TO BUILD OR BREAK AWAY? EXPLORING THE ANTECEDENTS OF CATEGORY SPANNING NANOTECHNOLOGY INNOVATION.

Within organization theory, the prevailing view of categories is of obdurate and discrete entities that shape actors' identities and practices by setting boundaries and specifying what appropriately falls within them. Spanning multiple categories is thought to be detrimental because it makes an actor's identity unclear and dilutes their focus. Still, straddling categories is an important driver of innovation and has implications for the emergence, evolution, and redirection of institutional fields. Despite this, understandings about the mechanisms which affect category spanning are limited. Building on research which shows the institutional shaping of identities and innovation, I argue that evolving relationships amongst categories facilitate spanning by linking particular categories together in meaningful ways. Moreover, I argue that the relational structuring of categories is shaped endogenously by prominent actors in ways that condition the effects of alternate explanations based on category richness, networks, and social influence. I test my arguments in the field of nanotube technology from 1992 -- 2005 where approximately 20% of inventors took out patents in multiple technology categories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]