stance and confirm the stabilizing role of rules in later innovation stages. To better understand the role and impact of rules on innovation we urge CM researchers to concentrate on the dynamic role that standards and rules have during innovation processes, rather focussing on their static impact only.