Science as a map in technological search

Fleming, Lee; Sorenson, Olav

doi:10.1002/smj.384

Cited by 1,046 publications

(732 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…A more extensive use of scientific knowledge may provide assignees with a broader knowledge base to source for subsequent inventions [34,95]. On the other hand, the negative effect of the use of scientific knowledge on the number of citations a patent receives from subsequent nonbiotechnology patents may be due to the greater complexity that features patents building on a broader scientific knowledge base [39].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other words, the analysis suggests that combining knowledge across either multiple or few domains does not significantly contribute to enhancing the impact of the resulting patented invention. This result may be explained by the research on knowledge search and recombination process according to which most innovative firms are those performing a balanced search process [34,41]. In fact, on the one hand, excessive complexity [96] and lack of absorptive capacity [47], and, on the other hand, a limited set of technological opportunities to be combined [40] may, respectively, undermine search efforts towards the development of significant inventions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Determinants of patent citations in biotechnology: An analysis of patent influence across the industrial and organizational boundaries

Petruzzelli

Rotolo

Albino

2015

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

148

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The present paper extends the literature investigating key drivers leading certain patents to exert a stronger influence on the subsequent technological developments (inventions) than other ones. We investigated six key determinants, as (i) the use of scientific knowledge, (ii) the breadth of the technological base, (iii) the existence of collaboration in patent development, (iv) the number of claims, (v) the scope, and (vi) the novelty, and how the effect of these determinants varies when patent influence-as measured by the number of forward citations the patent received-is distinguished as within and across the industrial and organizational boundaries. We conducted an empirical analysis on a sample of 5,671 patents granted to 293 US biotechnology firms from 1976 to 2003. Results reveal that the contribution of the determinants to patent influence differs across the domains that are identified by the industrial and organizational boundaries. Findings, for example, show that the use of scientific knowledge negatively affects patent influence outside the biotechnology industry, while it positively contributes to make a patent more relevant for the assignee's subsequent technological developments. In addition, the broader the scope of a patent the higher the number of citations the patent receives from subsequent non-biotechnology patents.This relationship is inverted U-shaped when considering the influence of a patent on inventions granted to other organizations than the patent's assignee. Finally, the novelty of a patent is inverted-U related with the influence the patent exerts on the subsequent inventions granted across the industrial and organizational boundaries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of patent citations in biotechnology: An analysis of patent influence across the industrial and organizational boundaries

Petruzzelli

Rotolo

Albino

2015

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

148

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“…Prior successful experience can serve as a guide for possible places to look or not look (Fleming and Sorenson 2004;Blume and Franco 2007). Also, when an individual engages in reflection, prior successful experience may prove useful, as prior successful experience provides knowledge on what has worked in the past.…”

Section: Hypothesis 2: the Prior Failures Of Other Workers Have A Grementioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from My Success and from Others' Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

Staats

Gino³

2013

Management Science

197

133

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Learning from past experience is central to an organization's adaptation and survival. A key dimension of prior experience is whether an outcome was successful or unsuccessful. Although empirical studies have investigated the effects of success and failure in organizational learning, to date, the phenomenon has received little attention at the individual level. Drawing on attribution theory in psychology, we investigate how individuals learn from their own past experiences with both failure and success and from the experiences of others. For our empirical analyses, we use 10 years of data from 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who completed more than 6,500 procedures using a new technology for cardiac surgery. We find that individuals learn more from their own successes than from their own failures, but they learn more from the failures of others than from others' successes. We also find that individuals' prior successes and others' failures can help individuals overcome their inability to learn from their own failures. Together, these findings offer both theoretical and practical insights into how individuals learn directly from their prior experience and indirectly from the experiences of others. AcknowledgmentsWe thank Mike Luca, Ella Miron-Spektor, Lamar Pierce, and Enno Siemsen for valuable comments on earlier drafts of the paper. We are grateful to Jesper Sørensen, the associate editor, and to the referees who provided constructive and developmental assistance throughout the review process. All errors remain our own.-1 - Learning from My Success and From Others' Failure:Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery AbstractLearning from past experience is central to an organization's adaptation and survival. A key dimension of prior experience is whether an outcome was successful or unsuccessful. While empirical studies have investigated the effects of success and failure in organizational learning, to date the phenomenon has received little attention at the individual level. Drawing on attribution theory in psychology, we investigate how individuals learn from their own past experiences with both failure and success and from the experiences of others. For our empirical analyses, we use ten years of data from 71 cardiothoracic surgeons who completed over 6,500 procedures using a new technology for cardiac surgery. We find that individuals learn more from their own successes than from their own failures but learn more from the failures of others than from others' successes. We also find that individuals' prior successes and others' failures can help individuals overcome their inability to learn from their own failures. Together, these findings offer both theoretical and practical insights into how individuals learn directly from their prior experience and indirectly from the experiences of others.

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“…Branching into a 'new to the firm' technology domain increases the stock of opportunities to which the firm has access (Fleming, 2001;Fleming and Sorenson, 2004). The knowledge components that the firm acquires in the new domain can then be recombined with its existing knowledge to introduce heterogeneity that facilitates problem solving (Amabile, 1988;George, Kotha and Zheng, 2008).…”

Section: Branching Recombination and Innovationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entry into new niches: the effects of firm age and the expansion of technological capabilities on innovative output and impact

Kotha

Zheng

George

2011

Strategic Management Journal

189

116

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We provide evidence that young firms systematically differ from older firms in their innovative output when they enter 'new to the firm' technological niches. We analyze data from 128 biotechnology firms since their inception and track these firms over time. Our analyses reveal that the organizational age at which the firm branches into new technological niches significantly influences its innovative activity. We refine the focus of the extant literature by separately examining the effects of branching on the quantity of innovative output, and the impact that this output has on the technology domain. Subsequent to branching into new niches, we find that older firms have a higher quantity of output than their younger counterparts; whereas young firms tend to outpace their older rivals with higher impact. The implications of these findings for the literature on dynamic capabilities and entrepreneurship are discussed. Entry into New Niches 3How does the timing of capability development matter? We examine whether the benefits that accrue to expanding technological capabilities are contingent upon firm age. We draw on the organizational aging and dynamic capability literatures to study how the expansion of a firm's capabilities by entering 'new to the firm' technological niches, termed as branching, at different points in the firm's age would vary in its influence on subsequent innovative activity.Though commonly assumed that startups create breakthrough inventions, some contrarian evidence suggests that mature incumbents also generate such discoveries (Dushnitsky and Lenox, 2005;Phene et al., 2006). In a study of large chemical firms, Ahuja and Lampert (2001) proffer evidence to suggest that mature incumbents overcome pathologies of aging by branching into new domains and by recombining new with old knowledge. Other researchers have investigated the temporal and structural effects of recombining new with old knowledge on innovative output (Nerkar, 2003;Rosenkopf and Nerkar, 2001;Rothaermel and Boeker, 2008;Yayavaram and Ahuja, 2008). We contribute to this conversation by examining the role of entry into novel technology areas, i.e. branching, and how the effects of branching on innovative activity vary with firm age.To examine whether the pattern of optimal technological expansion is conditional on firm age, we study innovative output of biotechnology firms from their inception over a twenty year period. This sample allows us to investigate the underlying conditions when firms optimize their output and impact by managing entry into new technological niches. The study engages the literature on capability development, especially in young firms. The entry into new niches corresponds with the expansion of a firm's technological capabilities to drive innovation within and across these technological domains. We also refine the focus of the extant literature by Entry into New Niches 4 separately examining the effects of branching on the quantity of innovative output and the impact that the output has on the technol...

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Science as a map in technological search

Cited by 1,046 publications

References 62 publications

Determinants of patent citations in biotechnology: An analysis of patent influence across the industrial and organizational boundaries

Determinants of patent citations in biotechnology: An analysis of patent influence across the industrial and organizational boundaries

Learning from My Success and from Others' Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery

Entry into new niches: the effects of firm age and the expansion of technological capabilities on innovative output and impact

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