Innovation Scouts Working Across Multiple Divisions Often Struggle to Successfully Launch New Products

In large technology-driven companies, innovation doesn’t just come from internal teams. Many organizations rely on innovation scouts, also known as knowledge scouts, whose job is to search outside the company for promising startups, emerging technologies, and fresh ideas. These scouts act as bridges between the external innovation ecosystem and internal teams, helping firms develop new products, improve processes, and stay competitive.

According to a 2024 Gartner survey, nearly 48% of R&D organizations now have a formal technology scouting process in place. That figure alone shows how central scouting has become to modern corporate innovation strategies. However, new academic research suggests that the way scouts are used inside companies may be working against them.

A recent study led by Francisco Polidoro Jr., professor of management at Texas McCombs, reveals an important and somewhat surprising insight: innovation scouts who work across multiple divisions are often less successful at seeing projects through to completion. The research highlights a hidden tension in the scout role, showing that broader exposure does not always lead to better outcomes.

What Innovation Scouts Are Supposed to Do

Innovation scouts are often described as intermediaries or brokers. Their main responsibility is to identify valuable external knowledge—usually from startups or research-driven ventures—and help internal teams translate that knowledge into usable products or services. In theory, scouts who operate across divisions should be especially powerful, since they can transfer ideas and relationships throughout the organization.

In multidivisional companies, scouts typically support specific projects within one division while also helping other divisions explore new opportunities. They are expected to move fluidly between teams, connect people who might not otherwise collaborate, and accelerate innovation across the firm.

But this research suggests that reality is far more complicated.

Inside the Research Study

Polidoro conducted the study alongside Benoit Decreton of Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Felipe Monteiro of INSEAD. The researchers analyzed detailed internal data from a large European telecommunications company, focusing on how innovation scouts operated across different parts of the organization.

The dataset covered 245 innovation projects carried out between 2005 and 2018 across five divisions of the company. Each project involved the use of external knowledge sourced from startups, with the goal of launching new products or services.

One key finding was that scouts worked outside their primary division in 27% of their projects. At first glance, this seems like a positive sign of flexibility and collaboration. However, the outcomes of those projects told a different story.

Cross-Divisional Experience Can Reduce Success

The researchers found that projects handled by scouts outside their main division were significantly less likely to succeed. In fact, scouts who had previously worked in other divisions were up to 20% less likely to successfully complete their current project.

This is a major finding, especially for companies that encourage scouts to rotate widely across divisions in the name of innovation. Instead of transferring useful knowledge and relationships, cross-divisional movement often weakened a scout’s effectiveness.

Polidoro explains this by pointing out that what scouts learn—both in terms of expertise and relationships—does not automatically transfer from one division to another. Each division operates like a semi-independent world, with its own rules, expectations, and power structures.

Why Knowledge Doesn’t Travel Well Across Divisions

The study highlights several reasons why cross-divisional scouting can backfire.

Workplace cultural differences play a major role. Divisions often differ in how they budget, plan timelines, and make decisions. Even basic things like terminology and internal jargon can vary. A scout who assumes that one division works the same way as another may miss important signals or push ideas at the wrong time.

There are also political and relational challenges. The key decision-maker in one division may be someone to avoid in another. Trust built over years in one unit does not automatically carry over elsewhere, leaving scouts without the internal support they need to move projects forward.

Another major factor is internal competition. The study found that scouts were especially ineffective when working across divisions that shared similar products and customer bases. When divisions compete with each other, even indirectly, collaboration becomes harder. The greater the overlap between divisions, the stronger the negative effect on project success.

Familiarity Makes a Big Difference

Despite these challenges, the research also identified one important condition that improves success: familiarity.

When a scout introduced ideas that were closely aligned with a division’s existing knowledge or past experience, projects were more likely to succeed. Familiar ideas allowed teams to move faster, agree on priorities, and focus on the most promising features during early development.

This suggests that innovation doesn’t always mean radical novelty. Sometimes, adapting external ideas that feel recognizable to internal teams leads to better outcomes than introducing entirely unfamiliar concepts.

What This Means for Companies

For organizations that rely heavily on innovation scouting, the findings carry important lessons.

Rather than assuming that broader exposure automatically improves performance, companies need to balance depth and breadth. Deep specialization within a division helps scouts understand internal processes, politics, and culture—factors that strongly influence whether a project survives.

The researchers recommend rotating scouts strategically, not randomly. Moving scouts between divisions that do not directly compete and that already share some overlapping experience can reduce friction and increase success.

Another recommendation is to limit the number of cross-divisional projects. Instead of spreading scouts thin, companies might assign them one or two carefully chosen projects per year that adapt external ideas for multiple divisions at the same time.

Finally, the study emphasizes the importance of cultural and political training. Successful scouts need more than technical expertise. Skills like championing innovations, navigating internal politics, and building trust across teams are essential for turning external knowledge into real products.

The Bigger Picture: Open Innovation Isn’t Simple

This research adds an important nuance to how companies think about open innovation. While sourcing ideas from startups and external partners is essential, integrating those ideas internally is often the hardest part.

Innovation scouts sit at the center of this challenge. They must operate across organizational boundaries, manage competing interests, and translate ideas between very different worlds. The study makes it clear that being deeply rooted in a specific context often matters more than being everywhere at once.

As companies continue to invest in technology scouting and open innovation, this research offers a valuable reminder: structure, strategy, and human dynamics can determine whether even the best ideas ever see the light of day.

Research paper:
https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amj.2024.0276