Skip to main content

Structural Holes, Innovation and the Distribution of Ideas

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Innovation Networks

Part of the book series: Understanding Complex Systems ((UCS))

Abstract

This contribution examines the relationship between the architecture of an industrial R&D network and efficiency in knowledge distribution, both from the point of view of individual firm performance, and at the level of the system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Ahuja, G., 2000. “Collaboration Networks, Structural Holes and Innovation: A Longitudinal Study”, Administrative Science Quarterly, 45, 425–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen, R. 1983. “Collective invention”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, ,1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barabá si, A. and R. Albert, 1999. “Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks”, Science, 286, 509–512.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baum, J.A.C., A.V. Shipilov, and T.J. Rowley, 2003. “Where Do Small Worlds Come from? ”, Industrial and Corporate Change, 12, 697–725.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breschi, S. and F. Lissoni, forthcoming. “Mobility and Social Networks: Localised Knowledge Spillovers Revisited”, Annales d’Economie et de Statistique

    Google Scholar 

  • Burt, R.S. 1992. Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, J.S., 1988. “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital”, American Journal of Sociology, 94(S1), S95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, R. and N. Jonard, 2003. “The Dynamics of Collective Invention”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 52, 513–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowan, R. and N. Jonard, 2004. “Network Structure and the Diffusion of Knowledge”, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 28, 1557–1575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyer, J.H. and K. Nobeoka, 2000. “Creating and Managing a High Performance Knowledge Sharing Network: The Toyota Case”, Strategic Management Journal, 21, 345–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gargiulo, B. and M. Bennassi, 2000. “Trapped in Your Own Net? Network Cohesion, Structural Holes and Adaptation of Social Capital”, Organization Science, 11(2), 183–196.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grandstrand, O. and S. Sjolander, 1990. “Managing Innovation in Multi-technology Corporations”, Research Policy, 19, 35–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gulati, R. and M. Gargiulo, 1999. “Where Do Inter-Organizational Networks Come from?”, American Journal of Sociology, 104, 1439–1493.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamoureaux, N.R. 1999. “Accounting for Capitalism in Early American History: Farmers, Merchants, Manufacturers, and Their Economic Worlds.” Technical report, UCLA, 1999. Available at http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/activities/usccpapers/lamoreaux.html.

  • McGaw, J.A., 1987. Most Wonderful Machine: Mechanization and social Change in Berkshire Paper Making, 1801–1885. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.

    Google Scholar 

  • Podolny, J.M. 1993. “A Status-Based Model of Market Competition”, American Journal of Sociology, 98, 829–872.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powell, W.W. 1990. “Neither Markets Nor Hierarchies: Network Forms of Organization.” In B.M. Shaw and L.L. Cummings (eds.). Research in Organizational Behavior, 12, 395–336.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, W.W., K.W. Koput, and L. Smith-Doerr 1996. “Inter-Organizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology”, Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 116–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powell, W.W., D.R. White, K.W. Koput, and J. Owen-Smith, 2005. “Network Dynamics and Field Evolution: The Growth of Inter-organizational Collaboration in the Life Sciences”, American Journal of Sociology, 110, 1132–1205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowley, T., D. Behrens, and D. Krachhardt, 2000. “Redundant Governance Structures: An Analysis of Structural and Relational Embeddedness in the Steel and Semiconductor Industries”, Strategic Management Journal, 21, 369–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Hippel, E., 1987. “Cooperation Between Rivals: Informal Know-how Trading”, Research Policy, 16, 291–302.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Hippel, E. 1994. “The Impact of Sticky Data on Innovation and Problem Solving”, Management Science, 40, 429–439.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, G., B. Kogut, and W. Shan, 1997. “Social Capital, Structural Holes and the Formation of an Industry Network”, Organization Science, 8, 108–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watts, D.J. and S.H. Strogatz, 1998. “Collective dynamics of ‘small-world’ networks”, Nature, 393(6684), 409–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Werker, C. and T. Brenner, 2004. “Empirical Calibration of Simulation Models,” Max Planck Institute, Jena; Papers on Economics and Evolution number 2004–10.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robin Cowan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Cowan, R., Jonard, N. (2009). Structural Holes, Innovation and the Distribution of Ideas. In: Pyka, A., Scharnhorst, A. (eds) Innovation Networks. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92267-4_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92267-4_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-92266-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-92267-4

  • eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics