Technological knowledge maturity, innovation and productivity

This paper develops theory about the relationship between innovation and productivity improvements when technological knowledge is mature. By combining theory about organizational learning and the development of technological knowledge hypotheses concerning innovation and productivity improvements are developed that are counter‐intuitive to conventional thinking. Qualitative and quantitative data are used, collected over a six‐year period from the cotton‐ginning division of a large agribusiness firm to test the hypotheses. Support is found for the hypotheses that the connection between innovation and productivity improvements will be weak, when technological knowledge is mature.