Crossing the Innovation Valley of Death: An Empirical Study of Russian Industrial Companies

This this study identifies intraorganizational characteristics that enable Russian industrial companies to cross the Innovation Valley of Death (VoD), determines how factors specific to high-tech industrial companies–organizational and product complexity and market turbulence–influence their ability to do so, and examines how this ability relates to radical innovation performance. The study was based on a survey of 138 managers at Russian industrial companies who were directly involved in innovation. Data on organizational and product complexity, market turbulence, and companies’ ability to cross the VoD were collected through a questionnaire using 7-point Likert scales. Control variables included company size, market type (B2B/B2C), and industry dummy variables. The data were analyzed using regression models, including a test for a curvilinear relationship. The results show that product complexity has a significant positive effect on companies’ ability to cross the VoD. They also confirm the moderating role of market turbulence in high-tech markets: it weakens the negative effect of organizational complexity while strengthening the positive effect of product complexity on companies’ ability to cross the VoD. Furthermore, the analysis reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between companies’ ability to cross the VoD and radical innovation performance. The study demonstrates that radical innovation performance peaks when companies use approximately 65–70% of basic research results in product or technology development, rather than at the maximum possible level. The study’s contribution lies in conceptualizing the Valley of Death as a managerial challenge for companies rather than solely as a gap between science and business. A key practical finding challenges the assumption that commercializing more ideas invariably improves performance. The findings indicate an optimal level of use of basic research results: exceeding this level reduces radical innovation performance because of resource constraints. This offers managers practical guidance for fine-tuning innovation processes.