The role of remixing for innovation in online innovation communities

Potentially innovative ideas are being generated, shared, and even remixed (recombined) in the online innovation communities. These ideas create new innovations through remixing of ideas. In this study, we investigate how remixing makes ideas more innovative in online innovation communities. Our model is validated through ordinary least squares regression on a secondary dataset of 57,049 ideas collected from one of the largest 3D printing online innovation communities, Thingiverse.com. The result shows that the number of prior ideas has an inverted U-shaped relationship with the idea\u27s degree of innovation and the cross-boundary remix has a positive effect on the idea’s degree of innovation

The organization of R&D work and knowledge search in intrafirm networks

The study investigates the effects of the organization of industrial Research & Development on industrial researchers’ knowledge acquisition behavior. Specifically, we test a model about how the fit of individuals with their research tasks affects whether industrial researchers acquire knowledge from outside their assigned projects. Empirical analyses from the R&D laboratory of a global pharmaceutical company show that person-task-fit has a non-linear effect on the knowledge content exchanged through interpersonal interactions. Implications for the management and organization of R&D activities are discussed

University alliances and firm exploratory innovation: evidence from therapeutic product development

This paper investigates the relationship between university alliances and firm exploratory innovation in the context of therapeutic product development. We build on organizational learning theory to elucidate that the use of university alliances is more positively associated with firm exploratory rather than exploitative innovation output. Moreover, we argue that the breadth of a firm's technological expertise strengthens the benefits of university alliances in the development of exploratory innovation output. Our empirical analysis is based on a panel dataset of 220 US therapeutic biotechnology firms from 2003 to 2010. Our findings support the contention that university alliances are differentially related to exploratory and exploitative innovation outcomes, and further indicate that firm technological breadth positively moderates the relationship between university alliances and firm exploratory innovation.LIACS-Managemen

Hiring New Key Inventors to Improve Firms’ Post-M&A Inventive Output

Although merger and acquisitions (M&As) are acknowledged as an important means to access innovative assets and know-how, firms’ inventive output often declines in the post-M&A period. Financial, managerial and organizational constraints related to the M&A event contribute to inventive output declines and inventors’ departure. Prior literature treats the acquiring firm as a passive observer of invention declines. This study argues that acquiring firms can take measures by hiring new key inventors. We show that the hiring of new key inventors in the post-M&A period can counteract invention declines in two ways. First, these newly hired inventors are associated with an increase of corporate inventive output after the M&A. Second, they are also associated with an improved inventive output of inventors already working for the acquiring firm. These results suggest that an appropriate hiring policy can counteract declining inventive output of firms in the aftermath of M&As

The organization of R&D work and knowledge search in intrafirm networks

This study investigates the effects of the organization of industrial Research & Development on industrial researchers' knowledge acquisition behavior. Specifically, we test a model about how the fit of individuals with their research tasks affects whether industrial researchers acquire knowledge from outside their assigned projects. Empirical analyses from the R&D laboratory of a global pharmaceutical company show that person-task-fit has a non-linear effect on the knowledge content exchanged through interpersonal interactions. Implications for the management and organization of R&D activities are discussed

The effects of limited exhaustibility of knowledge and geographical distance on the quality of R&D collaborations: The European evidence 2000–2012

Much evidence exists of the increasing levels of research cooperation and globalization in the knowledge generation process. This paper aims to assess the determinants of the quality of research collaborations, using a sample of joint patent applications to the European Patent Office between 2000 and 2012. The results of the empirical analysis show that the limited exhaustibility of knowledge and the geographical distance among research partners are crucial determinants of research quality. Specifically, the non-exhaustible character of knowledge and cross-border knowledge creation enhance patent quality. Moreover, the distance among research partners exerts a curvilinear effect, as the quality of innovation increases when partners are either in spatial proximity or distant among each other

Paradise of novelty-or loss of human capital? Exploring new fields and inventive output

Does a person become more or less creative when exploring a new field? Exploring new fields exposes a person to new knowledge that might increase the novelty of inventive output; at the same time, exploration means a lack of prior expertise and a learning challenge that might harm the value of that output. Using new combinations as a measure of novelty and citations as a measure of value, we demonstrate correlations between exploring new fields and increased novelty-but decreased value-in an inventor-firm fixed effects panel. The negative effect of exploring new fields on value is muted when the novice collaborates with experts or uses the scientific literature in the new field. We find consistent results using an unintended change in noncompete labor law as an exogenous influence on exploring new fields. The research illustrates two opposite influences of exploration on creative output and suggests how inventors can reduce the downside of entering a new field

Paradise of Novelty — Or Loss of Human Capital? Exploring New Fields and Inventive Output

Does a person become more or less creative when exploring a new field? Exploring new fields exposes a person to new knowledge that might increase the novelty of inventive output; at the same time, exploration means a lack of prior expertise and a learning challenge that might harm the value of that output. Using new combinations as a measure of novelty and citations as a measure of value, we demonstrate correlations between exploring new fields and increased novelty—but decreased value—in an inventor–firm fixed effects panel. The negative effect of exploring new fields on value is muted when the novice collaborates with experts or uses the scientific literature in the new field. We find consistent results using an unintended change in noncompete labor law as an exogenous influence on exploring new fields. The research illustrates two opposite influences of exploration on creative output and suggests how inventors can reduce the downside of entering a new field.status: publishe