Associate Professor Hargadon is an expert in technology management, management of innovation, entrepreneurship and new product development. His research is focused on the point at which technology and innovation meet and the interplay between product development and marketing. He looks at the sources of new ideas and the notion of “knowledge brokering.”

His recent book, How Breakthroughs Happen: The Surprising Truth About How Companies Innovate (Harvard Business School Press, 2003) describes how engineers and entrepreneurs pull together old ideas and ways of thinking from different areas and “cross-train” them to create revolutions in other industries and fields.

A former design engineer for IDEO Product Development and Apple Computer, Associate Professor Hargadon also studies how entrepreneurs and designers must overcome the fact that people adopting innovations rely on familiar understandings and ideas to make sense of new technologies. His research offers insights into how an innovation’s design shapes its acceptance and ultimate impact.

Associate Professor Hargadon's research has been used to develop or guide new innovation programs in organizations as diverse as the Canadian Health Services, Silicon Valley start-ups, Hewlett-Packard and the U.S. Navy. He has published numerous articles and chapters in leading scholarly and applied publications, including Harvard Business Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, California Management Review and Research in Organizational Behavior.

Associate Professor Hargadon serves on the editorial board of Administrative Science Quarterly, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and the Academy of Management Review. He teaches corporate executive programs and lectures on the creativity, design and management of innovation.