 A Structural Perspective on Organizational InnovationToby E Stuart Industrial and Corporate Change, 1999, vol. 8, issue 4, 745-75 Abstract: Sociologists contend that industries can be importantly characterized as sets of interlocking producer positions. This paper argues that this distinctively relational conception of a market represents a powerful framework for depicting and analyzing the process of technical change. The paper presents a method for using patent citation data to describe the positions of high-technology firms in a market-wide "technological network." It focuses on one property of a producer's position in this technological network--"crowding"--which represents the extent to which the firm specializes in areas of technology that are densely populated with other organizations. Four propositions are developed linking technological crowding to two firm-level measures of innovation: (i) the annual level of R&D expenditures, and (ii) the continuous time rate of patenting. The findings demonstrate that the positions innovators occupy in the technological structure of the market strongly affects their level of investment in R&D and rate of innovation. Copyright 1999 by Oxford University Press. Date: 1999 There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it. Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:indcch:v:8:y:1999:i:4:p:745-75 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Industrial and Corporate Change is currently edited by Josef Chytry More articles in Industrial and Corporate Change from Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. |
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