Open Access
Network Position and Firm Performance: Organizational Returns to Collaboration in the Biotechnology Industry
Walter W. Powell,Kenneth W. Koput,Laurel Smith-Doerr,Jason Owen-Smith,Steven B. Andrews,David Knoke,Charles Kadushin,Arne L. Kalleberg +7 more
TLDR
This paper examined the relationship between position in a network of relationships and organizational performance and found that there are decreasing returns to network experience and diversity, suggesting that there is limits to the learning that occurs through interorganizational networks.Abstract:
We examine the relationship between position in a network of relationships and organizational performance Drawing on ten years of observations (1988-1997) for nearly 400 firms in the human biotechnology industry, we utilize three types of panel regressions to unravel the complex linkages between network structure, patenting, and various firm-level outcome measures Our results highlight the critical role of collaboration in determining the competitive advantage of individual biotech firms and in driving the evolution of the industry We also find that there are decreasing returns to network experience and diversity, suggesting that there are limits to the learning that occurs through interorganizational networksread more
Citations
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Structural Holes and Good Ideas.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors outline the mechanism by which brokerage provides social capital, and show that between-group brokers are more likely to express ideas, less likely to have ideas dismissed, and more likely have ideas evaluated as valuable.
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The Network Structure Of Social Capital
TL;DR: A review of argument and evidence on the connection between social networks and social capital can be found in this paper, where the authors focus on the network mechanisms responsible for social capital effects rather than trying to integrate across metaphors of social capital loosely tied to distant empirical indicators.
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Open innovation in SMEs—An intermediated network model
TL;DR: In this article, the authors place the concept of open innovation in the context of SMEs, suggest the input of an intermediary in facilitating innovation, and report accounts of Korean SMEs' success in working with an intermediary.
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Absorptive capacity and the search for innovation
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the link between a firm's absorptive capacity-building activities and the search process for innovation and found that the enhanced access to university research enjoyed by firms that engage in basic research and collaborate with university scientists leads to superior search for new inventions and provides advantage in terms of both the timing and quality of search outcomes.
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A Comparison of U.S. and European University-Industry Relations in the Life Sciences
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw on diverse data sets to compare the institutional organization of upstream life science research across the United States and Europe, and demonstrate that innovative research in biomedicine has its origins in regional clusters in the U.S. and Europe.
References
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The Strength of Weak Ties
TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another, and the impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored.
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Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of social capital is introduced and illustrated, its forms are described, the social structural conditions under which it arises are examined, and it is used in an analys...
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Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors 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.
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Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness
TL;DR: In this article, the extent to which economic action is embedded in structures of social relations, in modern industrial society, is examined, and it is argued that reformist economists who attempt to bring social structure back in do so in the "oversocialized" way criticized by Dennis Wrong.
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Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology
Bruce Kogut,Udo Zander +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that what firms do better than markets is the sharing and transfer of the knowledge of individuals and groups within an organization, and that knowledge is held by individuals but is also expressed in regularities by which members cooperate in a social community (i.e., group, organization, or network).