Inventors’ brokerages dynamic and exploratory innovation: the moderating role of knowledge diversity

Xueyun Rong (), Zhongkai Yang () and Yutao Sun ()
Additional contact information
Xueyun Rong: Dalian University of Technology
Zhongkai Yang: Dalian University of Technology
Yutao Sun: Dalian University of Technology

Scientometrics, 2024, vol. 129, issue 5, No 3, 2533-2558

Abstract: Abstract An inventor’s exploratory innovation is driven by an extensive external knowledge search. This paper contributes to this understanding by exploring how inventors’ brokerages dynamic influence exploratory innovation from the perspective of ego-network, and the moderating role of knowledge diversity is also explored. Specifically, we define an inventor’s direct partners (tier-1) as brokerages between the inventor and its indirect partners (tier-2) and discuss the effects of the inventor’s brokerage expansion, stability, and recession on its exploratory innovation. Our empirical research is based on 4198 inventors working in the artificial intelligence field during the period from 1991 to 2019, and we identify those inventors through the USPTO database. Our results indicate that the brokerage expansion of an inventor has an inverted U-shaped impact on exploratory innovation, the brokerage stability has a positive impact on exploratory innovation, and the brokerage recession has a negative impact on exploratory innovation. Furthermore, knowledge diversity strengthens the positive impact of brokerage expansion and stability on exploratory innovation and strengthens the negative impact of brokerage recession on exploratory innovation.

Keywords: Inventor networks; Brokerages; Expansion; Stability; Recession; Knowledge diversity; Exploratory innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-024-04993-6 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:scient:v:129:y:2024:i:5:d:10.1007_s11192-024-04993-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11192

DOI: 10.1007/s11192-024-04993-6

Access Statistics for this article

Scientometrics is currently edited by Wolfgang Glänzel

More articles in Scientometrics from Springer, Akadémiai Kiadó
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().