Clarifying Deep-Tech Innovation: A Conceptual Review and Research Agenda

The increasing prominence of deep-tech innovation in academic and managerial discourse, driven by the need to address grand societal and technological challenges, marks a fundamental shift in technology-based innovation. Deep-tech innovations are characterized by scientific breakthroughs and novel, tangible, enabling technologies with low initial maturity and uncertain applications – fundamentally distinct from digital innovation. Despite this relevance, academic discourse remains fragmented and conceptually ambiguous, with varying definitions limiting comparability and cumulative knowledge. This paper addresses this gap through a systematic literature review, identifying 15 empirically grounded attributes that distinguish deep-tech innovation, highlighting differences in risk, development timelines, and ecosystem dependencies, among others. We map the deep-tech innovation process along the technology readiness levels and distill four cross-cutting differentiators that distinguish it further. Our findings clarify the conceptual boundaries of deep tech as an epistemic object, provide actionable guidance for corporates, and establish a foundation and structured agenda for future research.