Partners’ partners matter: the effect of partners’ centrality diversity on the focal organization’s innovation outputs

With whom should I work? Partners’ network characteristics and innovation persistence

“…The first independent variable is the partners' network centrality, measured as the average degree centrality of the focal inventor's partners. Degree centrality represents the number of partners directly connected to a focal inventor within the co-inventor network [ 18 ]. As indicated in Eq.…”

“…In this study, the first 4 digits of the IPC classification number are employed to represent the knowledge elements. The diversity of knowledge recombination is measured using the information entropy method [ 18 ]. The measurement of the focal inventor's diversity of knowledge recombination is expressed as Eq.…”

“…Network relationships and structural characteristics reflect that inventors have relational and structural capital in their social networks [ 27 ]. The network relationships and structural characteristics of partners reflect the second-order relational and structural capital possessed by the focal inventor [ 18 ]. Therefore, the network relationships and structural characteristics of partners may have an impact on the innovation persistence of the focal inventor.…”

“…As partner centrality increases, focal inventors can not only access more valuable technological resources, but also broaden the resource boundaries [ 20 , 28 ], which enhances the motivation and sustainability of innovation. However, when partner centrality is increased to a certain level, a further increase will be detrimental to the focal inventors' continuous innovation [ 18 ]. On the one hand, a high level of partners' network centrality generates excessive social resources, and focal inventors need to spend more time to identify and extract useful information, which increases the knowledge management cost and leads to diminishing marginal benefits of continuous innovation.…”

“…Although cooperation network relational and structural characteristics provide opportunities for acquiring heterogeneous knowledge and boosting innovation capabilities [ 14 , 16 , 17 ], the realization of these opportunities is also contingent upon the partners involved. Partners' network relational and structural characteristics constitute the focal inventor's second-order social capital [ 18 ]. However, there is a paucity of theoretical and empirical research on the efficacy of partners' network relations and structure concerning a focal inventor's innovation persistence.…”