Essays on Collaboration, Innovation, and Network Change in Organizations.

Networks;Innovation;Geography;Organizations;Online Communities;Management;Sociology;Social Sciences;Sociology

Funk, Russell JamesMizruchi, Mark S. ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Networks;    Innovation;    Geography;    Organizations;    Online Communities;    Management;    Sociology;    Social Sciences;    Sociology;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/108866/funk_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This dissertation examines how internal communication and collaboration networks influence organizations;; performance at innovation. Because some configurations may be better than others, I also consider strategies for changing networks. I structure my investigation around three studies. The first study examines the effects of different networks in different geographic settings. Using data on 454 firms active in nanotechnology, I find that sparse networks of inventors help geographically isolated firms retain diverse knowledge and promote innovation. By contrast, firms located close to industry peers benefit from highly connected networks among their inventors that facilitate information processing. In the second study, I examine the effects of network structure in an investigation of brokers. A broker is a person connected to people who are not tied to each other. Studies find that brokers have better performance on many metrics. However, little is known about how brokers affect their contacts. Using data on the networks of over 18,000 inventors at 37 pharmaceutical firms, I examine the effect of connection to a broker. To disentangle causality, I focus on changes among inventor;;s existing contacts, where the decision to connect was made before the contact became a broker and therefore is exogenous to performance. I find that although becoming a broker positively affects performance, the opposite is true for having a connection to one. After focusing on performance in the first two studies, the final study considers reshaping networks. Using data on 23 million exchanges among 1.3 million members of 25 technical communities, I examine how a common organizational feature---knowledge categorization systems---influences bridging. Bridging ties create and strengthen connections among otherwise distant people and therefore are powerful tools for adapting networks. Categorization systems facilitate bridging by helping people locate distant peers. However, they may also inhibit bridging. First, as a categorization system grows large, it becomes harder to use and people are less able to establish distant ties. Second, as a categorization system decouples from real expertise, its value for bridging diminishes. Finally, as norms of evaluation vary more widely in an organization, people make fewer exchanges with unfamiliar peers. All three ideas are supported.