“Chicken or the egg”: the interplay of non-technological and technological innovations in a high-tech high-growth context

Understanding how technological and non-technological innovations interact remains a critical, yet underexplored challenge in innovation management. Some scholars argue that technological advances trigger organizational change, while others claim the reverse. To address this tension, we conducted an inductive, grounded theory case study of a high-tech, high-growth laboratory that specializes in control systems for particle accelerators. We complemented the primary data collected via interviews and observations in 2013 with a post-hoc digital netnographic and historical analysis based on secondary data for the decade following. The findings show that in the mentioned context technological innovations often precede and necessitate non-technological innovations—such as managerial, marketing, and open innovation practices. In turn, the latter enable successful exploitation and scaling. We also identify the presence of a supportive regional or national innovation ecosystem as a critical boundary condition of this interplay. The study contributes to theory by proposing a context-dependent model of innovation sequencing and highlighting the role of managerial practices in integrating the dispersed knowledge held in inter-organizational networks.