Knowledge growth and the evolution of exaptive innovation

EPIC Guest Speaker: Pierpaolo Andriani, Kedge Business School

Wednesday 10th December, 5pm, CEE1 Room 402

Knowledge growth and the evolution of exaptive innovation: evidence from drug repurposing

We investigate how the expanding body of knowledge on technology–environment interactions shapes exaptation, using drug repurposing as an illustrative case. Drawing on a multi-study design, we integrate data from professional databases and self-reported sources to trace the evolution of repurposing practices. Our analysis maps temporal trends in clinical trials, constructs a comprehensive database of repurposing organizations, and examines the methods used to identify new therapeutic indications for existing drugs. We find that knowledge growth fundamentally transforms repurposing activities. Drug repurposing has evolved through distinct, discontinuous phases, shifting from sporadic, serendipity-driven initiatives to more systematic and deliberate strategies increasingly underpinned by computational and AI-driven technologies. Moreover, a new segment of the pharmaceutical industry has emerged, centered entirely on repurposing-based strategies. Finally, by comparing drug repurposing with exaptation in other industrial sectors, we propose a generalized model of exaptation as a knowledge-driven evolutionary process.

Pierpaolo Andriani is Professor of Complexity and Innovation Management at KEDGE Business School, France. He holds a BA/MSc in Physics and began his career as a scientist in industrial R&D. He earned his Ph.D. in the social sciences from Durham University, UK.His current research focuses on evolutionary models of innovation, with a particular emphasis on exaptation. On this topic, he has published in leading journals such as Organization Science, Research Policy, Industrial & Corporate Change, and Complexity.