The impact of multilevel networks on innovation

Jiancheng Guan, Jingjing Zhang and Yan Yan

Research Policy, 2015, vol. 44, issue 3, 545-559

Abstract: Different from previous studies analyzing the influence of network structure on actors’ performance by using a single network perspective, this article explores the impact of multilevel networks on innovation. Using a sample of 41,007 patents in the field of alternative energy of the USPTO database, we construct inventor collaboration networks at city and as well as country levels. In the empirical analysis, we use panel data and negative binomial regression models with fixed effects. To keep our results reliable, we use an instrumental variables approach to solve potential endogeneity problems and perform a series of robustness tests. The results show that inter-country collaboration network structure moderates the relationships between inter-city collaboration network structure and innovation performance. Our findings show that when country's centrality and structural holes are high, the positive effects of city's centrality and structural holes on innovation performance are enhanced, and the negative effects of city's clustering coefficient are weakened. Implications of the findings for complex innovation network theory and innovation policies are discussed.

Keywords: Multilevel collaboration networks; Innovation performance; Alternative energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (68)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004873331400225X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:respol:v:44:y:2015:i:3:p:545-559

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2014.12.007

Access Statistics for this article

Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray

More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().