Bilateral Collaboration and the Emergence of Innovation Networks

By Robin Cowan, Nicolas Jonard, Jean-Benoit Zimmermann. Management Sciences, 2007

311 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this paper, we model the formation of innovation networks as they emerge from bilateral decisions. In contrast to much of the literature, here firms only consider knowledge production, and not network issues, when deciding on partners. Thus, we focus attention on the effects of the knowledge and information regime on network formation. The effectiveness of a bilateral collaboration is determined by cognitive, relational, and structural embeddedness. Innovation results from the recombination of knowledge held by the partners to the collaboration, and its success is determined in part by the extent to which firms' knowledge complement each other. Previous collaborations (relational embeddedness) increase the probability of a successful collaboration, as does information gained from common third parties (structural embeddedness). Repeated alliance formation creates a network. Two features are central to the innovation process: how firms pool their knowledge resources, and how firms derive information about potential partners. When innovation is decomposable into separate subtasks, networks tend to be dense; when structural embeddedness is important, networks become cliquish. For some regions in this parameter space, small worlds emerge.

Subfields: Management Science and Operations Research, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3d28a609bef40bed3c7c514dd65f6b33a64741cb

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In Management Science and Operations Research

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Citations in the corpus

Visualization of interfirm relations in a converging mobile ecosystem (2008, background): “Tsai, 2001; Reagans and McEvily, 2003; Owen-Smith and Powell, 2004; Bell and Zaheer, 2007), innovation and collaboration (Powell et al., 1996; Ahuja, 2000; Dhanaraj and Parkhe, 2006; Cowan et al., 2007; Fleming et al., 2007; Schilling and Phelps, 2007), influence of position and environmental change”
Proximity and Innovation: From Statics to Dynamics (2015, background): “Through interactive learning, actors reduce their cognitive distance more or less voluntarily, eventually changing the configuration of knowledge complementarities between actors (COWAN et al., 2007).”
Brokerage in SME networks (2010, result): “The former is in line with the results f Cowan et al. (2007) who argue that a firm has a larger number f credible potential partners because it can gather reliable inforation about more firms.”
The dynamics of interfirm networks along the industry life cycle: The case of the global video game industry, 1987–2007 (2013, background): “The partner can provide information to both partners in order to reduce uncertainty about the competences and the trustworthiness of the potential partner (Uzzi, 1996; Cowan et al., 2007).”