The dynamics of technological partners: a social network perspective

ABSTRACT

The selection and establishment of research partners is increasingly important in innovation and strategic research. Using a panel dataset of patents by 2846 researchers from a large US biotechnology company between 1976 and 2013, we examined the relationships between spanning structural holes and partner dynamics, which are captured by the entry of new partners and the persistence of existing partners. Then, we tested the possible moderating effect of dynamic exploratory ability. Based on the results of negative binomial regression models with fixed effects in the longitudinal design, we found that spanning structural holes was negatively associated with the entry of new partners and positively associated with the persistence of existing partners. Furthermore, exploratory ability positively moderated these relationships. Aside from having managerial implications for innovators, the findings of our interdisciplinary study are relevant for research on partner dynamics, strategy research, and exploration processes.

KEYWORDS:

• Patents
• exploratory ability
• structural holes
• social networks
• partner dynamics

Acknowledgments

The authors are very grateful for the valuable comments and suggestions from anonymous reviewer and Editor, which significantly improved the quality of the paper.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Yan Yan is a PhD Student at School of Economics & Management, University of Academy of Chinese Sciences. His research interest is in Innovation Management. He has published four papers in International Journals such as Scientometrics and Research Policy in this field.

JingJing Zhang is a PhD at Economics & School of Management, University of Academy of Chinese Sciences. Her research interest is in Innovation Management. She has published four papers in International Journals such as Research Policy and Scientometrics in this field.

JianCheng Guan is a Professor at School of Economics & Management, University of Academy of Chinese Sciences. He has published about 80 papers in international journals such as Research Policy, etc. and also published more than 150 papers in Domestic peer-reviewed journals (most of them in Chinese and some of them in English) as well as in International Conference proceedings (in English). JianCheng Guan has won four research awards as Principal investigator (Ranking first) issued by Chinese Education Ministry, Chinese Aviation Ministry, Beijing Municipality in the field of innovation management and technology management. JianCheng Guan has continually ranked Top 2 most cited Chinese Researcher in the discipline of Social Science, nominated and calculated by Elsevier since 2014.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 71673261 and 71373254] and from The Research Team of Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province in China [grant number 2016A030312005].