Abstract
Extensive literature in management and organization shows that learning from failures is a problematic issue dominated by ambivalence. On the one hand, failure is framed as an unavoidable step in most of the learning processes, on the other hand, organizations are reluctant to learn from failures, and failures are avoided, if possible. In fact, while firms are traditionally described as risk-taking agents, there is a strong cognitive resistance to assume and take unnecessary risks, even in domains like the management of innovation characterized by uncertainty. However, failing “on purpose” through intelligent failure may be the only way to make breakthrough innovation. This paper aims to obviate the marginality to which IF has been confined in the academic literature, positioning and framing the intelligent failure concept in the learning from failure literature, investigating in a conceptual mode why and how organizations should fail on purpose while innovating. The elaboration of a positioning framework developed in this paper raises awareness of IF and proves its importance in supporting the acquisition of new knowledge in the organizational context. Indeed, through processes of knowledge creation and destruction that lead to incremental and breakthrough innovation, IF can drive organizations in revising the sets of assumptions that form their established knowledge systems. This study, combining several theories, provides a comprehensive view of the potential of IF, the related implications, and a future research agenda highlighting the need for further empirical analyses.