Technological diversity and inventor networks

Grazia Cecere and Müge Özman Gossart ()
Additional contact information
Müge Özman Gossart: IMT-BS - MMS - Département Management, Marketing et Stratégie - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris] - IMT-BS - Institut Mines-Télécom Business School - IMT - Institut Mines-Télécom [Paris], LITEM - Laboratoire en Innovation, Technologies, Economie et Management (EA 7363) - EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management - UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne - TEM - Télécom Ecole de Management

Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) from HAL

Abstract: This article examines the relationship between the structure of intra-firm inventor networks and the technological diversity of firms. We test this relationship for a panel of 222 firms in the ICT sector for the period 1995–2003, by utilizing data on their granted patents. The results reveal that the relation between the strength of ties between inventors in R&D teams and the firms' technological diversity is curvilinear. In other words, while strong ties between inventors can promote diversity, there is a limit to this positive effect. After this limit, strong ties can inhibit diversity, possibly by limiting the capabilities of network members to process novelty. In addition, we find that the impact of the scale-free metric on technological diversity is negative.

Keywords: Intra-firm network; Innovation; Technological diversity; Scale free network; ICTs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 2014, 23 (2), pp.161 - 178. ⟨10.1080/10438599.2013.815473⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Working Paper: Technological diversity and inventor networks (2014)
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:hal:gemptp:hal-01270513

DOI: 10.1080/10438599.2013.815473

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().