THE EVOLUTION OF INVENTOR NETWORKS IN THE SILICON VALLEY AND BOSTON REGIONS

Lee Fleming () and Koen Frenken
Additional contact information
Lee Fleming: Harvard Business School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), 2007, vol. 10, issue 01, 53-71

Abstract: While networks are widely thought to enhance regional innovative capability, there exist few longitudinal studies of their formation and evolution over time. Based on an analysis of all patenting inventors in the U.S. from 1975 to 2002, we observe dramatic aggregation of the regional inventor network in Silicon Valley around 1989. Based on network statistics, we argue that the sudden rise of giant networks in Silicon Valley can be understood as a phase transition during which small isolated networks form one giant component. By contrast, such a transition in Boston occurred much later and much less dramatically. We do not find convincing evidence that this marked difference between the two regions is due to regional differences in the propensity to collaborate or the involvement of universities in patenting. Interviews with key network players suggest that contingent labor mobility between established firms in Silicon Valley, in particular resulting from IBM's policy as a central player in patenting activity, promoted inter-organizational networking, leading to larger inventor networks.

Keywords: Inventor networks; inter-organizational collaboration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219525907000921
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
Working Paper: The evolution of inventor networks in the Silicon Valley and Boston regions (2006)
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:wsi:acsxxx:v:10:y:2007:i:01:n:s0219525907000921

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0219525907000921

Access Statistics for this article

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS) is currently edited by Frank Schweitzer

More articles in Advances in Complex Systems (ACS) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().