Boundary Spanning, Boundary Objects, and Innovation

Managing knowledge integration across boundaries for innovation involves boundary-spanning activities that facilitate exposure and access to diverse and oftentimes distant knowledge domains, essential for innovation. Yet, different knowledge domains develop their own lexicons and heuristics, complicating understating of their texture and potential usefulness. Boundary spanning activities can reduce these barriers. We propose a curvilinear relationship between the complexity of spanning knowledge boundaries and innovation novelty; and that boundary objects moderate this relationship. Drawing upon the literature on boundary spanning and boundary objects, and the findings presented in this book, the chapter categorizes how different boundary objects are associated with type and degree of boundary complexity.