Exploring the Locus of Invention: The Dynamics of Network Communities and Firms’ Invention Productivity

Departing from prior research analyzing the implications of social structure for actors' outcomes by applying either an ego network or a global network perspective, this study examines the implications of network communities for the invention productivity of firms. Network communities represent dense and nonoverlapping structural groups of actors in a social system. A network community lens helps identify new ways to study firms' access to diverse knowledge inputs in a dynamic system of interorganizational relationships. Specifically, we examine how the membership dynamics of a network community affect the invention productivity of member firms by either enabling or constraining access to broad, diverse knowledge inputs. Our findings suggest, first, that a firm reaps the greatest invention benefits in a network community with moderate levels of membership turnover. Second, a firm attains the greatest invention productivity when its own rate of movement across different network communities is moderate. Third, we find that community members located in the core of their network community can benefit more from membership dynamics and prior community affiliations than those on its periphery. In empirical analyses, we use the evolving community structure of the network of interorganizational partnerships in the global computer industry over 1981–2001 to predict firms' patenting rates

Análisis del impacto de los intermediarios en los sistemas de innovación: Una propuesta desde el modelado basado en agentes

Precisar el impacto de los intermediarios es complejo, dada la dificultad de atribución de su aporte en el desempeño del sistema de innovación, especialmente cuando se hace frente a un sistema complejo adaptable conformado por agentes heterogéneos que se relacionan contingentemente y co-evolucionan en el tiempo. Estas características generan la necesidad de un análisis dinámico y longitudinal, que se ha suplido en esta tesis mediante un modelo basado en agentes; este modelo permite simular varios escenarios, en los que se realizan cambios en el actuar de los intermediarios y en las capacidades de innovación de los agentes, con el fin de comparar los comportamientos, en especial el desempeño de los agentes y del sistema de innovación. Mediante el análisis de estos resultados, se puede concluir que el impacto de los intermediarios en el desempeño del sistema de innovación depende de las capacidades de difusión y vinculación presentes en el resto de los agentes que componen el micro-mundo; dicho impacto es mayor cuando estas capacidades son escasas y menor en el caso contrario. Por otra parte, los intermediarios aportan en la disminución de los costos de transacción presentes en el micro-mundo, propiciando y, en algunos casos, orquestando la conformación del sistema de innovación; además, contribuyen a mejorar los resultados económicos del sistema, gracias al aprovechamiento de más oportunidades de innovación y a una mayor eficiencia de los agentes debido a su especialización producto del aprendizaje por la interacción y por el hacer.Abstract: specifying the impact of intermediaries is complex, given the difficulty of attribution of their contribution to the performance of the innovation system, especially when facing a complex adaptive system made up of heterogeneous agents that relate contingently and co-evolve over time. These characteristics generate the need for a dynamic and longitudinal analysis, which has been achieved in this thesis by an agent-based model. This model can simulate various scenarios in which changes are made to the actions of intermediaries and to the innovation capabilities of the agents, in order to compare behaviors, especially the performance of agents and innovation system. By analyzing these results, it can be concluded that the impact of intermediaries in the performance of the innovation system depends on the capabilities of diffusion and linkage of the agents that make up the micro-world; such impact is higher when these capabilities are scarce and lower in the opposite case. On the other hand, intermediaries contribute to the reduction of transaction costs present in the micro-world, by promoting and, in some cases, orchestrating the formation of the innovation system; also, they contribute to improving the economic performance.Doctorad

Diffusion of Meta-Analysis, Systematic Review, and Related Research Synthesis Methods: Patterns, Contexts, and Impact

Like collaboration and interdisciplinary scholarship, research synthesis methods are used to integrate science knowledge. Unlike collaboration and interdisciplinary scholarship, research synthesis is a scientific method researchers apply to systematically and explicitly integrate knowledge from primary research studies to estimate the best answer to a specific question based on accumulated research findings. This study investigates the diffusion and impact of research synthesis methods at the macro- and meso-levels. At the macro-level, diffusion from 1972-2011 is described using bibliometric methods. Relatively modest engagement with the methods in the 1970s and 1980s was followed by increased engagement across a greater diversity of fields in the 1990s. Engagement with the methods continued to increase and spread across fields through the first decade of the 2000s. Engagement with research synthesis methods was strongly correlated with engagement with evidence-based practice (ρ=0.893, p < 0.001) and the number of years a field engaged with the methods (ρ = 0.706, p < 0.001), moderately correlated with engagement with past research (ρ = 0.403, p < 0.001); and modestly correlated with Biglan class (ρ = 0.279, p = 0.011). Five fields, Evolutionary Biology, Conservation Biology, Social Work, Women’s Studies, and Information and Library Science were selected for investigation at the meso-level. Content analysis, topic modeling, and qualitative summaries of literature at the intersections of these fields and research synthesis contextualize the diffusion process and reveal differences and similarities across field contexts. Bibliometric evaluation indicates that adoption of research synthesis contributes to changes in collaboration patterns: a greater number of authors contribute to research syntheses than research reviews in fields where collaboration on research reviews is low. This study provides some evidence that use of the methods has refined rather than replaced roles of traditional research reviews in Social Work; and illustrates interactions between innovations and use contexts. Innovations and their contexts are modified through adaptations influenced by historical contexts, values, and goals that intersect with the innovation use context.Doctor of Philosoph