430 research outputs found
Evidence for a creative dilemma posed by repeated collaborations
We focused on how repeat collaborations in projects for inventions affect
performance. Repeat collaborations have two contradictory aspects. A positive
aspect is team development or experience, and a negative aspect is team
degeneration or decline. Since both contradicting phenomena are observed,
inventors have a dilemma as to whether they should keep collaborating in a team
or not. The dilemma has not previously been quantitatively analyzed.
We provide quantitative and extensive analyses of the dilemma in creative
projects by using patent data from Japan and the United States. We confirm
three predictions to quantitatively validate the existence of the dilemma. The
first prediction is that the greater the patent a team achieves, the longer the
team will work together. The second prediction is that the impact of
consecutive patents decreases after a team makes a remarkable invention, which
is measured by the impact of patents. The third prediction is that the
expectation of impact with new teams is greater than that with the same teams
successful in the past. We find these predictions are validated in patents
published in Japan and the United States. On the basis of these three
predictions, we can quantitatively validate the dilemma in creative projects.
We also propose preventive strategies for degeneration. One is developing
technological diversity, and another is developing inventor diversity in
teams.We find the two strategies are both effective by validating with the
data
A two-layer team-assembly model for invention networks
Companies are exposed to rigid competition, so they seek how best to improve
the capabilities of their innovations. One strategy is to collaborate with
other companies in order to speed up their own innovations. Such inter-company
collaborations are conducted by inventors belonging to the companies. At the
same time, the inventors also seem to be affected by past collaborations
between companies. Therefore, interdependency of two networks, namely inventor
and company networks, exists.
This paper discusses a model that replicates two-layer networks extracted
from patent data of Japan and the United States in terms of degree
distributions. The model replicates two-layer networks with the
interdependency. Moreover it is the only model that uses local information,
while other models have to use overall information, which is unrealistic. In
addition, the proposed model replicates empirical data better than other
models
The strength of long ties and the weakness of strong ties: Knowledge diffusion through supply chain networks
AbstractUsing a large firm-level panel dataset for Japan, this paper examines the effects of the structure of supply chain networks on productivity and innovation capability through knowledge diffusion. We find that ties with distant suppliers improve productivity (as measured by sales per worker) more than ties with neighboring suppliers, which is likely because distant firms’ intermediates embody more diversified knowledge than those from neighboring firms. Ties with neighboring clients improve productivity more than ties with distant clients, which is likely because neighboring clients more effectively diffuse disembodied knowledge than distant clients. By contrast, ties with distant suppliers and clients improve innovative capability (as measured by the number of registered patents), whereas ties with neighboring suppliers or clients do not affect innovative capability. In addition, the density of a firm's ego network (as measured by how densely its supply chain partners transact with one another) has a negative effect on productivity and innovative capability, implying knowledge redundancy in dense networks. These results suggest that access to diversified ties is important for improving productivity and innovation capability through knowledge diffusion
Spatial Characteristics of Joint Application Networks in Japanese Patents
Technological innovation has extensively been studied to make firms
sustainable and more competitive. Within this context, the most important
recent issue has been the dynamics of collaborative innovation among firms. We
therefore investigated a patent network, especially focusing on its spatial
characteristics. The results can be summarized as follows. (1) The degree
distribution in a patent network follows a power law. A firm can then be
connected to many firms via hubs connected to the firm. (2) The neighbors'
average degree has a null correlation, but the clustering coefficient has a
negative correlation. The latter means that there is a hierarchical structure
and bridging different modules may shorten the paths between the nodes in them.
(3) The distance of links not only indicates the regional accumulations of
firms, but the importance of time it takes to travel, which plays a key role in
creating links. (4) The ratio of internal links in cities indicates that we
have to consider the existing links firms have to facilitate the creation of
new links
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