Novelty and its genealogy: The role of discarded prototypes as repositories of innovation

In markets where consumers seek both novelty and familiarity in products, entrepreneurs generate prototypes that embody novel ideas but are often filtered out before market release. We propose that these discarded prototypes constitute reservoirs of novel product content that can later be repackaged in more acceptable ways to decision makers and consumer audiences. To evaluate this argument, we analyze the genealogy of U.S. primetime television series from 1955 to 1995, tracing how novelty flows across both broadcast series and unsold pilots. The results show that, conditional on launch, series whose novelty derives more from unsold pilots than from prior series achieve greater market success. These findings support the argument that discarded products can serve as ‘hidden’ repositories of innovation, shaping future outcomes through recombination and reframing. We discuss implications for entrepreneurship research, emphasizing how creators need to position and frame novelty to gain gatekeeper support and how gatekeepers can avoid systematically undervaluing novel recombinations.

MANAGERIAL SUMMARY

This study examines how ideas abandoned during product development can become a source of competitive advantage. Our analysis shows that unsold television pilots contain more novel content than aired series, and using novel content from these pilots results in greater audience viewership. Broadly, this suggests that early‐stage concepts that do not advance can still inform effective product positioning. For managers and entrepreneurs, the opportunity lies in reusing novel features from these prior efforts and presenting them in ways that make their value recognizable to decision makers. This requires repositioning the idea and explaining why it is more compelling in the current context, how potential risks have been reduced, and what conditions make adoption timely.