EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Star scientists and their positions in the Canadian biotechnology network

Andrea Schiffauerova and Catherine Beaudry

Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 2011, vol. 20, issue 4, 343-366

Abstract: This paper identifies the prominent inventors (star scientists) in the Canadian biotechnology co-inventorship network by taking into consideration either only patent quantity or both patent quantity and quality. The paper studies the positions of these stars in the network structure and results show that inventors with a higher number of patents assume more central positions in the network: they have more collaborators, enjoy better access to information and also have greater control over knowledge flows in the network. Nevertheless, their network positions do not have higher levels of local cliquishness, suggesting that a clustered local neighbourhood may not have any positive impact on a scientist's innovative productivity. We also find that the majority of the stars play a knowledge gatekeeping role - nurturing clusters with knowledge originating outside. Finally, we examine and discuss the network dynamics and the role of these stars in the information transmission efficiency.

Keywords: star scientists; innovation; patents; network structure; network dynamics; biotechnology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10438591003696886 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:ecinnt:v:20:y:2011:i:4:p:343-366

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/GEIN20

DOI: 10.1080/10438591003696886

Access Statistics for this article

Economics of Innovation and New Technology is currently edited by Professor Cristiano Antonelli

More articles in Economics of Innovation and New Technology from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-22
Handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:20:y:2011:i:4:p:343-366