Technological Innovation Management of Enterprise Based on Fitness Landscapes

This paper adopts a fitness landscape approach to study technological innovation management. Central to this approach is the notion of contingent fit between its contextual variables. Building on Kauffman´s NK model, the paper explores how this theory relates to technological innovation management, and see innovation as a process of recombination search over technological landscape. It discusses four basic elements of technological innovation system: strategy, organization, culture and resource; analyzes the roles these elements play in the system. Basing on the survey of 103 manufacturing enterprises in Guangdong Province in China, the paper explores how the accumulation and interaction among these elements impact innovation landscape. By applying fitness landscape theory in technological innovation management, it will help enterprises formulate appropriate strategies by searching and selecting various combinations of innovation system elements.