Paper to be presented at DRUID15, Rome, June 15-17, 2015 (Coorganized with LUISS) Firms? preadaptation and knowledge recombination in the face of an emerging core technology: an empirical study on photography industry Luca Mongelli LUISS University of Rome Management lmongelli@luiss.it Abstract In this paper we attempt to identify the main drivers for a firm?s success when it develops knowledge in an emerging core technology. To answer to this question we specifically deal with the case of discontinuous technological substitution in the photography industry, in which a radical shift from chemical to digital technology occurred. We referred to two main knowledge leveraging mechanisms, i.e. internal and external, and different kinds of technological domains, making a clear distention between core technology, i.e. the emerging domain, and complementary domains, i.e. industry-related vs. industry-unrelated domains. In line with preadaptation theory, the main idea developed in the paper is that firms may both reap benefits from technological expertise in those domains which still characterize the ongoing industry paradigm and, in so doing, implement recombination processes among complementary domains. Accordingly with this interpretation the results confirmed our hypotheses: on the one hand, leveraging knowledge in the narrow emerging domain is more likely to have a limited effect on firms? technological performance; on the other hand, excessive crossing in unrelated domains, although slightly better than the previous case, is not the optimal solution as well. In line with our expectation the results showed that the best strategy is leveraging knowledge by crossing towards industry-related domains. Jelcodes:M10,Z00