What is Exaptation?

Exaptation (ex-apt) is an evolutionary principle describing the shift-in-function of a resource. It was originally observed by Darwin more than 150 years ago.

It has wide-ranging applications in the modern economy. Bird feathers are a prominent biological example as they evolved from hair to serve thermal regulation function.

The Magical Bird-Feather

A male bullfinch bird with a bright orange chest and black head perched on a snowy tree branch in a winter setting.

Thermal Regulation Function

(adaptation)

A brown eagle soaring in the sky with its wings spread wide.

Emergent Aerodynamic Flight Function

(exaptation)

A bunch of colorful feathers including yellow, turquoise, dark blue, striped, green, orange, and red feathers.

Emergent Varied-Display Function

(exaptation)

Exaptation is a Scientific Principle Spanning Disciplines

Exaptation Science · The record · v0.3

Exaptation has a citation trail

The term was coined in a peer-reviewed paleontology journal in 1982. Four decades on it is a working construct in genomics, historical linguistics, information systems, innovation management and the philosophy of biology. This is a sample, not a survey.

Search term
exaptation
Indexed by
Google Scholar
First published
1982 · Paleobiology
Founding paper cited
31,100+ times

Six fields · thirty-five years

Six peer-reviewed papers using the term exaptation, 1982–2017
Field Paper Year
EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGYORIGIN Exaptation — a missing term in the science of formGould & Vrba · Paleobiology 8(1), 4–15 1982
HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS How to do things with junk: exaptation in language evolutionLass · Journal of Linguistics 26, 79–102 1990
GENOMICS Exaptation of transposable elements into novel cis-regulatory elementsde Souza, Franchini & Rubinstein · Molecular Biology and Evolution 30(6), 1239–1251 2013
INFORMATION SYSTEMS Positioning and presenting design science research for maximum impactGregor & Hevner · MIS Quarterly 37(2), 337–355 · names an “exaptation” quadrant 2013
INNOVATION & MANAGEMENT Exaptation as source of creativity, innovation, and diversityAndriani & Cattani · Industrial and Corporate Change 25(1), 115–131 2016
PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY Exaptation revisited: changes imposed by evolutionary psychologists and behavioral biologistsLloyd & Gould · Biological Theory 12(1), 50–65 2017
Six of many. Citation counts vary by index and by date of search; the figure above is a conservative floor across indexes. Verify at scholar.google.com — search term: exaptation.

Exaptation Growth Strategy (EGS) Model

The EGS Model is a first-of-its-kind knowledge base to enable humans understand why exaptations occur (aka causes) and search for valuable functions intentionally.

Pepperdine | ProQuest

Flowchart titled 'Refined Exaptation Growth Strategy Model (EGS)' with sections on initial system conditions, resource-agent interactions, value discovery, and value generation, including boxes detailing resources, agents, context interactions, pressures, and concepts of value creation and application domains.

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EGS Substack

Exaptation’s Contribution to Business

Exaptation Growth Strategy · Value generation · v0.1

Extending exaptation to strategic management

Exaptation has been studied for four decades as a scientific principle. Turning it into something a firm can act on deliberately requires two things: a causal account of how exaptations emerge, and a method for putting that account to work.

The argument to strategy scholars

Exaptation is a powerful evolutionary principle present in science- and technology-oriented, modern-economy businesses. To generate technological innovation, we must focus on causes: how do exaptations emerge?

The offer to strategy practitioners

If we understand how exaptations are caused, we can develop strategic methods to induce them. Firms can generate growth and value by leveraging existing and future resources, applying causal mechanisms and business logic.

Value generation is what makes a firm move. The five stages alongside are how that value actually gets realised.

Value generation flywheel Five stages turning clockwise around a central hub: value discovery, value creation, value delivery, value capture and value sharing. Value discovery is highlighted in gold as the stage where Exaptation Growth Strategy operates. Value Generation motivates firms to act Value Discovery Value Creation Value Delivery Value Capture Value Sharing

Discovery is where EGS operates

The five stages run clockwise and feed back into one another: what is discovered is created, delivered, captured and shared, and the returns fund the next round of discovery.

A Profound Body of Knowledge

Exaptation Science · Curated sources · v0.2

Select papers, articles and books on exaptation

A short reading list rather than a full bibliography. Each entry was chosen to show a different facet of how exaptation has been defined, measured, modelled and applied across four decades of published work.

Fourteen sources · 1982–2023

Fourteen selected sources on exaptation, ordered by year
Title Summary Year
The founding paperExaptation: a missing term in the science of formGould & Vrba · Paleobiology Modern definition and explanation for exaptation. Ex-aptus and ad-aptus as interlinked processes. 1982
The economic implications of exaptationDew et al. · Journal of Evolutionary Economics Potential of exaptations to disrupt existing markets and create new niches and markets. 2004
Agent-based model of exaptive processesVillani et al. · European Management Review Explains the role of agents in exaptive processes and builds an initial model to incorporate their actions. 2007
The nature of technology: what it is and how it evolvesBOOK · Arthur · Penguin Books Technological evolution relating to natural phenomena and through other causal mechanisms. 2009
More is differentBonifati · Economics of Innovation and New Technology Exaptation and uncertainty: foundational concepts in the complexity theory of innovation. 2010
Exaptation as a pattern of innovationBOOK · Johnson · Where Good Ideas Come From This book discusses exaptation as one of seven patterns of innovation that gives rise to creativity. 2011
The knowledge innovation matrix: a clarifying lens on innovationGregor & Hevner · Int’l Journal of Emerging Transdiscipline The Knowledge Innovation Matrix. Exaptations that cross application domains throughout industries. 2014
Exaptation as a source of creativity, innovation, and diversityAndriani & Cattani · Industrial and Corporate Change Explaining exaptation as a discontinuous process that yields benefits to organizations, economy, and society. 2016
Identifying viable “need–solution pairs”von Hippel & von Krogh · Organization Science Discusses cases where problem solving occurs without prior problem formulation, or simultaneously. 2016
Measuring exaptation and its impact on innovation, search and problem solvingAndriani et al. · Organization Science First-ever quantitative assessment of exaptations leading to novelty generation. Measuring exaptations in the pharmaceutical industry for drug development. 2017
Exaptation in management: beyond technological innovationsDe Sordi et al. · European Business Review Entrepreneur interviews (46) that link exaptations with organizational capabilities like tacit knowledge, data, process, and skill to help managers act. 2018
Serendipity arrangements for exapting science-based innovationsGarud et al. · Academy of Management Perspectives Second paper relating to science and technological exaptations. 2018
Exaptation in physics and material scienceBOOK · Zaiser & Zapperi · The Frontiers Collection Understanding innovation through exaptation. Relevance in material science innovation. 2020
Emergence of novel product uses: exaptation in IKEA hacksChan & Lim · Management Science Detailed review of exaptations in the IKEA hacking community that repurposes old products. 2023
Ordered by year of publication. Summaries are editorial notes on what each source contributes, not abstracts. Venue names are given in short form; three entries are books rather than journal articles and are marked as such. A curated selection — not a systematic review of the literature.