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File:
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[pdf]
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Title:
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Neutrality in Technological Landscapes
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Authors:
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Jose Lobo, John H. Miller, and Walter Fontana
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Key Words:
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Technological Innovation, Organizations, Neutrality, Evolvability
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Abstract:
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Searching for technological and organizational innovations is
a fundamental activity in social systems. Recent work in this
area has focused on the notion of firms locally searching for
high points on a ``fitness landscape.'' Here we show how the
presence of neutral networks forming pathways of temporarily
inconsequential changes can alter the potential of innovation
in such worlds. In particular,
such neutral muddling can ultimately
improve the potential of the system for innovative leaps.
Neutrality provides organizational and technological systems
a degree of robustness against tinkering while simultaneously being
a crucial enabler of change and innovation.
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