Innovation in experts' work: Adoption and diffusion of tasks communities of expert practice

In this paper, we explore the dynamics of expert learning by examining experts’ adoption of new tasks. We apply a theory of absorptive capacity to expert communities of practice, focusing on how the existing body of expert work is an important antecedent for future patterns of expert learning. We theorize that two dimensions of expert work – the complexity and the breadth of knowledge required – are particularly important aspects of the absorptive capacity of experts, and hypothesize that communities that engage in more complex work and draw on more domains of knowledge will search for, and incorporate, new tasks faster and more thoroughly. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the alignment between the new tasks and the experts’ existing work is an important predictor of adoption. Using a unique dataset of tasks performed by over 20,000 physicians over 10 years, we find support for the importance of work complexity, but not knowledge breadth, in shaping in the likelihood and speed of adoption. Interestingly, we find that high complexity and broad knowledge can limit how far new tasks diffuse within a community. Discussion focuses on the benefits and future possibilities of studying work as a site of innovation and considering absorptive capacity at the level of work and practice.