Social networks, Learning, and Flexibility: Sourcing Scientific Knowledge in New Biotechnology Firms

Julia Porter Liebeskind, Amalya Lumerman Oliver, Lynne Zucker and Marilynn Brewer
Additional contact information
Julia Porter Liebeskind: School of Business Administration, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-1421
Amalya Lumerman Oliver: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel 91905
Lynne Zucker: Institute for Social Science Research, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024
Marilynn Brewer: Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210

Organization Science, 1996, vol. 7, issue 4, 428-443

Abstract: We examine how two highly successful new biotechnology firms (NBFs) source their most critical input---scientific knowledge. We find that scientists at the two NBFs enter into large numbers of collaborative research efforts with scientists at other organizations, especially universities. Formal market contracts are rarely used to govern these exchanges of scientific knowledge. Our findings suggest that the use of boundary-spanning social networks by the two NBFs increases both their learning and their flexibility in ways that would not be possible within a self-contained hierarchical organization.

Keywords: social networks; organizational learning; organizational flexibility; biotechnology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1996
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (226)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.7.4.428 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:7:y:1996:i:4:p:428-443

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().