Sytch & Tataynowicx 2014

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

Abstract

Prior: Applying either the ego-network or the global-network perspective 

-> the implications of social structure for actors’ outcomes 

Now: the implications of network communities for the invention productivity of firms

Network communities: dense and non-overlapping structural groups of actors in the social system

-> identify new ways to study firms’ access to diverse knowledge inputs in a dynamic system of inter-organizational relationships.

RQ

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.

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.

Data: the evolving community structure of the network of inter-organizational partnerships in the global computer industry over 1981-2001 to predict firms’ patenting rates.