Abstract
What drives technological invention? This dissertation examines one core mechanism of invention, namely knowledge recombination, in shaping invention outcomes across three studies. The first study reveals that inventors’ personality traits significantly affect their invention output, depending on their organizational knowledge context. The second study examines the use of inventions’ previous versions or historical knowledge to develop future inventions. The third study examines entire technological domains and shows that contrary to previous findings, invention rates increase when knowledge becomes more interdependent. This thesis highlights the importance of understanding knowledge recombination and offers valuable insights for innovation management.