Recognition of the firm's tendency toward local search has given rise to concepts celebrating exploration that overcomes this tendency. To move beyond local search requires that exploration span some boundary, be it organizational or technological. While several studies have encouraged boundary-spanning exploration, few have considered both types of boundaries systematically. In doing so, we create a typology of exploration behaviors: local exploration spans neither boundary, external boundary-spanning exploration spans the firm boundary only, internal boundary-spanning exploration spans the technological boundary only, and radical exploration spans both boundaries. Using this typology, we analyze the impact of knowledge generated by these different types of exploration on subsequent technological evolution.In our study of patenting activity in optical disk technology, we find that exploration that does not span organizational boundaries consistently generates lower impact on subsequent technological evolution. In addition, we find that the impact of exploration on subsequent technological evolution within the optical disk domain is highest when the exploration spans organizational boundaries but not technological boundaries. At the same time, we find that the impact of exploration on subsequent technological development beyond the optical disk domain is greatest when exploration spans both organizational and technological boundaries. Copyright
The growth and development of a firm depend on its ability to introduce new products over time.To do this successfully, it requires technological knowledge, the ability to combine knowledge elements into valuable new products, and the complementary assets that facilitate the manufacturing, sales, and distribution of those products. We argue that these all develop as a function of a firm's experience in its technological and product-market domains. Moreover, given the prospect of complementarities among technological and product-market experience, the value of any one type of experience may be enhanced by the presence of another. Therefore, new products will be more successful when a firm possesses the appropriate stocks of technological and productmarket experience. We test this idea by analyzing whether pharmaceutical firms' experience in their technological and product-market domains confer early advantages to their new product offerings, and lead to higher initial sales levels.
In this paper, knowledge creation is considered as a path-dependent evolutionary process that involves recombining knowledge spread over time. The findings of the paper suggest that a balance in combining current knowledge with the knowledge available across large time spans is an important factor that explains the impact of new knowledge. These ideas are empirically tested using patent data from the pharmaceutical industry. Results from the analysis offer support for the hypotheses developed in the paper.innovation, knowledge creation, temporal search
In this paper, we suggest that the characteristics of individual positions in an intraorganizational network of inventors or intrafirm knowledge network predict the likelihood with which knowledge created by an inventor is used in the firm's research and development (R&D) activities. Such choices lead to path dependence and subsequent specialization. We provide empirical evidence that a firm's R&D is concentrated in those areas where it chooses to recombine knowledge, offering support for the path-dependent evolution of capabilities. We test this theory by analyzing the R&D networks in DuPont, a highly regarded Fortune 500 chemical company. Cox Proportional Regression models of intrafirm citations on network characteristics offer strong empirical support for our theory.R&D capabilities, knowledge networks, evolutionary, path dependence
Acquisition integration is a pivotal factor in determining whether the objectives of an acquisition are achieved. In this paper, we hypothesize that the productivity of corporate scientists of acquired companies is generally impaired by integration, but that some scientists experience more disruption than others. In particular, acquisition integration will be most disruptive, leading to the most severe productivity drops, for those inventors who have lost the most social status and centrality in the combined entity. Drawing from prior literatures on the knowledge-based view of the firm, and on mergers and acquisitions, we develop hypotheses about a concise set of conditions that will lead to substantial performance drops for acquired technical personnel. We test our hypotheses, using patent application data, on a sample of 3,933 inventors in pharmaceutical firms whose companies were acquired. Results are strongly in line with our theorized expectations.
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