Interfirm Collaboration Networks: The Impact of Large-Scale Network Structure on Firm Innovation

Schilling, Melissa A.; Phelps, Corey

doi:10.1287/mnsc.1060.0624

Cited by 1,216 publications

(950 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…This has resulted in a growing body of literature aimed at understanding inter-firm networks in general and their effects on firm performance (Gulati, 1995(Gulati, , 1998Sorenson and Stuart, 2001;Rosenkopf and Schilling, 2007;Schilling and Phelps, 2007).…”

Section: Sector-level Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The architecture of transaction networks: a comparative analysis of hierarchy in two sectors

Luo

Baldwin

Whitney

et al. 2012

Industrial and Corporate Change

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Many products are manufactured in networks of firms linked by transactions, but comparatively little is known about how or why such transaction networks differ. This paper investigates the transaction networks of two large sectors in Japan at a single point in time. In characterizing these networks, our primary measure is "hierarchy," defined as the degree to which transactions flow in one direction, from "upstream" to "downstream." Our empirical results show that the electronics sector exhibits a much lower degree of hierarchy than the automotive sector because of the presence of numerous inter-firm transaction cycles. These cycles, in turn, reveal that a significant group of firms have two-way "vertically permeable boundaries": (1) they participate in multiple stages of an industry's value chain, hence are vertically integrated, but also (2) they allow both downstream units to purchase intermediate inputs from and upstream units to sell intermediate goods to other sector firms. We demonstrate that the 10 largest electronics firms had two-way vertically permeable boundaries while almost no firms in the automotive sector had adopted that practice.

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Section: Sector-level Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The architecture of transaction networks: a comparative analysis of hierarchy in two sectors

Luo

Baldwin

Whitney

et al. 2012

Industrial and Corporate Change

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“…The logic of alliance formation is a network, not merely a dyadic or nodal (firm-level), one. The positioning of the partners; the availability of third party ties; the macro-structural properties of the network such as clustering and connectivity-all have been shown to condition the formation of new ties (Schilling and Phelps 2007). As Gulati (1998) suggests, such patterns are counter-intuitive.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Business groups, networks, and embeddedness: innovation and implementation alliances in Japanese electronics, 1985–1998

Lincoln¹,

Guillot²,

Sargent³

2016

Ind Corp Change

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This paper examines the changing process of strategic alliance formation in the Japanese electronics industry between 1985 and 1998. With data on 123-135 Japanese electronics/electrical machinery makers, we use a dyad panel regression methodology to address a series of hypotheses drawn largely from embeddedness theory on how the firms' horizontal and vertical keiretsu business group affiliations and prior alliance networks supported and constrained partner choice in new R&D (innovation) and nonR&D (implementation) domestic economy alliances. We find that in the first half of our series (1985-91; the "preburst" period) keiretsu served as infrastructure or platform for new strategic alliances that had both innovation and implementation goals. In the second half of our series (1992-98, the "postbubble" period) the keiretsu effects on innovation alliance formation were gone, but the groups' role in nonR&D or implementation alliances, the purpose of which was often cost reduction, had expanded. Our results suggest that Japanese electronics firms over this interval of time adapted rationally to the heightened uncertainty and stringency of the Japanese domestic economic environment by searching outside their preexisting networks for innovation alliances while at the same time exploiting those networks for implementation alliances addressed to cost-reduction and other operational aims. The study speaks to embeddedness theory in showing that economic actors are not deterministically constrained by business group or other preexisting network ties but may in rational fashion exploit or abandon those ties with an eye to advancing corporate and alliance goals.3

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“…Research on 'small world' properties of large scale networks has shown complementary benefits in network topographies that combine embeddedness and sparseness (Schilling and Phelps, 2007;Uzzi and Spiro, 2005).…”

Section: Triplet Value Estimation Methods With Three Different Types Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Considering clustering measures: Third ties, means, and triplets

2013

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Interfirm Collaboration Networks: The Impact of Large-Scale Network Structure on Firm Innovation

Cited by 1,216 publications

References 56 publications

The architecture of transaction networks: a comparative analysis of hierarchy in two sectors

The architecture of transaction networks: a comparative analysis of hierarchy in two sectors

Business groups, networks, and embeddedness: innovation and implementation alliances in Japanese electronics, 1985–1998

Considering clustering measures: Third ties, means, and triplets

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