Technological Distance and Breakthrough Inventions in Multi-Cluster Teams: How Intra- and Inter-Location Ties Bridge the Gap

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Vestal, Alex; Danneels, Erwin
• 署名单位: University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Wilmington; State University System of Florida; University of South Florida
• 刊物名称: ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-8392
• DOI: 10.1177/00018392211027512
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 167-206
• 关键词: research-and-development; TRANSACTIVE MEMORY-SYSTEMS; COLLABORATION NETWORKS; social-structure; LOCAL SEARCH; KNOWLEDGE; INNOVATION; diversity; SUBGROUPS; FIRMS

摘要

Multi-cluster R&D teams have the potential to generate breakthrough inventions because they can tap into the distinct knowledge of the different geographic hot spots in which team members are located. Having access to a variety of knowledge offers these teams great recombinatorial potential. To succeed, however, the geographically dispersed members must share and integrate the different local knowledge pools available to them. We argue that the density of intra-team co-patenting ties shapes intra-team knowledge sharing and integration and hence the extent teams benefit from the knowledge they can access. Whereas greater density of intra-cluster team ties (within a given location) hinders sharing and integration of locally tapped knowledge across locations, greater density of inter-cluster ties (across cluster locations) facilitates it. Our empirical analysis of 834 multi-cluster nanotechnology R&D teams shows that the technological distance (the difference in knowledge) between clusters in which inventors are located has an inverted-U relationship with the likelihood of the team generating a breakthrough. Further, we find that the density of multi-cluster team intra- vs. inter-cluster ties influences the effect of technological distance on the likelihood of breakthrough invention.