The effect of radical innovation in/congruence on new product performance

• This paper studies radical innovation in/congruence – an important aspect of radical innovation that was often overlooked.
• Within the business unit, radical innovation norms are positively associated with new product performance.
• There is no similar association between management values regarding radical innovation and new product performance.
• Radical innovation congruence is not per se significantly associated with new product performance.
• Radical innovation incongruence is beneficial only when radical innovation norms > management radical innovation values.

Radical innovation is critical for many firms and for society. This research focuses on the impact of radical innovation congruence — the degree to which management values regarding radical innovation match radical innovation norms in the business unit. We offer a model and empirically test it to assess the impact of radical innovation congruence on new product performance. We find that radical innovation norms are positively associated with new product performance, whereas we find no such association for management values and new product performance. Contrary to our expectations, we did not find a significant effect of radical innovation congruence on new product performance; however, we did find that radical innovation incongruence can have a positive effect on new product performance but only when radical innovation norms are higher than management values. Thus, we suggest that the unintended situation of radical innovation incongruence may result in some positive consequences after all. Further, high radical innovation norms, far more than management values, seem to be critical determinants of new product performance.