Knowledge diversity and disruptive innovation: the contrasting moderating effects of technology cycle in the fuel cell sector

Knowledge diversity provides firms with opportunities to recombine heterogeneous knowledge, yet its implications for disruptive innovation depend on both the source of diversity and the temporal characteristics of technological development. This study distinguishes knowledge diversity into two dimensions: technology-source knowledge diversity (TD) and firm-source knowledge diversity (FD). Using USPTO patent data from the fuel cell sector, we examine their effects on disruptive innovation and the moderating role of the technology cycle. Results show that both TD and FD are negatively associated with disruptive innovation. More importantly, the technology cycle exerts contrasting moderating effects: a longer technology cycle weakens the negative relationship between TD and disruptive innovation but strengthens the negative relationship between FD and disruptive innovation. These findings demonstrate that knowledge diversity is not a homogeneous construct and that its implications for disruptive innovation depend on where knowledge heterogeneity resides and on the temporal characteristics of the underlying technology. This study contributes to the literature on knowledge recombination and disruptive innovation by identifying the technology cycle as an important boundary condition that operates differently across technological and organisational dimensions of knowledge diversity.