Environmental Demands and the Emergence of Social Structure: Technological Dynamism and Interorganizational Network Forms

This study investigates the origins of variation in the structures of interorganizational networks across industries. We combine empirical analyses of existing interorganizational networks with an agent-based simulation model of network emergence. Our insights are twofold. First, we find that differences in technological dynamism across industries and the concomitant demands for value creation engender variations in firms’ collaborative behaviors. On average, firms in technologically dynamic industries pursue more open ego networks, which fosters access to new and diverse resources that help sustain continuous innovation. In contrast, firms in technologically stable industries on average pursue more closed ego networks, which fosters reliable collaboration and helps preserve existing resources. Second, we show that because of the observed cross-industry differences in firms’ collaborative behaviors, the emergent industry-wide networks take on distinct structural forms. Technologically stable industries feature clan networks, characterized by low network connectedness and rather strong community structures. Technologically dynamic industries, in turn, feature community networks, characterized by high network connectedness and medium-to-strong community structures. Convention networks, which feature high network connectedness and weak community structures, were not evident among the empirical networks we examined. Taken together, our findings advance an environmental contingency theory of network formation.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/112051/1/1282_Sytch.pd

Toward a Theory of Extended Contact: The Incentives and Opportunities for Bridging Across Network Communities

This study investigates the determinants of bridging ties within networks of interconnected firms. Bridging ties are defined as nonredundant connections between firms located in different network communities. We highlight how firms can enter into these relationships because of the incentives and opportunities for action that are embedded in the existing network structure. Specifically, we propose that the dynamics of proximate network structures, which reflect firms' and their partners' direct connections, affect the formation of bridging ties by shaping the value-creation and value-distribution incentives for bridging. We also argue that the evolving global network structure affects firms' propensity to form bridging ties by shaping the structural opportunities for bridging. We test our theory using the network of partnership ties among firms in the global computer industry from 1991 to 2005. We find support for structural incentives and opportunities as influential precursors of bridging ties

Ideology and Exceptionalism in Intellectual Property: An Empirical Study

In this Article, we examine the effect of judicial ideology on IP case outcomes before the Supreme Court from 1954 to 2006. We find that ideology is a significant determinant of IP cases: the more conservative a justice is, the more likely he or she is to vote in favor of recognizing and enforcing rights to intellectual property. We also find evidence that the relationship is more complex than a purely ideological account would suggest; our results suggest that law matters too. We find that a number of factors that are specific to IP are also consequential. Additionally, we show that although ideology is highly predictive of IP outcomes, the size of this effect is nonetheless significantly lower than it is in cases involving prominent social issues, such as voting rights or the death penalty. We therefore conclude that although ideology is an important element in predicting IP decisions, there may nonetheless be real differences between the effect of ideology in social and economic cases. Part I of the Article explains the basis for the broad attitudinal claim that case outcomes have ideological derivations. It then presents the theoretical basis for the competing claim that IP is immune to the general impact of ideology on judicial decisions. Part II provides an overview of some of the anecdotal evidence relied upon by exceptionalists and the attitudinalist response. We identify three central interrelated phenomena that scholars point to as evidence of IP’s exceptionalism: the unusual prevalence of unanimous opinions, surprising judicial coalitions, and judges voting against ideological type. Part II also considers and counters these claims from an attitudinalist perspective. We conduct our empirical analysis in Part III. This Part first offers some impressionistic evidence of IP exceptionalism by comparing judicial voting coalitions in IP cases to coalitions in Supreme Court decisions generally. We then apply regression analysis to test four hypotheses: (1) that ideology affects judicial decision-making; (2) that the effect of judicial ideology on outcomes differs between various types of IP claims; (3) that the effect of ideology differs between liberal and conservative justices; and (4) that the effect of ideology on IP cases differs from its effects in other cases. Part IV presents the implications of our analysis for IP in particular and for judicial scholarship in general, and considers potential extensions of our analysis

Friends and Foes: The Dynamics of Dual Social Structures

This paper investigates the evolutionary dynamics of a dual social structure encompassing collaboration and conflict among corporate actors. We apply and advance structural balance theory to examine the formation of balanced and unbalanced dyadic and triadic structures, and to explore how these dynamics aggregate to shape the emergence of a global network. Our findings are threefold. First, we find that existing collaborative or conflictual relationships between two companies engender future relationships of the same type, but crowd out relationships of the different type. This results in (a) an increased likelihood of the formation of balanced (uniplex) relationships that combine multiple ties of either collaboration or conflict, and (b) a reduced likelihood of the formation of unbalanced (multiplex) relationships that combine collaboration and conflict between the same two firms. Second, we find that network formation is driven not by a pull toward balanced triads, but rather by a pull away from unbalanced triads. Third, we find that the observed micro-level dynamics of dyads and triads affect the structural segregation of the global network into two separate collaborative and conflictual segments of firms. Our empirical analyses used data on strategic partnerships and patent infringement and antitrust lawsuits in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals from 1996 to 2006

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

Environmental demands and the emergence of social structure: Technological dynamism and interorganizational network forms

This study investigates the origins of variation in the structures of global interorganizational networks across industries. We combine empirical analyses of existing interorganizational networks with an agent-based simulation model of network emergence. Our insights are twofold. First, we find that differences in technological dynamism across industries and the concomitant demands for value creation engender variation in firms ’ collaborative behaviors. Specifically, firms in technologically dynamic industries on average pursue more open networks, which foster access to new and diverse resources that help sustain continuous innovation. By contrast, firms in technologically stable industries on average pursue more closed networks, which foster reliable collaboration and help preserve existing resources. Second, we show that because of the observed cross-industry differences in firms ’ collaborative behaviors, the emergent industry-wide networks take on distinct global forms. Technologically stable industries feature clan networks, characterized by low global connectedness and medium-to-strong community structures. Technologically dynamic industries, by contrast, feature community networks, characterized by high connectedness and medium community structures. Convention networks, which feature high global connectedness and weak community structures, wer

Friends and Foes: The Dynamics of Dual Social Structures

This paper investigates the evolutionary dynamics of a dual social structure encompassing collaboration and conflict among corporate actors. We apply and advance structural balance theory to examine the formation of balanced and unbalanced dyadic and triadic structures, and to explore how these dynamics aggregate to shape the emergence of a global network. Our findings are threefold. First, we find that existing collaborative or conflictual relationships between two companies engender future relationships of the same type, but crowd out relationships of the different type. This results in (a) an increased likelihood of the formation of balanced (uniplex) relationships that combine multiple ties of either collaboration or conflict, and (b) a reduced likelihood of the formation of unbalanced (multiplex) relationships that combine collaboration and conflict between the same two firms. Second, we find that network formation is driven not by a pull toward balanced triads, but rather by a pull away from unbalanced triads. Third, we find that the observed micro-level dynamics of dyads and triads affect the structural segregation of the global network into two separate collaborative and conflictual segments of firms. Our empirical analyses used data on strategic partnerships and patent infringement and antitrust lawsuits in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals from 1996 to 2006