DISTANCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER: SEARCHING COMBINATORIAL POTENTIAL THROUGH KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS

Siwei Zhu and Gokce Serdar
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Siwei Zhu: Paseka School of Business, Minnesota State University Moorhead, 1104 7th Avenue South, Moorhead, MN, 56563, USA
Gokce Serdar: Paseka School of Business, Minnesota State University Moorhead, 1104 7th Avenue South, Moorhead, MN, 56563, USA

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 2022, vol. 26, issue 02, 1-29

Abstract: This study conceptualises inventors as agents that connect knowledge elements within a knowledge network. Inventors’ searches thus focus on a knowledge element’s combinatorial potential–its suitability for combination with other knowledge elements to generate innovation. Using a survey-based network approach with scientists in the R&D department of a leading US oil and gas company, we find that internal search on combinatorial potential in a knowledge network has an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation but external search on combinatorial potential has a positive relationship with individual innovation performance. No reinforcement effect between internal and external search was found. Instead, our study reveals the search strategy through knowledge networks that inventors are likely to reduce their effort on internal search but maintain external search to identify the combinatorial potential of knowledge elements, making them more likely to create fruitful knowledge combinations for innovation.

Keywords: Combinatorial potential; knowledge network; internal search; external search; individual innovation performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1142/S1363919622500177

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