The determinants of co-inventor tie formation: proximity and network dynamics

Cassi, Lorenzo and Plunket, Anne (2010): The determinants of co-inventor tie formation: proximity and network dynamics.

Abstract

This paper investigates the determinants of co-inventor tie formation using micro-data on genomic patents from 1990 to 2006 in France. We consider in a single analysis the relational and proximity perspectives that are usually treated separately. In order to do so, we analyse the determinants of network ties that occur within existing components and between two distinct components (i.e. bridging ties). We test the argument that formation of these two different types of ties results from distinct strategies in accessing resources. Doing so, we contrast network and proximity determinants of network formation and we investigate if social network allows economic actors to cross over geographical, technological and organizational boundaries.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Social networks, relational perspective, proximity, co-patenting, network formation
• Subjects: R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R12 - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification; D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D85 - Network Formation and Analysis: Theory; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O31 - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

References

Aharonson, B. S., Baum, J. A. and Plunket, A. (2008), Inventive and uninventive clusters: The case of Canadian biotechnology, Research Policy 37(6-7), 1108 - 1131.

Amburgey, T., Al-Lahan, A., Tzabbar, D. and Aharonson, B. (2008), The structural evolution of multiplex organizational networks: research and commerce in biotechnology, Advances in Strategic Management, 25, 171-209.

Audretsch, D. and Feldman, M. (1996), R&D Spillovers and the Geography of Innovation and Production, American Economic Review, 86, 630-640. Barabasi, A.-L. and Albert, R. (1999), Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks, Science 286(5439), 509-512.

Baum, J. A. C., Shipilov, A. V. and Rowley, T. J. (2003), Where do small worlds come from?, Ind Corp Change 12(4), 697-725. Boschma, R. (2005), Proximity and Innovation: A Critical Assessment, Regional Studies 39(1), 61-74.

Boschma, R. and Frenken, K. (2009), The spatial evolution of innovation networks. A proximity perspective, in Ron A. Boschma & Ron Martin, (ed.), Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, Edward Elgar

Boufaden, N. and Plunket, A. (2008), Proximity and innovation: Do biotechnology firms located in the Paris Region benefit from localized technological externalities?, Les Annales d'Economie et Statistique 87/88, 198-220.

Bramoullé, Y. and Fortin, B. (2009), The Econometrics of Social Networks, CIRPEE.

Breschi, S. and Lissoni, F. (2009), Mobility of skilled workers and co-invention networks: an anatomy of localized knowledge flows, Journal of Economic Geography 9(4), 439-468.

Breschi, S. and Lissoni, F. (2005), Cross-firm and Social Networks: Localized Knowledge Spillovers Revisited, Les Annales d’Economie et de Statistique, 79/80, 189--209.

Burt, R. S. (1992), Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Harvard University Press

Cameron, A. C. and Trivedi, P. K. (2005), Microeconometrics: Methods and Applications, Cambridge University Press, N. Y

Coleman, J. S. (1988), Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital, The American Journal of Sociology 94, S95--S120.

Fafchamps, M., Goyal, S. and van der Leij, M. J. (2010), Matching and Network Effects, Journal of the European Economic Association 8(1), 203--231.

Fleming, L. and Frenken, K. (2007), The Evolution Of Inventor Networks In The Silicon Valley And Boston Regions, Advances in Complex Systems (ACS) 10(01), 53-71.

Gargiulo, M. and Benassi, M. (2000), Trapped in Your Own Net? Network Cohesion, Structural Holes, and the Adaptation of Social Capital, Organizational Science 11(2), 183-196.

Gluckler, J. (2007), Economic geography and the evolution of networks, Journal of Economic Geography 7(5), 619--634.

Jaffe, A. B. (1989), Real Effects of Academic Research, The American Economic Review 79(5), 957-970.

Jaffe, A. B., Trajtenberg, M. and Henderson, R. (1993), Geographic Localization of Knowledge Spillovers as Evidenced by Patent Citations, The Quarterly Journal of Economics 108(3), 577-598.

Knoben, J. (2009), Localized inter-organizational linkages, agglomeration effects, and the innovative performance of firms, The Annals of Regional Science 43(3), 757-779.

Laurens, P., Zitt, M. and Bassecoulard, E. (2010), Delineation of the genomics field by hybrid citation-lexical methods: interaction with experts and validation process, Scientometrics 82(3), 647-662.

Lobo, J. and Strumsky, D. (2008), Metropolitan patenting, inventor agglomeration and social networks: A tale of two effects, Journal of Urban Economics 63(3), 871-884.

Moody, J. (2000), SPAN: SAS Programs for Analyzing Networks. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Newman, M.E. J. and Park, J. (2003), Why social networks are different from other types of networks, Phys. Rev. E 68(3).

Ponds, R., Van Oort, F. and Frenken, K. (2007), The geographical and institutional proximity of research collaboration, Papers in Regional Science 86(3), 423-443.

Powell, W. W., White, D. R., Koput, K. W. and Owen-Smith, J. Network (2005), Dynamics and Field Evolution: The Growth of Interorganizational Collaboration in the Life Sciences, The American Journal of Sociology, 110, 1132-1205

Rivera, M. T., Soderstrom, S. B. and Uzzi, B. (2010), Dynamics of Dyads in Social Networks: Assortative, Relational, and Proximity Mechanisms, Annual Review of Sociology 36(1), 91-115.

Singh, J. (2007), External Collaboration, Social Networks and Knowledge Creation: Evidence from scientific publications, DRUID Summer Conference 2007.

Singh, J. (2005), Collaborative Networks as Determinants of Knowledge Diffusion Patterns, Management Science 51(5), 756-770.

Sorenson, O., Rivkin, J. W. and Fleming, L. (2006), Complexity, networks and knowledge flow, Research Policy 35(7), 994-1017.

Stuart, T. and Podolny, J. (1999), Positional Causes and Correlates of Strategic Alliances in the Semiconductor Industry, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 161-182.

Torre, A. and Rallet, A. (2005), Proximity and localization, Regional Studies 39(1), 47-59.

Watts D.J. & S.H. Strogatz (1998), Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks, Nature, 393, 440-442.