14,082 research outputs found

    Local Nodes in Global Networks: The Geography of Knowledge Flows in Biotechnology Innovation

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    The literature on innovation and interactive learning has tended to emphasize the importance of local networks, inter-firm collaboration and knowledge flows as the principal source of technological dynamism. More recently, however, this view has come to be challenged by other perspectives that argue for the importance of non-local knowledge flows. According to this alternative approach, truly dynamic economic regions are characterized both by dense local social interaction and knowledge circulation, as well as strong inter-regional and international connections to outside knowledge sources and partners. This paper offers an empirical examination of these issues by examining the geography of knowledge flows associated with innovation in biotechnology. We begin by reviewing the growing literature on the nature and geography of innovation in biotechnology research and the commercialization process. Then, focusing on the Canadian biotech industry, we examine the determinants of innovation (measured through patenting activity), paying particular attention to internal resources and capabilities of the firm, as well as local and global flows of knowledge and capital. Our study is based on the analysis of Statistics Canada’s 1999 Survey of Biotechnology Use and Development, which covers 358 core biotechnology firms. Our findings highlight the importance of in-house technological capability and absorptive capacity as determinants of successful innovation in biotechnology firms. Furthermore, our results document the precise ways in which knowledge circulates, in both embodied and disembodied forms, both locally and globally. We also highlight the role of formal intellectual property transactions (domestic and international) in promoting knowledge flows. Although we document the importance of global networks in our findings, our results also reveal the value of local networks and specific forms of embedding. Local relational linkages are especially important when raising capital—and the expertise that comes with it—to support innovation. Nevertheless, our empirical results raise some troubling questions about the alleged pre-eminence of the local in fostering innovation

    Network Triads: Transitivity, Referral and Venture Capital Decisions in China and Russia

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    This article examines effects of dyadic ties and interpersonal trust on referrals and investment decisions of venture capitalists in the Chinese and Russian contexts. The study uses the postulate of transitivity of social network theory as a conceptual framework. The findings reveal that referee-venture capitalist tie, referee-entrepreneur tie, and interpersonal trust between referee and venture capitalist have positive effects on referrals and investment decisions of venture capitalists. The institutional, social and cultural differences between China and Russia have minimal effects on referrals. Interpersonal trust has positive effects on investment decisions in Russia.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/40138/3/wp752.pd

    Network Triads: Transitivity, Referral and Venture Capital Decisions in China and Russia

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    This article examines effects of dyadic ties and interpersonal trust on referrals and investment decisions of venture capitalists in the Chinese and Russian contexts. The study uses the postulate of transitivity of social network theory as a conceptual framework. The findings reveal that referee-venture capitalist tie, referee-entrepreneur tie, and interpersonal trust between referee and venture capitalist have positive effects on referrals and investment decisions of venture capitalists. The institutional, social and cultural differences between China and Russia have minimal effects on referrals. Interpersonal trust has positive effects on investment decisions in Russia.Transitivity, triads, referral, venture capital, China, Russi

    External technology sourcing: The effect of uncertainty on governance mode choice

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    This study examines the effect of external and relational uncertainty on the governance choice for inter-organizational technology sourcing. We develop a number of hypotheses about the impact of environmental turbulence, technological newness, technological distance and prior cooperation on the choice between different governance modes. Data about external technology sourcing transactions in the pharmaceutical industry do not provide evidence for a continuum from less to more integrated sourcing modes. However, we find that the ranking depends on the type of uncertainty, indicating that firms tackle different types of uncertainty with different governance modes.Open Innovation, Corporate Venture Capital, Mergers and Acquisitions

    Entrepreneurs' Access to Private Equity in China: The Role of Social Capital

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    Drawing on Social network theory, this article argues for enhancing effects of social capital of entrepreneurs on investment selection decisions of venture capitalists (to invest versus not to invest), and main effects of social capital on investment process decisions such as venture valuation, investment delivery speed and contractual warrants/provisions. The core idea of enhancing effects is that the presence of particularistic ties between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs will affect positively investment selection decisions of venture capitalists if only other main factors for investment making such as management team, industry, market attractiveness, proprietary technologies and products are perceived as strong by investors. The context of the study is People's Republic of China. The empirical data is composed of 158 venture capital investment decisions in Beijing and Shanghai. The main finding is that social capital is supplementary and additive to other investment determining factors such as project and team qualities at selection stage, and social capital is a main factor for investment process decisions once a venture has been selected for funding. The main theoretical implication is that social capital may affect outcome variables in interaction with other factors. The main practical implication for entrepreneurs is that social capital is probably necessary but insufficient for raising venture capital successfully.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39837/3/wp453.pd

    The Impact of Downstream Network Subgroups on Collaboration and Performance: A Survey of Buyer-Supplier Relationships in the Dutch Flower Sector

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    In this paper, we aim to identify those network subgroups that enhance the collaborative governance in a focal buyer-supplier relationship. We argue, that partners in a focal buyer-supplier relationship can be seen as embedded in a broader network of business relationships with network subgroups, (e.g. other buyers, buyers customers), which provide information that can support the collaborative governance, assessed by flexibility, joint planning and joint problem solving, by lowering the level of information asymmetry between the partners. Empirical evidence was gathered through a mailed questionnaire returned by 175 Dutch suppliers of potted plants and flowers. Our results show the importance of the information provided by the network subgroups to manage the focal buyer-supplier relationships and ultimately the impact on performance. Interestingly, although five network subgroups were mentioned in the questionnaire, suppliers only obtained reliable information for their focal relationship from the downstream subgroups of other buyers (i.e. merchant-distributors) and buyer's customers (i.e. supermarkets and flower shops). In order to avoid redundancy, managers in seeking information in their business network should not consider the network as a whole, but rather the downstream subgroups.Industrial Organization,

    Organizational paths of commercializing patented inventions: The effects of transaction costs, firm capabilities, and collaborative ties

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    This study examines the factors affecting modes of commercializing patented inventions using a novel dataset based on a survey of U.S. inventors. We find that technological uncertainty and possessing complementary assets raise the propensity for internal commercialization. We find that R&D collaboration with firms in a horizontal relationship is likely to increase the propensity to license the invention. In addition, the paper shows that macro-level environment conditions that affect exchange conditions, such as technology familiarity, influence the effects of capabilities on governance choice.transaction cost economics; knowledge-based view; collaboration ties; commercialization; innovation; patent

    The Dynamics of Interfirm Networks along the Industry Life Cycle: The Case of the Global Video Games Industry 1987-2007

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    In this paper, we study the formation of network ties between firms along the life cycle of a creative industry. We focus on three drivers of network formation: i) network endogeneity which stresses a path-dependent change originating from previous network structures, ii) five forms of proximity (e.g. geographical proximity) which ascribe tie formation to the similarity of actors' attributes; and (iii) individual characteristics which refer to the heterogeneity in actors capabilities to exploit external knowledge. The paper employs a stochastic actor-oriented model to estimate the - changing - effects of these drivers on inter-firm network formation in the global video game industry from 1987 to 2007. Our findings indicate that the effects of the drivers of network formation change with the degree of maturity of the industry. To an increasing extent, video game firms tend to partner over shorter distances and with more cognitively similar firms as the industry evolves.network dynamics, industry life cycle, proximity, creative industry, video game industry, stochastic actor-oriented model

    Impact of network relational and structural embeddedness on firm's innovation, a study at the Saudi firm's level

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    Firms are facing great challenges in the rapidly changing economy of today's world. Therefore, firms have begun searching for new means and ways to innovate in order to stay alive, compete and grow. However, many firms have yet to discover that their embedded network of relations and structures can play a crucial role in their innovation outcomes. As a result, there is growing consensus among innovation scholars that networking and inter-firm collaboration are key strategies in stimulating innovation within firms. This has resulted in a growing body of literature focused on studying the link between innovation performance and firm participation and position in networks. However, there is still disagreement and fragmented results among scholars regarding the optimum firm's network embeddedness configuration for both product and process innovation. Moreover, firms should be aware of the type of network embeddedness configurations that could constrain their innovation performance. This remains unresolved academic and practitioner challenges that require detailed investigation. Furthermore, a limited number of studies have theoretically discussed and empirically tested this research area in the context of emerging economies.This research study addresses the aforementioned challenges and aims to shed light on the relationship between firms' network embeddedness characteristics (i.e. relational embeddedness and structural embeddedness) and their innovation output (i.e. product and process innovation).;This study draws primarily on three complimentary perspectives-social capital, social network and network embeddedness-in order to shed more light on the effect that network embeddedness characteristics have on firms' product and process innovation. Furthermore, the thesis aims to both conceptually and empirically reveal the influence that network embeddedness aspects have on innovation outcomes in the context of emerging economies, with particular reference to medium and high (M&H) technology sectors in Saudi Arabia.The study draws on the significance of network embeddedness characteristics in influencing firms' innovation performance with the principle aim of unravelling key network relational and structural embeddedness characteristics at the firm's level. This research is primarily based on new empirical evidence from the primary source data of 121 firms in M&H technology sectors in Saudi Arabia, using social network analysis and logistic regression modelling to investigate the effect of various configurations of firms' network, relational and structural embeddedness characteristics on the types of innovation (i.e. product and process innovation). The results of this study indicate that firms' innovation outcomes largely depend on their various network relational and structural embeddedness configurations. As a result, in order to fully capture the impact of network embeddedness characteristics on firms' innovation outcomes, network relational and structural embeddedness characteristics should be jointly considered (i.e. the interaction effect among different network embeddedness settings).;The evidence reveals that, by analysing the combination of firms' relational and structural network embeddedness characteristics, firms can recognise the potential, associated effects in product and process innovation outputs. This is indicated by the interaction effect between network embeddedness relational aspects (i.e. strong/weak ties) and structural properties (i.e. dense/sparse network and peripheral/central position). For instance, the findings suggest that, for high-density and central network embeddedness, strong ties type of relations will have a positive impact on firms' product and process innovation. In contrast, the empirical analysis suggests that firms that are sparsely and peripherally embedded in a network will become better product and process innovators if they develop relationships with other organisations in terms of weak ties type of relations.The outcome of this research has both theoretical and practical implications. These implications are theoretical in the sense that they provide new insights into innovation networks area from the social capital, social network and network embeddedness perspectives, jointly considering firms' network relational and structural embeddedness characteristics, as well as the direct, and the interaction effect on firm's innovation outcome. Regarding managerial implications, this study highlights the primary network structural properties, specifically addressing their direct, interaction effect on firms' product and process innovation. This could guide professional managers aiming for high innovation performance to re-evaluate their firms' network embeddedness configurations. Furthermore, in light of this study's limitations, directions for future research are outlined.Firms are facing great challenges in the rapidly changing economy of today's world. Therefore, firms have begun searching for new means and ways to innovate in order to stay alive, compete and grow. However, many firms have yet to discover that their embedded network of relations and structures can play a crucial role in their innovation outcomes. As a result, there is growing consensus among innovation scholars that networking and inter-firm collaboration are key strategies in stimulating innovation within firms. This has resulted in a growing body of literature focused on studying the link between innovation performance and firm participation and position in networks. However, there is still disagreement and fragmented results among scholars regarding the optimum firm's network embeddedness configuration for both product and process innovation. Moreover, firms should be aware of the type of network embeddedness configurations that could constrain their innovation performance. This remains unresolved academic and practitioner challenges that require detailed investigation. Furthermore, a limited number of studies have theoretically discussed and empirically tested this research area in the context of emerging economies.This research study addresses the aforementioned challenges and aims to shed light on the relationship between firms' network embeddedness characteristics (i.e. relational embeddedness and structural embeddedness) and their innovation output (i.e. product and process innovation).;This study draws primarily on three complimentary perspectives-social capital, social network and network embeddedness-in order to shed more light on the effect that network embeddedness characteristics have on firms' product and process innovation. Furthermore, the thesis aims to both conceptually and empirically reveal the influence that network embeddedness aspects have on innovation outcomes in the context of emerging economies, with particular reference to medium and high (M&H) technology sectors in Saudi Arabia.The study draws on the significance of network embeddedness characteristics in influencing firms' innovation performance with the principle aim of unravelling key network relational and structural embeddedness characteristics at the firm's level. This research is primarily based on new empirical evidence from the primary source data of 121 firms in M&H technology sectors in Saudi Arabia, using social network analysis and logistic regression modelling to investigate the effect of various configurations of firms' network, relational and structural embeddedness characteristics on the types of innovation (i.e. product and process innovation). The results of this study indicate that firms' innovation outcomes largely depend on their various network relational and structural embeddedness configurations. As a result, in order to fully capture the impact of network embeddedness characteristics on firms' innovation outcomes, network relational and structural embeddedness characteristics should be jointly considered (i.e. the interaction effect among different network embeddedness settings).;The evidence reveals that, by analysing the combination of firms' relational and structural network embeddedness characteristics, firms can recognise the potential, associated effects in product and process innovation outputs. This is indicated by the interaction effect between network embeddedness relational aspects (i.e. strong/weak ties) and structural properties (i.e. dense/sparse network and peripheral/central position). For instance, the findings suggest that, for high-density and central network embeddedness, strong ties type of relations will have a positive impact on firms' product and process innovation. In contrast, the empirical analysis suggests that firms that are sparsely and peripherally embedded in a network will become better product and process innovators if they develop relationships with other organisations in terms of weak ties type of relations.The outcome of this research has both theoretical and practical implications. These implications are theoretical in the sense that they provide new insights into innovation networks area from the social capital, social network and network embeddedness perspectives, jointly considering firms' network relational and structural embeddedness characteristics, as well as the direct, and the interaction effect on firm's innovation outcome. Regarding managerial implications, this study highlights the primary network structural properties, specifically addressing their direct, interaction effect on firms' product and process innovation. This could guide professional managers aiming for high innovation performance to re-evaluate their firms' network embeddedness configurations. Furthermore, in light of this study's limitations, directions for future research are outlined
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