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The social underpinnings of absorptive capacity: The moderating effects of structural holes on innovation generation based on external knowledge
Strategic Management Journal
Abstract
Building on absorptive capacity and social network research, in this paper I investigate how individuals inside the organization use external knowledge to generate innovations. Through original sociometric data collected from 276 scientists, researchers, and engineers from the Research and Development division of a large multinational high-tech company, I show that the effects of external knowledge on individuals’ innovativeness are contingent upon individuals’ position in the internal social structure. In particular, results indicate that the positive effects of external knowledge on innovation generation become more positive when individuals sourcing external knowledge span structural holes in the internal knowledge-sharing network.
... Specifically, these firms can access information flows within the network more effectively and possess diverse and non-redundant information, significantly aiding executives in identifying market needs and developing new ventures [44]. Related studies indicate that structural autonomy provides greater flexibility, enabling firms to mitigate the negative impacts of new business failures [45]. Thus, structural autonomy is an important factor that deserves attention in the context of new venture developments. ...
... Firms with high autonomy may be prone to opportunistic behavior due to information asymmetry, prioritizing their interests and potentially sacrificing their partners' interests [8]. Moreover, since these firms are less susceptible to collective sanctions within the network [45], this could lead to fractured partnerships, thereby weakening the network support for venture development. This governance disadvantage introduces greater uncertainty and risk in innovation projects while reducing the efficiency of resource integration in imitation projects. ...
... Moreover, while structural autonomy provides some flexibility for imitation, this flexibility may also introduce instability in collaboration. For instance, information asymmetry may lead to opportunistic behaviors, eroding trust and reducing the efficiency of cooperation between partners [45]. In the supplementary interviews, executives explained that while structural autonomy enables access to unique and non-redundant information, information advantages alone are insufficient to support the high collaboration and resource integration required for innovation. ...
This study investigates how the different dimensions of a firm’s network position influence executives’ preference for imitation over innovation in new venture development, thus reflecting their preference for uncertainty. Through a scenario-based experimental approach involving 1024 responses from 64 senior executives, we examine how network centrality, structural equivalence, and structural autonomy shape these strategic preferences. The findings reveal that firms with higher network centrality tend to favor innovation over imitation more strongly. At the same time, those in structurally equivalent positions show a greater preference for imitation. Structural autonomy does not significantly affect these preferences. This study contributes to the literature by revealing how different network structures uniquely influence strategic decision-making in uncertain environments, offering valuable insights for scholars and practitioners. The scenario-based experimental method enhances the precision of the findings and provides actionable implications for real-world decision-making in venture development.
... The goal of the business procedure is to improve the product and service of the organization, it's quality, and cost reduction. It involves a critical analysis of the company's process of carrying out business, implementation of sub-process, and finding out ways of getting rid of business procedure inefficiency (Tortoriello, 2015). ...
... Human resources of an organisation serve the most convenient operations and these may have made the organisational performances more competent. In this case, Tortoriello (2015) has stated that an organisation may have provided complete accessibility of the information system to its human resource base. This may have helped the organisation in mitigating different types of challenges and issues that are coming in front of developing a strategic performance system within the workplace. ...
... With the assistance of this, the organisation may have enhanced the effectiveness level of the considered organisation. Tortoriello (2015) has stated that the level of incurred financial resources can be decreased with the help of strategic organisational performances. In addition, it has been determined that the level of flexibility within an organisation can be increased by incorporating MIS in organisational performances. ...
Management Information System (MIS) plays a major role in organizations in improving their performance. The five fundamental components of information system hardware equipment, software, business procedure, data recording and human resource are working as independent variables and organizational performance as a dependent variable. These independent variables help a lot in improving organizational performance in Airtel, Bangladesh. Hence, this research study helps to make a clear understanding of the topic by formulating plans as well as objectives. This study has been focused on the assessment of the relationship between MIS and organizational performance in the context of Airtel in Bangladesh. To accomplish this objective, data was collected through the use of a questionnaire. The sample size of this study is 120 employees from Airtel, Bangladesh, who attended a survey arranged by the researcher. The Pearson Correlation between the five components of the MIS and organizational performance are 0.753, 0.810, 0.855, 0.690 and 0.790 respectively which indicates a positive relationship between MIS and organizational performance. The high implementation of the management information system leads to better organization's performance. Recommendations have been provided to improve the firm's performance by using the management information system.
... The structure embeddedness perspective centers on the spatial structure formed by connections. Burt (1992) asserted that organizations occupying "structural holes" can promptly access new (Zang, 2018) and diversified knowledge and information (Ahuja, 2000;Tortoriello, 2015;Lan et al., 2020;Guo et al., 2021), thereby enhancing innovation performance (Karamanos, 2016;Kumar and Zaheer, 2019) and capability (Wang et al., 2014;Vasudeva et al., 2013;Thatchenkery and Katila, 2021;Dana et al., 2020). Moreover, structural holes facilitate firms to achieve control over both ends through information control (Soda et al., 2004(Soda et al., , 2021, obtaining "bridging" benefits (Koka and Prescott, 2008), thereby maximizing their innovation performance (Yang et al., 2010). ...
... Firstly, traditional studies based on the "relationship-structure" perspective have yielded inconsistent conclusions regarding the relationship between network embeddedness and corporate innovation Wang et al., 2023;Soda et al., 2021;Tortoriello, 2015;Chen et al., 2019;Dana et al., 2020;Melander and Arvidsson, 2022;Melander and Pazirandeh, 2019). ...
... Firstly, this study advances the application of social network theory in green innovation by revealing the effects and differences of market and technology network embeddedness on green innovation performance. Prior research has yielded conflicting findings regarding the innovation impact of network embeddedness Wang et al., 2023;Soda et al., 2021;Tortoriello, 2015;Chen et al., 2019;Dana et al., 2020;Melander and Arvidsson, 2022;Melander and Pazirandeh, 2019). This study divides network embeddedness into dimensions based on the heterogeneous network resources perspective and empirically examines and compares the effects of market network embeddedness and technology network embeddedness on green innovation performance. ...
Purpose
With technological innovation elements and the competitive market environment becoming increasingly complex, numerous firms utilize network embeddedness to achieve and sustain innovation. However, empirical research has not conclusively established which form of network embeddedness more effectively facilitates corporate innovation. Drawing on the heterogeneous network resources perspective, this study explores the impact of market network embeddedness, technology network embeddedness and their synergy on the green innovation performance of manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, it investigates the moderating role of resource orchestration capability in these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an online questionnaire survey of Chinese manufacturing SMEs, 293 sample data were collected, and the hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the hypothesis.
Findings
The results indicate that market and technology network embeddedness significantly enhance green innovation performance, with the former exerting a more significant impact. Furthermore, the synergy between market and technology network embeddedness positively influences green innovation performance. Additionally, resource orchestration capability strengthens the positive effects of both market and technology network embeddedness on green innovation performance, while the moderating effect of resource orchestration capability on the relationship between the synergy of the two and green innovation performance was insignificant.
Research limitations/implications
The study faced many limitations, such as collecting primary data, which relied on a questionnaire only, using cross-sectional data and examining only manufacturing SMEs.
Originality/value
Based on the heterogeneous network resources perspective and integrating social network theory and resource orchestration theory, this study explores the impact of network embeddedness on the green innovation performance of manufacturing SMEs, which sheds new light on the network embeddedness research framework and also enriches the antecedents of green innovation. In addition, this study provides implications on how manufacturing SMEs effectively utilize network embeddedness and resource orchestration capability to enhance green innovation performance.
... The positive impact of EKS on innovation might begin to taper off because of a lack of attention paid to utilizing internal organizational knowledge. Inventors need a sufficient understanding of knowledge characteristics, structures and application contexts to successfully combine new external knowledge with existing stocks of knowledge (Tortoriello, 2015). As such, sufficient attention needs to be allocated to utilizing internal organizational knowledge in the external knowledge integration process (Ardito and Messeni Petruzzelli, 2017). ...
... Previous research in this area argued a positive linear relationship between EKS and individual innovation (e.g. Majumdarr et al., 2023;Tang, 2015;Ter Wal et al., 2017;Tortoriello, 2015). Our findings constitute a major revision of scientific theory on EKS and individual innovation performance because our study suggests that the theory's focal concepts related to each other fundamentally differently. ...
... An individual's knowledge breadth and depth are two moderators that scholars have not considered in their study of EKS and individual innovation performance (e.g. Majumdarr et al., 2023;Tang, 2015;Ter Wal et al., 2017;Tortoriello, 2015). This is a surprising oversight in the literature given the central role that knowledge breadth and depth play in individual innovation performance (Zhao et al., 2021;Duy Quoc, 2022). ...
Purpose
Current open innovation (OI) and external knowledge search (EKS) research primarily shows a positive linear relationship between EKS and innovation at an individual level. However, organizational scholarship argues that excessive EKS may harm innovation. This study combines the knowledge-based view (KBV) and attention-based view (ABV) to articulate a nonlinear theory of EKS and innovation at the individual level.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors constructed a multi-sourced dataset covering 59,798 USA pharmaceutical patents spanning from 1975 to 2014 and employed negative binomial fixed-effect models to examine theoretical hypotheses.
Findings
We find a significant concave curvilinear relationship between EKS and innovation quantity as well as innovation quality at an individual level. An individual’s knowledge breadth and depth moderate the relationship between EKS and innovation, such that the threshold at which EKS has diminishing returns for individual innovation is higher for inventors with a broad range of knowledge and those with deeper expertise in the domain where they are innovating.
Research limitations/implications
Managers should guide inventors toward a moderate investment of time and effort in EKS and should caution against over searching. Besides, managers should recognize that an inventor’s capacity for EKS is determined in part by their breadth of knowledge across various domains as well as the depth of knowledge they have in the knowledge domain where they are innovating.
Practical implications
We provide both parties with a clearer understanding of when EKS can begin to deteriorate an individual’s innovation performance why that deterioration occurs, and we also highlight two individual-level knowledge characteristics to take into consideration when deciding when to cease the EKS process.
Social implications
This study provides a novel holistic understanding of OI and knowledge management for policymakers and organizations to nourish innovation dynamism and make the best of knowledge stocks in the community, which in turn will create endless power for sustainable social change and inclusive development.
Originality/value
This study contributes to OI theory by highlighting the non-linear nature of the relationship between EKS and innovation on an individual level. This represents a fundamental shift in theory on EKS and individual innovation by suggesting a major rethinking of how the two concepts relate, revealing the dark side of EKS in knowledge management if inventors engage in excessive EKS. Likewise, our study’s incorporation of the ABV informs KBV scholarship by highlighting the role of the limited attentional capacity of individuals in firm knowledge management.
... The literature suggests that absorptive capacity is related to external knowledge and internal factors (Zahra;George, 2002). Supporting this claim, Tortoriello (2015) highlights three internal factors considered in this association: organizational knowledge (the set of skills and experience of the organization), formalization (internal knowledge and rules), and integration (practice to reduce information exchanges). Research by Vega-Jurado, Gutiérrez-Gracia, and Fernández-de-Lucio (2008) also shows that organizational knowledge, measured by the level of education and activities in R&D, has a positive effect on absorptive capacity. ...
... Potential absorptive capacity is an antecedent of realized absorptive capacity, which in turn affects the relationship with innovation (Murovec & Prodan, 2009). Other authors like Choi and Park (2017) explicitly describe the importance of internal communication flows for innovation activities, and Tortoriello (2015) asserts that external knowledge leads to innovation through realized absorptive capacity. Theoretically, realized absorptive capacity is an important process that fosters innovation (Arbussà & Coenders, 2007). ...
... Some researchers explicitly highlight the importance of external knowledge flows for innovation activities (Choi & Park, 2017). Tortoriello (2015) emphasizes that external knowledge opens up possibilities for innovation in organizations. Similarly, Kim et al., (2018) external knowledge sources result in different types of innovation. ...
Objetivo: Este estudo investiga o papel mediador da capacidade absortiva entre fontes externas de conhecimento e o desempenho em inovação de produtos no contexto de uma cooperativa de eletricidade. Design/Metodologia/Abordagem: Realizado com uma metodologia quantitativa, o estudo envolveu a aplicação de um questionário a 82 empresas fornecedoras de uma cooperativa de eletricidade, utilizando o método Partial Least Squares (PLS) para testar o modelo estrutural. Resultados: Os resultados indicam que as fontes externas de conhecimento, mediadas pela capacidade absortiva, têm uma associação significativa e positiva com o desempenho da inovação de produtos. As organizações precisam utilizar tanto fontes de conhecimento científico quanto industrial para desenvolver capacidades absortivas potenciais e realizadas, a fim de perceber benefícios financeiros, de mercado, técnicos, de clientes e estratégicos da inovação. Originalidade/Valor: Destaca a importância estratégica da gestão do conhecimento para manter as organizações competitivas e inovadoras no ambiente de negócios atual. Nesse sentido o estudo aborda a necessidade de as organizações desenvolverem práticas relacionadas à absorção de conhecimento, enfatizando que essas práticas não só permitem a aquisição de informações relevantes para o negócio, mas também facilitam a propagação e transformação de rotinas, levando a melhorias em produtos e serviços.
... The recombination logic suggests that individuals with low network constraints can generate new ideas by recombining nonredundant information from different domains or disciplines (i.e. different and unique information from different fields or disciplines) because when consumers form weak ties with others, they are more likely to access unique, non-redundant information, increasing the possibility of recombination leading to good ideas (Tortoriello, 2015). The interrogation logic proposes that individuals with high network constraints can propose new solution ideas because highly constrained social networks are characterized by strong ties where consumers can focus their attention to fully understand the fine-grained information available. ...
... We propose a model of idea quality in OBCs that takes into account different levels of network constraints and attention allocation strategies based on previous studies (Kaplan and Vakili, 2015;Rhee and Leonardi, 2018;Tortoriello, 2015) (see Figure 1). As previously explained, highly constrained social networks can enable consumers to focus their attention and fully understand the fine-grained information available, where good ideas can be generated through interrogation logic (Kaplan and Vakili, 2015). ...
... As previously explained, highly constrained social networks can enable consumers to focus their attention and fully understand the fine-grained information available, where good ideas can be generated through interrogation logic (Kaplan and Vakili, 2015). Consumers with low network constraints can also form weak ties with others in order to access unique, nonredundant information, which increases the possibility of recombination leading to good ideas (Tortoriello, 2015). When consumers either only pay attention to a subset of poor social ties or spread their attention across all social ties, they may waste cognitive resources and fail to generate good ideas (Rhee and Leonardi, 2018). ...
Purpose
Online brand communities (OBCs) are important platforms to obtain consumers' ideas. The purpose of this study is to examine how peer influence and consumer contribution behavior simulate innovative behaviors in OBCs to increase idea quality.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a firm-hosted popular online brand community – Xiaomi Community (MIUI), the authors collected a set of data from 6567 consumers and then used structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to empirically test the impact of peer influence and consumer contribution behaviors on idea quality in OBCs.
Findings
The results of this study show that both peer influence breadth and depth have a positive effect on idea adoption and peer recognition, wherein proactive contribution behavior positively mediates these relationships, and responsive contribution behavior negatively mediates the impact of peer influence breadth and peer influence depth on peer recognition. A more detailed analysis using the fsQCA method further identifies four types of antecedent configurations for better idea quality.
Originality/value
Based on the attention-based view and the theory of learning by feedback, this study explores the factors that affect idea quality in the context of social networks and extends the research of peer influence in the digital age. The paper helps improve our understanding of how to promote customer idea quality in OBCs.
... In this sense, Jiménez-Castillo and Sánchez-Pérez (2013) and Chiu et al. (2023) demonstrated how individual AC was influenced by motivation, cognition, and the diversity of external networks. Individual AC was also shown to enhance favorable results regarding task performance (Park et al., 2007), knowledge creation, and innovation (Tortoriello, 2015;Ter Wal et al., 2017;Enkel et al., 2017). Accordingly, based on the Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), it is necessary to examine the different types of motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) and cognition (associative and dissociative) of the organization's employees, these antecedents being distinct from AC individuals. ...
... In this context, several scholars argue about the need for more empirical studies on individual AC (Lane et al., 2006;Yildiz et al., 2024), and in response to these calls, recent research has begun to advance the understanding of AC in individual level (Jiménez-Castillo & Sánchez Pérez, 2013;Ter Wal et al., 2017;Snehvrat et al., 2022). Accordingly, some studies sought to examine the link between individual AC and elements such as cognition and the impacts of this conjunction on individual learning (Martinkenaite & Breunig, 2016;Yao & Chang, 2017;Yildiz et al., 2019), while others proposed to verify whether social interaction affects individual AC (Tortoriello, 2015). ...
Purpose: This article examines the relationship between individuals’ characteristics (motivation and cognition), individual absorptive capacity, and individual innovative performance in times of crisis. Originality/value: The study contributes to emerging academic thinking on the micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities, self-determination theory as an antecedent factor, and individual innovative performance as a consequence factor of individual absorptive capacity. Regarding practical contributions, managers and entrepreneurs should invest in training in times of crisis, aiming to develop individual practices and skills to promote organizations’ innovative capacity. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a questionnaire (survey). There were 320 respondents. Confirmatory Factor Analy-sis was applied to validate the constructs’ items using PLS-SEM to test the hypotheses using the Smart-PLS2.0 software. Findings: The results demonstrated that the dissociative cognitive style was the most significant predictor of individual absorptive capacity in times of crisis. It was also found that the level of extrinsic motivation had no effect when analyzed concerning the level of individual absorptive capacity in times of crisis. Finally, the findings showed a positive relationship between individual absorptive capacity and individual innovative performance. However, the times of crisis variable did not exert a moderating effect on this relationship.
... De acordo com Tortoriello (2014), estimular a criação de redes internas que envolvam diferentes setores da empresa pode ajudar a melhorar a capacidade de usar conhecimentos externos, promovendo a fusão criativa de várias ideias e pontos de vista. ...
... Assim, o grau da ACAP de uma empresa determina sua eficácia na absorção e aplicação das informações disponibilizadas, sendo crucial que as pessoas sejam encorajadas a fazerem contatos que permitam acessar novas fontes externas de conhecimento. (Tortoriello, 2014). ...
O objetivo desta pesquisa é traçar um panorama das produções científicas internacionais sobre a temática capacidade absortiva (ACAP), a fim de mapear as contribuições acadêmicas realizadas entre os anos de 1990 e 2023. Trata-se de um estudo bibliométrico com uma abordagem exploratória e descritiva, fundamentado em três leis principais: a Lei de Bradford, que avalia a produtividade de periódicos; a Lei de Lotka, que analisa a produtividade científica dos autores; e a Lei de Zipf, que examina a frequência de palavras. A coleta de dados considerou a produção acadêmica sobre ACAP a partir de artigos publicados em periódicos, especificamente na base de dados Web of Science. Utilizou-se o pacote Bibliometrix e o VOSviewer como ferramentas de análise bibliométrica. Os achados revelaram um total de 3.187 artigos publicados entre 1990 e 2023. A Lei de Bradford identificou os cinco principais periódicos na área: Journal of Knowledge Management, Journal of Business Research, Sustainability, International Business Review e Technological Forecasting and Social Change. A Lei de Lotka mostrou que a maioria dos autores publicou apenas um artigo (4.819 autores), com um número reduzido de autores publicando dois artigos (821 autores). A Lei de Zipf indicou que as palavras mais citadas foram "capacidade absortiva", "desempenho", "inovação", "capacidades dinâmicas" e "antecedentes". A análise bibliométrica demonstrou a eficácia desta abordagem para analisar grandes volumes de dados científicos, ressaltando a importância da qualidade dos dados e dos processos de indexação.
... Some studies evaluated innovation based on individual innovative output. For example, Tortoriello (2015) used the number of patents generated by individuals to proxy their innovative outcomes. Ter Wal et al. (2011Wal et al. ( , 2017. ...
... Although prior studies have shown that weak tie and network diversity are positively associated with individual ACAP (Khachlouf et al., 2014;Lowik et al., 2017), and that sparse ego networks can enhance individuals' ability to utilise external knowledge (Tortoriello, 2015), other aspects of the social underpinnings of individual ACAP are understudied. Out of this, we propose a few possible directions that might be worthwhile for future research to explore. ...
... Considering that successful recombinations originate from internal and external resources, it is clear that they are usually tacit, and it is difficult to achieve rapid sharing within an organization (Guler and Nerkar, 2011). Since efficient sharing of tacit knowledge within an organization requires the establishment of new collaborative ties, as the initiator of the sharing of new recombinations (Tortoriello and Krackhardt, 2010;Tortoriello, 2015), focal inventors will selectively build bridges in wider knowledge communities. They can then control the flow, transmission and transfer directions of recombinations. ...
... Second, focal inventors have more opportunities to recombine and integrate knowledge from various technical fields. They are more likely to understand and absorb distant novel components and integrate remote knowledge into existing knowledge in more flexible ways to create new recombinations (Zhang, 2015;Tortoriello, 2015;Lyu et al., 2020). This provides focal inventors with stronger control opportunities. ...
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the influence of inventors’ abilities to acquire external knowledge, provide broad and professional knowledge and patenting output (i.e. different types of inventors) on the formation of structural holes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected 59,798 patents applied for and granted in the USA by 33 of the largest firms worldwide in the pharmaceutical industry between 1975 and 2014. A random-effects tobit model was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The inventors’ ability to acquire external knowledge contributes to the formation of structural holes. While inventors’ ability to provide broad knowledge positively affects the formation of structural holes, their ability to provide professional knowledge works otherwise. In addition, key inventors and industrious inventors are more likely to form structural holes than talents.
Originality/value
The results identify individual factors that affect the formation of structural holes and improve the understanding of structural hole theory. This study is unique in that most scholars have studied the consequences of structural hole formation rather than their antecedents. Studies on the origin of structural holes neglect the effect of inventors’ knowledge abilities and patenting output. By addressing this gap, this study contributes to a more comprehensive theoretical understanding of structural holes. The results can guide managers in managing structural holes in accordance with inventors’ knowledge abilities and patenting outputs, which optimize the allocation of network resources.
... The role of an organization is to develop decision-making structures and intrafirm relationship networks through which individual absorptive capacities can be harnessed and deployed (Tortoriello, 2015). Some research has noted the lack of a micro-foundation-based approach to discover the actions and agency of individuals in ACAP (Schweisfurth & Raasch, 2018). ...
... MIS includes providing incentives and a supporting organizational infrastructure that facilitates the teaching of complex knowledge and the position of individuals within the network of relationships (Tortoriello, 2015). ...
Purpose: This study evaluates the relationship between Individual Absorptive Capacity, Social Integration Mechanisms and Organizational Absorptive Capacity. This study provides empirical evidence about the conceptual absorptive capacity (ACAP) model through examining the full process systematically.
Two groups of moderating variables were studied—namely, social integration and appropriability—to examine their impact on the process.
Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a longitudinal study on metal mechanic companies in Brasil by using 427 survey responses and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Data analysis was performed considering: i) Cronbach’s alpha; ii) Composite Reliability; iii) Average Variance Extracted (AVE); iv) Fornell and Larcker criteria; v) Evaluation of Pearson Coefficients of Determination (R2); vi) Effect Size (f2) or Indicator of Cohen; vii) Predictive Validity (Q2); and viii) Student’s t-test. Following
the estimation of the structural model (path coefficients) using the Partial Least Squares method via SmartPLS software version 3.2.8.
Findings: The study confirms that social integration mechanisms are required from organizations to create a positive environment for individuals to develop knowledge in the organizational and individual absorptive capacity levels. Social integration mechanisms can have a direct or moderator effect on the
dimensions of the ACAP.
Originality/value: This study provides support to the learning theory and to the organization-learning concept. It also reveals empirical evidence that the social integration mechanisms play a key role in facilitating both individual and organizational knowledge transfer process. The findings of this study provide functional suggestions and highlight areas for future research.
... Burt's theory has been the subject of much research, especially in the field of organizational management where organizations are often looking to gain strategic advantages over one another. Brokerage power has been found to increase an organization's adaptability (Gargiulo and Benassi 2000), ease knowledge transfer between actors (Reagans and McEvily 2003) and lead to innovation as knowledge is combined in novel ways (Hollway et al. 2020;McEvily and Zaheer 1999;Tortoriello 2015). ...
China has emerged as the world's biggest source of development finance, far out‐spending traditional sources of aid. In recent years, researchers have made progress in collecting and documenting China's influence through its financing of projects all over the world; however, most of that focus has been on either the Chinese financiers or the effect of Chinese financing on its recipients. In this paper, we focus instead on the network of non‐Chinese financiers who facilitate Chinese development financing. To do this, we turn an existing dataset that documents Chinese development finance into a network dataset that allows us to display and analyse the structure of relationships between financiers and recipients of loans. Using the method of social network analysis, we identify non‐Chinese financiers that act as brokers in the network, facilitating relationships for financiers and recipients of Chinese development finance. The results suggest that non‐Chinese entities may be holding Chinese development financing together in ways that were previously not known. In particular, private commercial banks emerge as critical actors. Our results also suggest that the top non‐Chinese brokers differ in how they use their brokerage power, with some top brokers playing a more active role and others playing a more passive role. Finally, the paper shows that social network analysis can be a valuable tool to uncover structural patterns in this dataset.
... Enterprises embedded in networks with abundant structural holes possess greater opportunities for creative knowledge recombination, enhance knowledge-sharing capabilities among colleagues, and gain access to an expanded pool of potential talent beyond geographical constraints [130], thereby recruiting more R&D talent. Limiting the selection of R&D personnel to local searches may make it difficult to find the most qualified individuals to help utilize specific types of knowledge or apply it to particular problems. ...
In the context of green sustainable development, improving the quality of green innovation (GI) has become an urgent issue for enterprises. Corporate social networks play a vital role in improving the quality of GI, but there is a lack of research on how the social networks established by management team members influence GI, the pathways of their relationships, and their moderating effects. This study uses data from Chinese ICT industry listed companies between 2012 and 2022, employing social network analysis to construct the social network connections of core management team members. Mechanism analysis indicates that degree centrality and structural holes have positive effects on GI, while network density has a negative effect. R&D expenditure and personnel investment mediate the relationship between structural holes/network density and GI. Environmental information disclosure (EID) strengthens the relationship between structural holes/network density and GI. This research integrates the mediating effect and moderating effect models to elucidate the logical relationship among corporate social networks, R&D investment, EID, and GI, which has practical significance for further optimizing government environmental governance mechanisms, adjusting corporate social network structures, and enhancing innovation capabilities.
... Especially in the context of the digital age, diversified accesses to external knowledge help enterprises to grasp the latest digital technologies in a timely manner and facilitates the development of DI activities (Chakravarty et al., 2013;Lee et al., 2015). Therefore, director network structural holes can help enterprises obtain different non-redundant knowledge and resources from different types of network partners (Tortoriello, 2015;Mazzola et al., 2016;Zona et al., 2018;, so as to enhance enterprises' DI impetus. ...
... Misalnya, Scuotto et al. (2017) menemukan bahwa kapasitas penyerapan memengaruhi inovasi secara positif dengan meningkatkan kemampuan perusahaan untuk mengintegrasikan pengetahuan eksternal dan mengembangkan produk serta proses baru. Demikian pula, Tortoriello (2015) menyoroti peran kapasitas penyerapan dalam memfasilitasi inovasi dalam sistem organisasi yang kompleks. Dalam konteks industri perikanan Indonesia, kapasitas penyerapan sangat penting untuk mengadopsi teknologi baru dan praktik terbaik. ...
The role of intellectual capital and absorptive capacity in enhancing firm performance has gained significant attention in recent years, especially within the context of developing countries. Indonesian fisheries, being a critical sector for the country's economy, require effective management of intellectual resources to drive innovation and improve performance. This study aims to investigate the influence of intellectual capital and absorptive capacity on innovation and firm performance in Indonesian fisheries companies, with a particular focus on the mediating role of innovation and the moderating role of environmental uncertainty. The research employs a quantitative approach using a descriptive research design. Data were collected from 70 Indonesian fisheries companies through surveys. The collected data were analyzed using Partial Least Square (PLS) method with the help of WarpPLS software. This study found that intellectual capital and absorptive capacity impact innovation and company performance Additionally, innovation mediates the relationship between intellectual capital, absorptive capacity, and company performance The influence of absorptive capacity on innovation is moderated by environmental uncertainty. The findings suggest that enhancing intellectual capital and absorptive capacity can lead to improved innovation and firm performance, particularly in dynamic and uncertain environments. This highlights the need for fisheries companies to invest in intellectual resources and develop robust absorptive capacities to sustain competitive advantage.
... These results confirm the previous literature mainly in operations management that social, and cognitive capitals are key components for enhancing absorptive capability, and innovation performance (Ali, Hussin, Haddad, Alkhodary, & Marei, 2021;Aribi & Dupouët, 2015). It provides evidence that absorptive capability further enhances the impacts of social knowledge created by exploitations, and dissemination (Scuotto, Del Giudice, & Carayannis, 2017;Tortoriello, 2015). Recent literature indicates that food security and cleaner food supply chains are the top drivers for innovation in supply chains (Mehmood, Ahmed, Viza, Bogush, & Ayyub, 2021;Sharma, Mangla, Patil, & Liu, 2019). ...
In supply chains, social attributes, such as trust, and commitment, are key drivers of efficiency performance. In the agriculture industry in developing countries like Vietnam, social capital may have a greater role when other formal systems are not in place. This study empirically tests the mediating role of supply chain absorptive capability as a complementary asset to leverage social, and cognitive capital to enhance innovation performance. This research examined small food producers using a standard questionnaire and captured 85 responses in Vietnam. The findings showed that social capital plays a more significant role in enhancing absorptive capability, highlighting the need for a structural resource network in developing regions. Food processing firms benefit from the direct and indirect influence of absorptive capability. Absorptive capability acts as a catalyst in enhancing cognitive, and social capital for improving innovation outcomes, such as new product development. The food producers should not just stop at sharing and capturing information, but move forward to deploy new ideas and learned knowledge. The results urge agricultural businesses to establish networks with supply chain partners, who can significantly impact the development of new ideas, and quickly exploit new knowledge to accommodate resources for sustainable agricultural strategies.
... In our estimations of a matched sample of open triads that close versus remain open, we demonstrate how triadic closure is superior to remaining open. Our focus on inventor triads complements existing work on networks of R&D personnel and their individual invention capabilities (Carnabuci and Diószegi 2015;Fleming, Mingo, and Chen 2007;Nerkar and Paruchuri 2005;Tortoriello 2015). ...
Instead of comparing open and closed triads as static phenomena, this study examines how closure dynamics among inventors impact the extent to which inventors generate high-quality inventions at the triad level. Combining literature on small group synergy, social networks, and recombinant innovation, we propose that initial open triads of collaborating inventors that turn into a closed triad generate higher quality inventions than triads that maintain open. We also examine how the connectedness of the triad moderates the relationship between triad closure and the generation of triadic high-quality inventions. Using a matched sample of open and closed triads from 1987 to 2008, we find that over time, open triads that turn into closed ones generate higher-quality inventions than triads that remain open. Moreover, the triad's degree of connectedness weakens the triadic closure's positive impact on inventive performance. We discuss the implications for the study of innovation, network triads, and collective synergy.
... Regans et al. discovered in their study of the knowledge transfer process within network structures that strong ties crossing structural holes made the transfer of knowledge between individuals easier [6]. Tortoriello investigated how individuals within organizations use external knowledge to generate innovations [7]. Using original sociometric data collected from 276 scientists, researchers, and engineers in the R&D department of a large multinational high-tech company, it was shown that the impact of external knowledge on individual innovation depends on the individual's position within the internal social network. ...
With the development of globalization, firms are facing increasingly fierce competition. In such an environment, innovation has become an inevitable choice for companies to survive and develop, and is a hot topic studied by management scholars. Especially in high-tech industries, innovation has a particularly prominent impact on a company’s survival and prosperity. Technical innovation involves high levels of uncertainty and requires significant amounts of time and resources, so firms typically engage in strategic alliances to conduct joint research and exchange knowledge and information. In this process, innovation networks become an important source of innovation for companies, and the transfer, sharing, integration, and absorption of technical knowledge are all accomplished through innovation networks. As an important structure in innovation networks, structural holes can provide novel and heterogeneous information and knowledge. firms occupying positions in structural holes have information and control advantages, and by integrating different information, firms are more likely to create new knowledge. Therefore, the study of structural holes has become a focus of management research, and can play a significant role in promoting the development of social network and social capital theory. This paper systematically studies structural holes and innovation performance by reviewing existing research and defining the basic concepts and classifications of structural holes. In addition, relevant studies on the relationship between structural holes and innovation performance are summarized from the organizational, team, and individual levels, with a focus on the relationship between structural holes and firm innovation performance. Finally, based on the shortcomings of current research on structural holes and innovation performance, future research prospects are proposed to further promote the development of research in this area.
... Effective integration can provide enterprises with more innovative perspectives and differentiated problem-solving strategies (Tortoriello, 2015), thus improving the innovation performance of enterprises (Rodan & Galunic, 2004); secondly, the heterogeneity of social networks makes enterprises When carrying out innovation activities, we can communicate and cooperate with many different types and different enterprises and learn the heterogeneous and complementary knowledge that enterprises need. ...
Innovation is the lifeblood and inexhaustible driving force behind the development of an enterprise. With the continuous improvement of scientific and technological levels, the acceleration of technological change, and the changes in market demand, the complexity and uncertainty of innovation are increasing day by day. Enterprises have to acquire knowledge from outside, to obtain new impetus for enterprise development. The rich knowledge resources contained in corporate social networks provide a foundation for future innovation and development. This article takes Chinese enterprises as the research object and uses open innovation theory, social network theory, and knowledge management theory to construct a conceptual model of "social network-knowledge acquisition-absorptive capacity-innovation performance." Through empirical analysis of 549 valid questionnaires, it was found that networks do not all have a positive effect on enterprise innovation performance. This study shows that network size, network centrality, and network heterogeneity have a positive effect on innovation performance. The effect of network relationship strength on innovation performance is not significant. Knowledge acquisition and absorptive capacity play an important role in society. Network size, network centrality, and network heterogeneity have a chain-mediating role in their impact on corporate innovation performance.
... As is derived from the past studies, for the better performance and overall development of firm-specific HC, the interaction between HC and social capital is a basic necessity; it further helps in complex social situations, organisational knowledge, innovation, and creativity. Tortoriello (2015) concluded in his research that social networks of an organisation can be utilised to improve the absorptive capacity of its employees. The study also highlighted that there lies a relationship between the external knowledge and innovation creation. ...
In today's highly competitive global business landscape, organizations across sectors are trying to gain advantage over their competitors. To secure this edge, companies are increasingly recognizing their workforce, the human capital, as a
pivotal asset for achieving success. Human capital encompasses employees' knowledge, skills, and abilities. The term was initially coined in the 1960s by Schultz (1961) and later expanded upon in the 1990s. Human capital is not confined to tangible skills but also encompasses the well-being of individuals within an organization. HCM has been considered as a key element in an organization's overall value, including intellectual resources. The theories of dynamic capabilities
and the resource-based view support the argument that human capital is a crucial driver of sustainable competitive advantage. HCM plays a central role in enhancing employee competencies, fostering knowledge-sharing, and stimulating innovation and creativity.
This paper delves into the strategic importance of HCM, exploring how it contributes to gaining a competitive advantage. It also discusses the importance of HCM at the individual level, highlighting the role of education and training in enhancing employee performance and organizational productivity. Further, this study emphasizes that effective HCM is a critical driver for economic growth and competitive advantage. It not only leads to employee satisfaction and improved
performance but also enhances overall organizational output and profitability. As organizations navigate the dynamic and competitive landscape, investments in human capital development stand out as a key driver of success and sustainability
in the modern business world. HCM is the pivot in the pursuit of competitiveness and long-term viability in today's global marketplace.
... innovation. In the social sciences, the emergence of novelty is undertheorized (Olmos-Peñuela et al., 2014;Tortoriello, 2015;Johnson & Powell, 2015), The debate about the role of agency versus structure in social life has touched all areas of the social sciences (Archer, 1982). It corresponds to the agency versus structure debate in the framework of institutional theory (Battilana and D'Aunno, 2009). ...
... With the ambition to scrutinize cross-level dynamics, several studies have looked at the relationship between an organization's absorptive capacity and a variety of individual-level traits or behaviors, such as organizational citizenship behavior (Hart et al., 2016), individual learning orientation and behavior (Martinkenaite and Breunig, 2016;Yao and Chang, 2017), social interaction (Hotho et al., 2012;Tortoriello, 2015), and leadership (Flatten et al., 2015). Although the central role of individuals in developing firm-level absorptive capacity has been repeatedly emphasized (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990;Jansen et al., 2005;Volberda et al., 2010;Zahra and George, 2002), the field has only recently started to delve into the individual-level antecedents of absorptive capacity (Hart et al., 2016). ...
While extant literature conceptually recognizes individuals as an integral part of the process with which organizations absorb new knowledge, past research has paid limited attention to the antecedents of individual-level absorptive capacity. In this paper, we address this research gap. We build on the interactionist perspective and propose that individual-level absorptive capacity is shaped by the joint effects of individual employees' dispo-sitions (i.e., need for cognition and proactive personality) and their work context (i.e., time pressure and autonomy). Significantly, we also recognize the multidimensional nature of absorptive capacity, which suggests that individuals need different capabilities to learn and utilize new knowledge in their organizations. We test our predictions using a unique dataset from 646 employees working on knowledge-intensive tasks. Our results show that the joint effects of dispositional and contextual antecedents are not uniform across different dimensions of individual-level absorptive capacity.
... Consequently, although the focal brand is less threatened by competition in a specific market segment, it can be threatened in others. Prior studies on structural holes have shown that nodes can gain advantages through brokerage opportunities created by the lack of ties among nodes [77,88]. Other studies, however, show that nodes can benefit from a confidential relationship with others, and the degree of such confidentiality is often measured by centrality indexes. ...
... Simultaneously, effective resource integration enables the incorporation of customers' ideas and suggestions into the output, leading to greater psychological satisfaction and pleasure [73], thus improving tourists' emotional value. Conversely, if service personnel cannot obtain and integrate resources properly, they may fail in effectively addressing tourists' issues, resulting in the wastage of customer resources [74] and a decrease in value perception [75]. The following hypothesis is proposed: ...
Sustainability has emerged as a critical concern in the tourism industry. In sustainable tourism, the question of how to engage tourists in value co-creation has started to receive attention. Based on service-dominant logic, this paper develops an integrated model to reveal the impact of tourist operant resources on online citizenship behavior from the perspective of interactions between tourists and online travel agencies (OTAs). Empirical research is conducted using data collected from 301 tourists with customized sustainable tourism experiences. The results show that tourist operant resources are positively associated with online citizenship behavior, with the perceived value (functional value and emotional value) playing a partially mediating role in this relationship. Knowledge distance between tourists and OTA service personnel exerts an inverted U-shaped moderating effect on the relationship between tourist operant resources and functional values, but it does not have a moderating effect on the relationship between tourist operant resources and emotional values. Resource integration capability positively moderates the impact of tourist operant resources on functional and emotional values. This study reveals the contingency role of tourist operant resources in the entire value co-creation process in the context of sustainable tourism and provides practical guidance for OTAs to promote tourists’ online citizenship behavior to develop sustainable tourism.
... Prior studies have investigated the relationship between knowledge absorptive capacity and innovation performance (e.g. Kostopoulos et al., 2011;Tortoriello, 2015). For instance, Drejer (1997) proposed that absorptive capacity can stimulate technical innovation. ...
Purpose
The advantages of applying big data analytics for organizations to boost innovation performance are enormous. By collecting and analysing substantial amounts of data, firms can discern what works for their customer needs and update existing products while innovating new ones. Notwithstanding the evidence about the effects of big data analytics, the link between big data analytics and innovation performance is still underestimated. Especially in today's fast-changing and complicated environments, companies cannot simply take big data analytics as one innovative technical tool without fully understanding how to deploy it effectively.
Design/methodology/approach
This study tries to investigate this relationship by building on the knowledge absorptive capacity perspective. The authors conceptualized effective use of big data analytics tools as one general absorptive capacity rather than a simple technical element or skill. Specifically, effectively utilize big data analytics tools can provide values and insights for new product innovation performance in a turbulent environment. Using online survey data from 108 managers, the authors assessed their hypotheses by applying the structural equation modelling method.
Findings
The authors found that big data analytics capacity, which can be conceptualized as one absorptive capacity, can positively influence product innovation performance. The authors also found that environmental turbulence has strong moderation effects on these two main relationships.
Originality/value
These results establish big data analytics can be regarded as one absorptive capacity, which can positively boost an organization's innovation performance.
... Cohesion. Scholars of innovation often consider how a firm interacts with different types of externals (Laursen & Salter, 2006) and how people within an organization differ in their propensity to integrate those ideas depending on how connected they are inside the organization (Tortoriello, 2015). We focus on the degree to which externals outside the organization are connected (e.g., through social interactions in the form of commenting on and refining each other's work, see Faraj & Johnson, 2011). ...
... Knowledge transfer is conducive to enterprises for accumulating knowledge and expanding the platform for knowledge exchange, as well as significantly affecting the development of process technology and technological innovation. Knowledge transfer activities between enterprises within an organization promote the progress of enterprises and organizations (Guo et al., 2007), thereby enabling enterprises to gain a significant amount of scientific knowledge and industry knowledge; therefore, the knowledge stock of enterprises and alliances will increases (Tortoriello, 2015), thereby promoting the innovation performance of enterprises. In short, it enables personnel within an organization to quickly grasp the knowledge relevant to the standard and ensures the effectiveness of the benefits of standard implementations, thereby guaranteeing knowledge innovation. ...
As technical standards are increasingly driving the market development, the competition among enterprises is shifting from the traditional product competition to the technical standard competition. The technology standard alliance is an important organizational form for enterprises to participate in the competition of technology standards. In fact, the process of developing and implementing standards is a process of knowledge collaboration. Does knowledge collaboration in the technology standard alliance have an impact on the benefits of standard implementation? What is the impact mechanism? Based on the comprehensive process of knowledge evolution, this study constructs a theoretical model of knowledge collaboration impacting on benefits of standard implementation and introduces strategic flexibility as the intermediary variable to explore the mechanism inside. As for methodology, 203 valid questionnaires filled by 124 enterprises are collected to acquire primary data, and then SPSS 21.0 and SmartPLS 3.0 are applied to build a PLS structural equation model to verify the path relationship between the variables. The results show that the absorption, integration, application, and innovation of enterprise knowledge have a direct impact on the benefits of standard implementation and verify the mediating effect of strategic flexibility in some certain phases of knowledge collaboration. In order to improve the benefits of standard implementation, enterprises should strengthen knowledge collaboration and accelerate the dissemination and diffusion of knowledge, and the government should optimize the governance of market-led standardization organizations and deepen standardization reform.
... Also, the study of Müller et al. (2020) reveals a positive and significant influence of acquisition and assimilation of external knowledge on exploratory and exploitative innovation strategy; and a positive and significant effect of transformation and exploitation of external knowledge on exploratory and exploitative innovation strategy of industry enterprises in Germany. Xie et al. (2018) in their study of high-tech companies in China realized positive relationships between the four dimensions of Absorptive Capabilities (acquisition, assimilation, transformation, and exploitation) and firms' innovation performance, which agrees with the study of Kostopoulos et al. (2011), Sciascia et al. (2014, and Tortoriello (2015). Therefore, based on the Absorptive Capability theory that posits that when organizations identify, acquire, and assimilate information or knowledge from the environment (internal or external), for transformation and exploitation, it brings about innovation and achievement of organizational goals (which leads to sustainability of the organization), and also considering the conceptual and empirical review, this study puts forth the following hypotheses; ...
Purpose – Drawing from the Absorptive Capabilities theory, this paper examines the role played by dimensions of absorptive capabilities (i.e., knowledge acquisition, knowledge assimilation, knowledge transformation, and knowledge exploitation) on the economic sustainability of SMEs in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a cross-sectional research design to collect quantitative data from 343 owners/managers of SMEs in Plateau State. Structural equation modeling through the use of the Analysis of Moments of Structures (AMOS) software, version 23 was employed to test the hypotheses. Findings – Research results indicate that all the dimensions of absorptive capabilities exert significant influence on the economic sustainability of SMEs. Thus the dimensions of absorptive capabilities serve as the antecedents of the economic sustainability of SMEs could be realized. Limitations- The focus of this study is on SMEs in Plateau State alone. The use of a cross-sectional design may also undermine the results of the study. Implications – This work adds to existing research on the subject of sustainability by revealing that dimensions of absorptive capabilities are necessary for the attainment of economic sustainability. Originality – Based on current literature, studies on the dimensions of absorptive capabilities as predictor variables are limited. No study has been conducted on the influence of absorptive capabilities using four dimensions, on the economic sustainability of SMEs. Thus it is a pioneering study in terms of both content and context.
The complex market environment places unprecedented pressure on business decision-making processes. Effectively utilizing existing social resources to establish risk prevention mechanisms and accurately assess an enterprise’s risk-taking capacity has become a core issue for corporate survival and development. This paper examines 1810 listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares markets from 2010 to 2022, constructing comprehensive social networks based on multiple corporate governance entities. It investigates the influence and transmission mechanisms of corporate social networks on risk-taking levels. The results reveal that (1) enhanced corporate social network centrality, structural holes, and connectivity significantly and positively affect corporate risk-taking levels; (2) information transparency and corporate governance quality serve as important mediating mechanisms through which social networks influence corporate risk-taking; (3) significant heterogeneity exists regarding executives’ backgrounds and industry attributes—specifically, in firms with executives possessing financial backgrounds and in high-tech industry enterprises, network characteristics play a more pronounced role in promoting risk-taking. This research not only enriches the literature on factors influencing enterprise risk-taking but also provides theoretical foundations and practical insights for improving corporate risk management capabilities through optimized social network structures.
Social capital—the resources and goodwill of network contacts—can be activated to enhance employees’ performance, leadership effectiveness, careers, and overall organizational functioning. Despite years of research highlighting the role of networks in addressing business challenges, organizational solutions still overwhelmingly focus on enhancing individual knowledge and skills or changing formal organizational structures and processes. Shifts in the business environment make adding a social capital lens to the historical human capital lens no longer just “nice to do,” but an imperative. Employees and organizations will benefit from carefully considering network connections and intentional efforts to foster their development and use. By prioritizing intentional connections, organizations can create a virtuous cycle of opportunities and prevent a vicious cycle of overwhelm. This book guides practitioners in revealing novel insights using network analysis and creating impact by developing and leveraging organizational networks. The opening section provides readers with a strong foundation in network science. The remainder of the book includes review chapters and case studies in strategic application areas. Review chapters provide readers with a strong scientific grounding explaining why networks are important for each application area and the likely implications of revealing, developing, and leveraging networks. Cases provide inspiration and opportunities to learn from real-life experiences. Case authors share challenges faced, actions taken, and lessons learned from applying network science within organizations. This book aims to provide clearer links between the insights, actions, and outcomes practitioners can expect when revealing, developing, and leveraging organizational networks, demonstrating the powerful perspective that a social capital lens adds.
The purpose of this research is to study the potential and realized absorptive capacity for creating the innovation of new firms in the agricultural sector. At present, the policy of Thai government has driven all business sectors towards innovation, particularly the policy to promote innovation for the agricultural new firms. This research uses survey data received from 188 new firms and in-depth interviews data from 4 new agricultural firms. Hierarchical regression is employed to test the hypotheses. The findings show that potential absorptive capacity plays a critical role for enhancing innovation to agricultural new firms. However, the new firms are still lack of the prior-related knowledge and experience for applying their existing knowledge with external knowledge to create new innovation. Hence, to enhance the innovation of agricultural new firms, the owners and the government should focus on building networks with external knowledge sources and on accumulating the firms’ prior-related knowledge to be sufficient for future innovation.
This study takes a network approach to investigate coordination among knowledge workers as grounded in both formal and informal organization. We first derive hypotheses regarding patterns of knowledge‐sharing relationships by which workers pass on and exchange tacit and codified knowledge within and across organizational hierarchies to address the challenges that underpin contemporary knowledge work. We use survey data and apply exponential random graph models to test our hypotheses. We then extend the quantitative network analysis with insights from qualitative interviews and demonstrate that the identified knowledge‐sharing patterns are the micro‐foundational traces of collective coordination resulting from two underlying coordination mechanisms which we label ‘invisible iterations’ and ‘bringing in the big guns’. These mechanisms and, by extension, the associated knowledge‐sharing patterns enable knowledge workers to perform in a setting that is characterized by complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity. Our research contributes to theory on the interplay between formal and informal organization for coordination by showing how self‐directed, informal action is supported by the formal organizational hierarchy. In doing so, it also extends understanding of the role that hierarchy plays for knowledge‐intensive work. Finally, it establishes the collective need to coordinate work as a previously overlooked driver of knowledge network relationships and network patterns.
This study examines the influence of managerial network communities (MNCs) on corporate collaborative innovation. Based on the sample of Chinese A-share listed firms, we demonstrate that embedding in dense MNCs benefits corporate collaborative innovation. This is associated with the information and knowledge exchange and trust establishment. Moreover, firms with managers occupying a position more at the core of MNCs benefit more than firms with peripheral members. In regions with high intellectual property rights protection, firms are more inclined to engage in collaborative innovation through MNCs. Mechanism tests show that cross-regional collaborative innovations benefit more from MNCs, and MNCs’ positive effect on collaborative innovation is more outspoken in regions characterized by low social trust. Our findings enrich the understanding of the managers’ social network from the meso-level network community perspective and provide managerial guidelines for more fully releasing MNCs’ positive role in facilitating corporate collaborative innovation.
Structures involve a patterned regularity of interactions and frameworks that guide what individuals work on, with whom, and who influences those decisions. A deeper understanding of structures that exist within organizations has begun to emerge and illuminate new forms of structures (over 100 of them) that drive behavior in organizations. In this scoping review, we organize the fragmented insights on structure within organizations into a unifying framework that provides a coherent foundation for the domain by identifying nine topic domains and offering a summary of each (i.e., authority structures, cognitive structures, communication structures, coordination structures, leadership structures, motivational structures, social structures, task structures, and temporal structures). Next, as multiple structures co-occur within organizations, we explore the connections across topic domains, including their combinations. Understanding the separate topic domains and their combinations enables researchers and practitioners to understand why employee behaviors are inconsistent with the behaviors endorsed by a particular structure and better navigate the inherent complexity of structures within organizations. Finally, we outline implications for future work featuring structure combinations as well as emergent areas from the topic domains, such as the potential for change. Given the ubiquity of structures in organizations and their links with a variety of theoretical domains, this article’s implications have the potential to benefit a wide range of scholars and managers.
Biopharmaceutical companies today view R&D innovation as crucial for gaining a competitive edge. Consequently, achieving radical innovation in biotechnology has become a major concern. While researchers have identified various drivers of radical innovation within firms, they often overlook the significant role that heterogeneous resources in network alliances play. This study addresses this gap by examining industry association embeddedness through the lens of social networking. Focusing on China's listed pharmaceutical manufacturing companies from Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets between 2007 and 2021, we find a positive relationship between industry-association embeddedness and radical innovation. Our findings indicate that this positive effect is significantly enhanced by firms' absorptive capacity. Moreover, increased digital investment further strengthens the effect of absorptive capacity on the relationship between industry-association embeddedness and radical innovation. This study offers theoretical insights into the role of intermediary bodies, such as industry associations, in fostering radical innovation. It also provides valuable lessons for biopharmaceutical companies in transitioning economies seeking to explore innovative pathways.
Collaboration networks are widely recognized as essential channels for accessing innovation resources and facilitating creative activities by enabling the exchange of knowledge and information. However, there is little known about whether and how the similarities and dissimilarities between actors forming ties in a collaboration network can either stimulate or inhibit firms’ breakthrough innovation. This study explores the relationship between degree assortativity in collaboration networks and breakthrough innovation performance, considering the moderating role of knowledge network characteristics. Using a sample of 80,129 semiconductor patents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office database spanning the years 1975 to 2007, we constructed both the internal collaboration network and the knowledge network of firms. To test our hypotheses, we employed a negative binomial regression model. Our findings demonstrate that firms with lower degree assortativity in their collaboration networks tend to exhibit higher levels of breakthrough innovation performance compared to those with higher degree assortativity. Moreover, the number of direct ties in the knowledge network strengthens the negative relationship between collaboration network degree assortativity and breakthrough innovation. Conversely, the number of non-redundant ties in the knowledge network mitigates the negative relationship between collaboration network degree assortativity and breakthrough innovation. This study provides practical guidance for firms aiming to enhance their innovation capabilities by simultaneously developing internal collaboration networks and knowledge networks.
Research Summary
This study investigates how people connecting with brokers who span structural holes in a firm's communication networks can enhance their innovative performance. Through sociometric data from a large software company, we observe that individuals who pay attention to information from brokers achieve higher innovative performance compared with those who ignore such information. The advantage of paying attention to brokers' information is more pronounced when people operate in highly constrained networks. Yet, our post hoc analysis reveals that people typically allocate less attention to information from brokers than from local colleagues—they systematically do the opposite of what they should do for innovative performance. Our findings regarding the role of attention for secondhand brokerage make significant contributions to studies of networks and innovation for behavioral strategy.
Managerial Summary
This study investigates how innovation is influenced by paying attention to brokers within a company. Brokers are individuals who bridge different groups, providing access to varied information. Analysis of internal data from a large software company reveals that employees who heed the ideas of brokers tend to be more innovative, especially in close‐knit networks. However, there is a notable tendency for people to ignore brokers, favoring information from familiar colleagues instead. This indicates a significant attention bias, where the potentially most valuable sources for innovation are often unattended. Our research highlights the critical need for a strategic approach to distributing attention within company networks, which can significantly boost innovative performance.
The presence of structure heterogeneity in regional innovation networks reflects the complexity and diversity of knowledge diffusion and collaborative R& D relationships. This article introduces a network model based on the multiple systems generating functions mathematical algorithm to analyze the resilience of interacting networks under different link patterns. The percolation threshold is illustrated at two different levels: the subcritical and supercritical states. The algorithm is then tested on both simulated networks and real-world networks. The results of the simulation study highlight the crucial role of linking between sub-networks and emphasize the effectiveness of a moderate degree protection strategy.
While the positive influence of external knowledge on firm innovation is widely recognized, our understanding of the interplay between the quest for external knowledge and internally conducted research and development (R&D) remains incomplete. Previous research has identified certain conditions that shape the synergy between internal and external knowledge, such as the institutional origin of the external knowledge and the overall scale of the firm's internal R&D activities. In this study, we focus on an important but not yet considered dimension and analyze whether the returns from external knowledge sourcing are contingent upon a firm's internal involvement in basic or applied research as opposed to development . We argue that engaging in research, while supporting a firm's absorptive capacity, leads overall to lower benefits from seeking external knowledge because of knowledge crowding out and spillover effects. We test our predictions using a representative panel dataset from Spain (Panel de Innovación Tecnológica [PITEC]) and show that the benefits of external knowledge decrease for higher shares of internal research investment. This substitution effect is particularly pronounced in settings where sector‐level appropriability is limited and in nonhigh‐tech sectors. We contribute to the innovation literature by underscoring the important role of the nature of internal R&D efforts in shaping firms' capacity to benefit from external knowledge sources.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the notion of thin crossing points from a social network perspective and to outline the concrete networking strategies that enable salespeople to foster mutually valuable resource exchange (i.e. to thin crossing points) across a selling ecosystem.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors integrate extant theoretical perspectives to advance a conceptual framework of sales-related networking across three key actors in a selling ecosystem: intraorganizational selling actors and actors in customers and external partner organizations.
Findings
Thin crossing points are defined as figurative transaction points at the boundary between organizations or organizational subunits at which actors engage in mutually valuable resource exchange in the process of value cocreation. To thin crossing points with key ecosystem actors, salespeople must adapt networking strategies considering the time and trust constraints inherent in a network relationship. Such constraints inform the most advantageous network centralities (degree, eigenvector and betweenness) and actions to impact key network properties (tie strength, contact diversity) that enable salespeople to efficiently develop social capital and thus to optimally thin crossing points across a selling ecosystem.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first social network-based exploration of salespeople’s role in thinning crossing points with key ecosystem actors. It advances a novel conceptual framework of sales-related networking strategies that foster social capital development and optimally thin crossing points across a selling ecosystem.
Collective creativity and innovation are key determinants of various important outcomes ranging from competitiveness of an organization to GDP growth of a country. As a result, this topic has attracted widespread scholarly interest from different disciplines, including strategic management, entrepreneurship, production and operations management, information systems, marketing, organizational behavior, sociology, economics, and psychology. However, this research remained isolated within disciplinary boundaries, which presents a major barrier for knowledge accumulation and cross-disciplinary learning. In this review, building on a new taxonomy of collectivity, we develop an integrative framework that organizes and synthesizes the fragmented research on the topic. The framework shows how antecedents related to the cognitive, social, and organizational architecture of a collective impact innovation depending on the collectivity type: attention-based, divergence-based, and convergence-based collectives. As a whole, our framework builds an integrative understanding of drivers of collective creativity and innovation and sets the stage for further theory development by facilitating communication across different disciplines. We conclude our review with an agenda for future research.
Despite the importance of institutions in the cluster literature, scholarship has struggled with its conceptualization of institutions, resulting in an incomplete portrait of diverse phenomena. In response, we crystallize a hybrid stream of institutionalism that has emerged in the economic geography literature and propose the construct of institutional interactions to provide structural and relational insight into cluster‐wide resistance to innovation. By pairing network analysis with a genealogical study of the Montreal translation cluster, we isolate the impact of institutional interactions and find preliminary support for the redundancies created by institutional brokers and institutional network characteristics. We demonstrate how to use the construct of institutional interactions to diagnose constraints to innovation in an institutional environment.
What happens to old competences in organizations when new competences are acquired? In this paper, we propose a competence attrition theory to explain the effects of acquiring new competences on previously acquired ones. While the presumed positive role of available competences for the acquisition of new competences has been the subject of extensive research, the potentially negative effect of the acquisition of external competences on the availability and use of existing competences has not been sufficiently theorized. We aim to do so by extending existing learning and absorptive capacity theories with insights from linguistics on competence attrition. Specifically, informed by parallel patterns in language acquisition and attrition, we develop a set of focused propositions on competence acquisition and attrition in organizations. We end the paper by discussing the implications of our theorizing for existing theory and research.
Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm's ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizations. We reconceptualize the Jinn-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level construct, relative absorptive capacity. One firm's ability to learn from another firm is argued to depend on the similarity of both firms' (1) knowledge bases, (2) organizational structures and compensation policies, and (3) dominant logics. We then test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical-biotechnology RED alliances. As predicted, the similarity of the partners' basic knowledge, lower management formalization, research centralization, compensation practices, and research communities were positively related to interorganizational learning. The relative absorptive capacity measures are also shown to have greater explanatory power than the established measure of absorptive capacity, R&D spending. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Explanations of productivity differences between men and women in science tend to focus on the academic sector and the individual level. This article examines how variation in organizational logic affects sex differences in scientists' commercial productivity, as measured by patenting. Using detailed data from a sample of academic and industrial life scientists working in the United States, the authors present multivariate regression models of scientific patenting. The data show that controlling for education- and career-history variables, women are less likely to patent than men. However, in biotechnology firms—industrial settings characterized by flatter, more flexible, network-based organizational structures— women scientists are more likely to become patent-holding inventors than in more hierarchically arranged organizational settings in industry or academia. The authors discuss how the organization of scientists'work settings may influence enduring disparities between men and women in science and the implications of these findings for future work.
This paper presents a model of innovation, knowledge brokering, that explains how some organizations are able to routinely innovate by recombining their past knowledge in new ways. While existing theories of organizational learning and innovation are useful, the links between them are crucial for understanding how existing knowledge becomes the raw materials from which individuals in organizations construct innovative solutions. This model develops these links by grounding processes of learning and innovation in the larger social context within which they occur. Using a microsociological perspective, this article draws together research spanning levels of analysis to explain innovation as the dissembling and reassembling of extant ideas, artifacts, and people. Previous research has suggested that firms spanning multiple domains may innovate by moving ideas from where they are known to where they are not, in the process creating new combinations of existing ideas. This paper more fully develops this process by linking the cognitive, social, and structural activities it comprises. Knowledge brokering involves exploiting the preconditions for innovation that reside within the larger social structure by bridging multiple domains, learning about the resources within those domains, linking that knowledge to new situations, and finally building new networks around the innovations that emerge from the process. This article also considers the origins of knowledge brokers as firms committed to this innovation strategy, the structural and cultural supports for the knowledge brokering process, and several obstacles to the process that these firms experience. Finally, I discuss the implications of this model for further research on innovation and learning, and the implications for other organizations seeking to establish their own capabilities for brokering knowledge.
A critical factor in industrial competitiveness is the ability of firms to exploit new technological developments. We term this ability a firm's absorptive capacity and argue that such a capability not only enables a firm to exploit new extramural knowledge, but to predict more accurately the nature of future technological advances. We develop a stylized model in which we focus exclusively on firms' decisions to invest in their absorptive capacities. We first examine a monopolist's investment decision, analyzing the path dependence of its investment and the effect of uncertainty. We then consider the effect of competition by modeling the impact of entry on an incumbent's investment behavior. Implications for management and public policy are then discussed.
This paper examines interfirm knowledge transfers within strategic alliances. Using a new measure of changes in alliance partners' technological capabilities, based on the citation patterns of their patent portfolios, we analyze changes in the extent to which partner firms' technological resources ‘overlap’ as a result of alliance participation. This measure allows us to test hypotheses from the literature on interfirm knowledge transfer in alliances, with interesting results: we find support for some elements of this ‘received wisdom’—equity arrangements promote greater knowledge transfer, and ‘absorptive capacity’ helps explain the extent of technological capability transfer, at least in some alliances. But the results also suggest limits to the ‘capabilities acquisition’ view of strategic alliances. Consistent with the argument that alliance activity can promote increased specialization, we find that the capabilities of partner firms become more divergent in a substantial subset of alliances.
The field of strategic management is predicated fundamentally on the idea that managements' decisions are endogenous to their expected performance implications. Yet, based on a review of more than a decade of empirical research in the Strategic Management Journal, we find that few papers econometrically correct for such endogeneity. In response, we now describe the endogeneity problem for cross-sectional and panel data, referring specifically to management's choice among discrete strategies with continuous performance outcomes. We then present readily implementable econometric methods to correct for endogeneity and, when feasible, provide STATA code to ease implementation. We also discuss extensions and nuances of these models that are sometimes difficult to decipher in more standard treatments. These extensions are not typically discussed in the strategy literature, but they are, in fact, highly pertinent to empirical strategic management research.
In this article, we study the conditions under which having ties that span organizational boundaries (bridging ties) are conducive to the generation of innovations. Whereas previous research has shown that bridging ties have a positive impact on innovative performance, our analysis of 276 R&D scientists and engineers reveals that there are no advantages associated with bridging per se. In contrast, our findings suggest that the advantages traditionally associated with bridging ties are contingent upon the nature of the ties forming the bridge—specifically, whether these bridging ties are Simmelian. Funding for this research was provided by the Ewing
We conduct a detailed analysis of 289 absorptive capacity papers from 14 journals to assess how the construct has been utilized, examine the key papers in the field, and identify the substantive contributions to the broader literature using a thematic analysis. We argue that research in this area is fundamentally driven by five critical assumptions that we conclude have led to its reification and that this reification has led to stifling of research in this area. To address this, we propose a model of absorptive capacity processes, antecedents, and outcomes.
This paper proposes and tests a model of IJV learning and performance that segments absorptive capacity into the three components originally proposed by Cohen and Levinthal (1990). First, trust between an IJV's parents and the IJV's relative absorptive capacity with its foreign parent are suggested to influence its ability to understand new knowledge held by foreign parents. Second, an IJV's learning structures and processes are proposed to influence its ability to assimilate new knowledge from those parents. Third, the IJV's strategy and training competence are suggested to shape its ability to apply the assimilated knowledge. Revisiting the Hungarian IJVs studied by Lyles and Salk (1996) 3 years later, we find support for the knowledge understanding and application predictions, and partial support for the knowledge assimilation prediction. Unexpectedly, our results suggest that trust and management support from foreign parents are associated with IJV performance but not learning. Our model and results offer a new perspective on IJV learning and performance as well as initial insights into how those relationships change over time. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A central part of the innovation process concerns the way firms go about organizing search for new ideas that have commercial potential. New models of innovation have suggested that many innovative firms have changed the way they search for new ideas, adopting open search strategies that involve the use of a wide range of external actors and sources to help them achieve and sustain innovation. Using a large-scale sample of industrial firms, this paper links search strategy to innovative performance, finding that searching widely and deeply is curvilinearly (taking an inverted U-shape) related to performance. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The purpose of this Perspective Paper is to advance understanding of absorptive capacity, its underlying dimensions, its multi-level antecedents, its impact on firm performance and the contextual factors that affect absorptive capacity. Nineteen years after the Cohen and Levinthal 1990 paper, the field is characterized by a wide array of theoretical perspectives and a wealth of empirical evidence. In this paper, we first review these underlying theories and empirical studies of absorptive capacity. Given the size and diversity of the absorptive capacity literature, we subsequently map the existing terrain of research through a bibliometric analysis. The resulting bibliometric cartography shows the major discrepancies in the organization field, namely that (1) most attention so far has been focused on the tangible outcomes of absorptive capacity; (2) organizational design and individual level antecedents have been relatively neglected in the absorptive capacity literature; and (3) the emergence of absorptive ccapacity from the actions and interactions of individual, organizational and inter-organizational antecedents remains unclear. Building on the bibliometric analysis, we develop an integrative model that identifies the multi-level antecedents, process dimensions, and outcomes of absorptive capacity as well as the contextual factors that affect absorptive capacity. We argue that realizing the potential of the absorptive capacity concept requires more research that shows how “micro antecedents” and “macroantecedents” influence future outcomes such as competitive advantage, innovation, and firm performance. In particular, we identify conceptual gaps that may guide future research to fully exploit the absorptive capacity concept in the organization field and to explore future fruitful extensions of the concept.
In this paper, we argue that the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends is critical to its innovative capabilities. We label this capability a firm's absorptive capacity and suggest that it is largely a function of the firm's level of prior related knowledge. The discussion focuses first on the cognitive basis for an individual's absorptive capacity including, in particular, prior related knowledge and diversity of background. We then characterize the factors that influence absorptive capacity at the organizational level, how an organization's absorptive capacity differs from that of its individual members, and the role of diversity of expertise within an organization. We argue that the development of absorptive capacity, and, in turn, innovative performance are history- or path-dependent and argue how lack of investment in an area of expertise early on may foreclose the future development of a technical capability in that area. We formulate a model of firm investment in research and development (R&D), in which R&D contributes to a firm's absorptive capacity, and test predictions relating a firm's investment in R&D to the knowledge underlying technical change within an industry. Discussion focuses on the implications of absorptive capacity for the analysis of other related innovative activities, including basic research, the adoption and diffusion of innovations, and decisions to participate in cooperative R&D ventures.
Research indicates that certain boundary spanning individuals, labelled gatekeepers, can be an important linking mechanism between organizations and their external environments. This study investigates the role of gatekeepers in the transfer of information in a single R&D setting by comparing directly the performance of project groups with and without gatekeepers. Results indicate that gatekeepers perform a linking role only for projects performing tasks that are locally oriented, while universally oriented tasks were most effectively linked to external areas by direct project member communication. Evidence also suggests that gatekeepers do more than mediate external information; they appear to facilitate the external communication of their more local project colleagues. Direct contact and contact mediated by gatekeepers, then, are two contrasting ways to link project groups with their external areas. The relative effectiveness of these linking mechanisms is contingent on the nature of the project's work.
The authors assume that firms invest in R&D not only to generate innovations, but also to learn from competitors and extraindustry knowledge sources (e.g., university and government labs). This argument suggests that the ease of learning within an industry will both affect R&D spending, and condition the influence of appropriability and technological opportunity conditions on R&D. For example, they show that, contrary to the traditional result, intraindustry spillovers may encourage equilibrium industry R&D investment. Regression results confirm that the impact of appropriability and technological opportunity conditions on R&D is influenced by the ease and character of learning. Copyright 1989 by Royal Economic Society.
Investigating the implications of sharing different types of knowledge for task performance in a study of 164 sales teams in a management consulting company, we find that the benefits are complementary but distinct: while sharing of codified knowledge improves task efficiency, sharing of personalized knowledge improves task quality and signals competence to clients.
This article argues that individual performance in knowledge intensive work is impacted by both relational and structural network characteristics. Egocentric and bounded network data from 101 engineers within a petrochemical company and 125 consultants within a strategy-consulting firm support the contention that both relational and structural network characteristics matter for individual performance in knowledge intensive work. Implications for a relational view of social capital as well as the integration of information processing and social network literatures are discussed. It is found that characteristics of relationships in networks are correlates of performance in models that control for structure. In this sense, not all relationships are equal--who one is connected to can matter for performance beyond a given relationship's contribution to network structure. Second, it is found that position in both information and awareness networks are uniquely predictive of individual performance. While position in an information network might allow one to learn of opportunities early, position in an awareness network might allow one to take action on opportunities by leveraging others' expertise.
This study investigates the role of certain boundary spanning individuals, labelled gatekeepers, in the transfer of information in an R&D setting by comparing the performance of project groups with and without gatekeepers. Results indicate that gatekeepers perform a linking role only for projects performing tasks that are locally oriented while universally oriented tasks were most effectively linked to external areas by direct project member communication. Evidence also suggests that gatekeepers do more than mediate external information; they may facilitate the external communication of their more local project colleagues.
Internationalizing research and development is often advocated as a strategy for fostering the development of technological capabilities. Although firms conduct international R&D to tap into knowledge bases that reside in foreign countries, we argue that in order to benefit from international R&D investments firms must already possess research capabilities in underlying or complementary technologies. We examine the international R&D expansion activities, research capabilities, and patent output of 65 Japanese pharmaceutical firms from 1980 to 1991. We find that firms benefit from international R&D only when they possess existing research capabilities in the underlying technologies. In addition to refining our understanding of when international R&D enhances firm innovation, our results integrate asset-seeking and asset-based theories of foreign direct investment. Internationalizing R&D to tap into foreign knowledge bases is consistent with asset-seeking theories of foreign direct investment, while the contingent nature by which firms benefit from international R&D is consistent with asset-based theories of foreign direct investment and the notion of absorptive capacity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prior research has emphasized the importance of boundary spanners in facilitating the transfer of knowledge between organizational units. The successful transfer of knowledge between organizational units is critical for a number of organizational processes and performance outcomes. The empirical evidence on the success of boundary spanners is mixed, however. Research findings indicate boundary spanners can either facilitate or inhibit the flow of knowledge between organizational units. We develop and test a theoretical argument emphasizing the importance of the broader network context in which boundary spanning occurs. In particular, we consider how tie strength, network cohesion, and network range affect the level of knowledge acquired in cross-unit knowledge transfer relationships. An analysis of knowledge transfer relationships among several hundred scientists indicates that each network feature had a positive effect on the level of knowledge acquired in cross-unit knowledge transfer relationships. Our findings illustrate how network features contribute to the flow of knowledge between organizational units and, therefore, how network context contributes to heterogeneity in boundary-spanning outcomes.
Technical communication patterns in two research and development laboratories were examined using modified sociometric techniques. The structure of technical communication networks in the two laboratories results from the interaction of both social relations and work structure. The sociometric "stars" in the technical communication network who provide other members of the organization with information either make greater use of individuals outside the organization or read the literature more than other members of the laboratory.
The research described in this article focuses on one important aspect of the innovation process - the need for the innovating system to gather information from and transmit information to several external information areas. Special boundary roles evolve in the organization's communication network to fulfill the essential function of linking the organization's internal network to external sources of information. These boundary roles occur at several organizational boundaries, and their distribution within the organization is contingent on the nature of the organization's work. This research supports literature on boundary spanning in general and highlights the importance of boundary roles in the process of innovation.
Data on social networks may be gathered for all ties linking elements of a closed population (“complete” network data) or for the sets of ties surrounding sampled individual units (“egocentric” network data). Network data have been obtained via surveys and questionnaires, archives, observation, diaries, electronic traces, and experiments. Most methodological research on data quality concerns surveys and questionnaires. The question of the accuracy with which informants can provide data on their network ties is nontrivial, but survey methods can make some claim to reliability. Unresolved issues include whether to measure perceived social ties or actual exchanges, how to treat temporal elements in the definition of relationships, and whether to seek accurate descriptions or reliable indicators. Continued research on data quality is needed; beyond improved samples and further investigation of the informant accuracy/reliability issue, this should cover common indices of network structure, address the conseque...
This field study investigates the characteristics of internal communication stars for different tasks, the characteristics of boundary spanning individuals specializing in particular information areas, and the extent to which boundary spanning individuals span multiple c cation boundaries. The characteristics of these key individuals are contingent on the nature of the subunit's work and on the information boundary they span. In addition, there is substantial boundary role overlap.
This research considers how different features of informal networks affect knowledge transfer. As a complement to previous research that has emphasized the dyadic tie strength component of informal networks, we focus on how network structure influences the knowledge transfer process. We propose that social cohesion around a relationship affects the willingness and motivation of individuals to invest time, energy, and effort in sharing knowledge with others. We further argue that the network range, ties to different knowledge pools, increases a person's ability to convey complex ideas to heterogeneous audiences. We also examine explanations for knowledge transfer based on absorptive capacity, which emphasizes the role of common knowledge, and relational embeddedness, which stresses the importance of tie strength. We investigate the network effect on knowledge transfer using data from a contract R&D firm. The results indicate that both social cohesion and network range ease knowledge transfer, over and above the effect for the strength of the tie between two people. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on effective knowledge transfer, social capital, and information diffusion.
Integrating creativity and social network theories, I explore the direct and interactive effects of relationship strength, network position, and external ties on individual creative contributions. Results from a study of research scientists suggest that weaker ties are generally beneficial for creativity, whereas stronger ties have neutral effects. I also found that centrality is more positively associated with creativity when individuals have few ties outside of their organization and that the combination of centrality and many outside ties is not optimal. I discuss the implications of these findings for creativity and social network research.
We argue that individual performance in knowledge-intensive work is associated with properties of both networks and ties. Relationships crossing organizational boundaries, physical barriers, or hierarchical levels can, like networks, provide unique information and diverse perspectives to individuals completing tasks at work. Egocentric and bounded network data from 101 engineers in a petrochemical company and 125 consultants in a strategy-consulting firm support our contention that both networks and ties are related to individual performance in knowledge-intensive work.
This article outlines the mechanism by which brokerage provides social capital. Opinion and behavior are more homogeneous within than between groups, so people connected across groups are more familiar with alternative ways of thinking and behaving. Brokerage across the structural holes between groups provides a vision of options otherwise unseen, which is the mechanism by which brokerage becomes social capital. I review evidence consistent with the hypothesis, then look at the networks around managers in a large American electronics company. The organization is rife with structural holes, and brokerage has its expected correlates. Compensation, positive performance evaluations, promotions, and good ideas are disproportionately in the hands of people whose networks span structural holes. The between-group brokers are more likely to express ideas, less likely to have ideas dismissed, and more likely to have ideas evaluated as valuable. I close with implications for creativity and structural change.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 24-27).
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Homophily in social relations results from both individual preferences and selective opportunities for interaction, but how these two mechanisms interact in large, contemporary organizations is not well understood. We argue that organizational structures and geography delimit opportunities for interaction such that actors have a greater level of discretion to choose their interaction partners within business units, job functions, offices and quasi-formal structures. This leads us to expect to find a higher proportion of homophilous interactions within these organizational structures than across their boundaries. We test our theory in an analysis of the rate of dyadic communication in an e-mail data set comprising thousands of employees in a large information technology firm. These findings have implications for research on homophily, gender relations in organizations, and formal and informal organizational structure.
Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm's ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizations. We reconceptualize the firm-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level construct, relative absorptive capacity. One firm's ability to learn from another firm is argued to depend on the similarity of both firms' (1) knowledge bases, (2) organizational structures and compensation policies, and (3) dominant logics. We then test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical–biotechnology R&D alliances. As predicted, the similarity of the partners' basic knowledge, lower management formalization, research centralization, compensation practices, and research communities were positively related to interorganizational learning. The relative absorptive capacity measures are also shown to have greater explanatory power than the established measure of absorptive capacity, R&D spending. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Multidivisional firms often fail to take advantage of innovations that involve combining resources from distinct divisions. This failure of cross-line-of-business innovation is a consequence of design choices employed to execute the firm's strategy: in organizing around its core businesses, the firm renders interdependence between divisions residual to the formal structure. As a result, those innovations which involve cross-line-of-business interdependence are trumped by the firm's articulated strategy and structure. Social structures could, potentially, fill this coordination gap. But social structures associated with the initiation of interdependent innovation are inversely associated with their execution. We build a dynamic, corporate-level, evolutionary model in which individuals autonomously initiate cross-line-of-business projects not through the formal structure of the firm, but using contacts from their own social networks. Some of these projects are selected and actively supported by senior executives; this support sends clear signals about what collaboration is valued by the firm, which gives other actors powerful, albeit informal, incentives to connect with others across the interunit boundary. As a result, the sparse interunit social structure that was conducive to initiation changes, becoming much more cohesive (at least locally) and is able to support execution and retain these interdependent innovations. Thus, where intra-divisional innovations are primarily driven by organizational structure, we suggest that interdivisional innovations are driven primarily by social networks. Copyright © 2007 Strategic Management Society.
In a recent issue of this journal, Glenn Hoetker proposes that researchers improve the interpretation and presentation of logit and probit results by reporting the marginal effects of key independent variables at theoretically interesting or empirically relevant values of the other independent variables in the model, and also by presenting results graphically (Hoetker, 2007: 335, 337). In this research note, I suggest an alternative approach for achieving this objective: reporting differences in predicted probabilities associated with discrete changes in key independent variable values. This intuitive approach to interpretation is especially useful when the theoretically interesting or empirically relevant changes in independent variables values are not very small, and also for models that contain interaction terms (or higher-order terms such as quadratics). Although the graphical presentations recommended by Hoetker implicitly embody this approach, they typically fail to include appropriate measures of statistical significance, and may therefore lead to erroneous conclusions. In order to calculate such measures, I recommend and demonstrate an intuitive simulation-based approach to statistical interpretation, developed by King et al. (2000), that has gained widespread adherence in the field of political science. Throughout the article, I provide a running example based on research that has previously appeared in the Strategic Management Journal. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Recognition of the firm's tendency toward local search has given rise to concepts celebrating exploration that overcomes this tendency. To move beyond local search requires that exploration span some boundary, be it organizational or technological. While several studies have encouraged boundary‐spanning exploration, few have considered both types of boundaries systematically. In doing so, we create a typology of exploration behaviors: local exploration spans neither boundary, external boundary‐spanning exploration spans the firm boundary only, internal boundary‐spanning exploration spans the technological boundary only, and radical exploration spans both boundaries. Using this typology, we analyze the impact of knowledge generated by these different types of exploration on subsequent technological evolution.
In our study of patenting activity in optical disk technology, we find that exploration that does not span organizational boundaries consistently generates lower impact on subsequent technological evolution. In addition, we find that the impact of exploration on subsequent technological evolution within the optical disk domain is highest when the exploration spans organizational boundaries but not technological boundaries. At the same time, we find that the impact of exploration on subsequent technological development beyond the optical disk domain is greatest when exploration spans both organizational and technological boundaries. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
We develop a differentiated productivity model of knowledge sharing in organizations proposing that different types of knowledge have different benefits for task units. In a study of 182 sales teams in a management consulting company, we find that sharing codified knowledge in the form of electronic documents saved time during the task, but did not improve work quality or signal competence to clients. In contrast, sharing personal advice improved work quality and signaled competence, but did not save time. Beyond the content of the knowledge, process costs in the form of document rework and lack of advisor effort negatively affected task outcomes. These findings dispute the claim that different types of knowledge are substitutes for each other, and provide a micro-foundation for understanding why and how a firm's knowledge capabilities translate into performance of knowledge work. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Theories of absorptive capacity propose that knowledge gained from prior experience facilitates the identification, selection, and implementation of related profitable practices. Researchers have investigated how managers may develop absorptive capacity by building internal knowledge stocks, but few have focused on the distribution of this knowledge within the firm and the role managers play in administering information to organizational subunits. In this paper, we explore the degree to which managers can develop absorptive capacity by directly providing information to agents in the organization that might potentially adopt a new practice. We find that the effectiveness of managerial information provision depends on the degree to which potential adopters have information from other sources. We find that information from previous adopters and past events reduces the effect of information provision, while experience with related practices amplifies it. Our research helps clarify when absorptive capacity may provide a sustained competitive advantage. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
In this paper we propose a new variance estimator for OLS as well as for nonlinear estimators such as logit, probit and GMM, that provcides cluster-robust inference when there is two-way or multi-way clustering that is non-nested. The variance estimator extends the standard cluster-robust variance estimator or sandwich estimator for one-way clustering (e.g. Liang and Zeger (1986), Arellano (1987)) and relies on similar relatively weak distributional assumptions. Our method is easily implemented in statistical packages, such as Stata and SAS, that already offer cluster-robust standard errors when there is one-way clustering. The method is demonstrated by a Monte Carlo analysis for a two-way random effects model; a Monte Carlo analysis of a placebo law that extends the state-year effects example of Bertrand et al. (2004) to two dimensions; and by application to two studies in the empirical public/labor literature where two-way clustering is present.
Recent research suggests that, due to organizational and relational constraints, firms are limited contextually—both geographically and technologically—in their search for new knowledge. But distant contexts may offer ideas and insights that can be extremely useful to innovation through knowledge recombination. So how can firms reach beyond their existing contexts in their search for new knowledge? In this paper, we suggest that two mechanisms—alliances and the mobility of inventors—can serve as bridges to distant contexts and, thus, enable firms to overcome the constraints of contextually localized search.
Through the analysis of patent citation patterns in the semiconductor industry, we first demonstrate both the geographic and technological localization of knowledge. We then explore if the formation of alliances and mobility of active inventors facilitate interfirm knowledge flows across contexts. We find that mobility is associated with interfirm knowledge flows regardless of geographic proximity and, in fact, the usefulness of alliances and mobility increases with technological distance. These findings suggest that firms can employ knowledge acquisition mechanisms to fill in the holes of their existing technological and geographic context.
In this paper we propose a variance estimator for the OLS estimator as well as for nonlinear estimators such as logit, probit and GMM. This variance estimator en- ables cluster-robust inference when there is two-way or multi-way clustering that is non-nested. The variance estimator extends the standard cluster-robust variance es- timator or sandwich estimator for one-way clustering (e.g. Liang and Zeger (1986), Arellano (1987)) and relies on similar relatively weak distributional assumptions. Our method is easily implemented in statistical packages, such as Stata and SAS, that already o�er cluster-robust standard errors when there is one-way clustering. The method is demonstrated by a Monte Carlo analysis for a two-way random ef- fects model; a Monte Carlo analysis of a placebo law that extends the state-year e�ects example of Bertrand et al. (2004) to two dimensions; and by application to studies in the empirical literature where two-way clustering is present.
This paper contributes with empirical findings to European co-inventorship location and geographical coincidence of co-patenting networks. Based on EPO co-patenting information for the reference period 2000-2004, we analyze the spatial con figuration of 44 technology-specific co-inventorship networks. European co-inventorship (co-patenting) activity is spatially linked to 1259 European NUTS3 units (EU25+CH+NO) and their NUTS1 regions by inventor location. We extract 7.135.117 EPO co-patenting linkages from our own relational database that makes use of the OECD RegPAT (2009) files. The matching between International Patent Classification (IPC) subclasses and 44 technology fields is based on the ISI-SPRU-OST-concordance. We con firm the hypothesis that the 44 co-inventorship networks differ in their overall size (nodes, linkages, self-loops) and that they are dominated by similar groupings of regions. The paper offers statistical evidence for the presence of highly localized European co-inventorship networks for all 44 technology fields, as the majority of linkages between NUTS3 units (counties and districts) are within the same NUTS1 regions. Accordingly, our findings helps to understand general presence of positive spatial autocorrelation in regional patent data. Our analysis explicitly accounts for different network centrality measures (betweenness, degree, eigenvector). Spearman rank correlation coefficients for all 44 technology fields confirm that most co-patenting networks co-locate in those regions that are central in several technology-specific co-patenting networks. These findings support the hypothesis that leading European regions are indeed multi- filed network nodes and that most research collaboration is taking place in dense co-patenting networks. --
This paper discusses the bias that results from using nonrandomly selected samples to estimate behavioral relationships as an ordinary specification error or "omitted variables" bias. A simple consistent two stage estimator is considered that enables analysts to utilize simple regression methods to estimate behavioral functions by least squares methods. The asymptotic distribution of the estimator is derived.