Balancing incremental and radical innovation poses significant challenges, particularly in how firms´ decision-makers allocate attention across competing demands. However, despite its importance, the factors underpinning attention allocation and their impact on radical innovation in non-radical settings remain underexplored. This is especially so during the front end of innovation, where projects are conceptualized and evaluated. Grounded in the attention-based view of the firm (ABV), and based on a multiple case study of three radical innovation projects within a European high-tech firm, this study provides key insights into attention allocation critical for pursuing radical innovation. First, we uncover how attention allocation varies between “insiders” (e.g., engineers, scientists) who champion and drive radical innovation projects and “outsiders” (e.g., senior managers, evaluators) who influence progression through decisions about resource allocations and other aspects. This highlights the interdependence between these roles and their combined effect on decision-making. Second, we find that the original four attention regulators in ABV —rules of the game, situated position, players, and resources—may not be mutually exclusive, with situated position and rules of the game exerting overarching influences on the deployment of players and resources. Third, we propose temporality conception as a fifth attention regulator, capturing how short-term versus long-term time conceptions shape attention allocation and project prioritization. These findings advance the innovation management and ABV literatures by integrating role-based and temporal dimensions into attention allocation. It also offers new insights into attention regulation practices in the front end of innovation to enhance the pursuit and outcomes of radical innovation projects. We also offer practical mechanisms to align attention across decision-makers and sustain radical innovation when structural separation is not possible or feasible.
