Anu Wadhwa

Knowledge, Networks, and Knowledge Networks: A Review and Research Agenda

A large and growing body of empirical research shows that social relationships and the networks these relationships constitute are influential in explaining the processes of knowledge creation, diffusion, absorption, and use. The authors refer to such networks as “knowledge networks.” They advance an understanding of knowledge networks at multiple levels by conducting a systematic review and analysis of empirical research published on this topic in leading management, psychology, sociology, and economics journals. The authors develop a comprehensive framework that organizes the knowledge networks literature, which they use to review extant empirical research within and across multiple disciplines and levels of analysis. They identify points of coherence and conflict in theoretical arguments and empirical results within and across levels and identify emerging themes and promising areas for future research.

Knowledge, Networks, and Knowledge Networks

A large and growing body of empirical research shows that social relationships and the networks these relationships constitute are influential in explaining the processes of knowledge creation, diffusion, absorption, and use. The authors refer to such networks as “knowledge networks.” They advance an understanding of knowledge networks at multiple levels by conducting a systematic review and analysis of empirical research published on this topic in leading management, psychology, sociology, and economics journals. The authors develop a comprehensive framework that organizes the knowledge networks literature, which they use to review extant empirical research within and across multiple disciplines and levels of analysis. They identify points of coherence and conflict in theoretical arguments and empirical results within and across levels and identify emerging themes and promising areas for future research.

Open Business Models and Venture Capital Finance

We investigate the differences in venture capital (VC) governance of investee firms with Open Business Models, specifically Open Source Software (OSS), versus closed business models. Due to OSS’s pronounced complexity and uncertainty, we conjecture that VC-backed OSS firms are more frequently staged and syndicated. We present robust empirical evidence from the United States that OSS ventures have more financing rounds and are more likely to be syndicated, and mixed evidence that OSS ventures have a larger number of syndicated investors.

Creating Exploratory Innovations by Learning from Entrepreneurial Ventures

Corporate venture capital (CVC), direct minority equity investments made by established companies in privately held start-ups, has become an important strategic tool for many large companies. In particular, firms often pursue CVC investing as a way to learn about novel technologies. Although CVC investments are inherently exploratory and have been found to enhance investing firm’s innovation, research has yet to establish whether CVC investing leads to the development of exploratory innovations (i.e., innovations that embody knowledge that differs from knowledge used by the firm in prior innovation efforts). In this paper, we explore the conditions under which CVC investments lead to the creation of exploratory knowledge by corporate investors. Building on insights from the recombinatory search and interorganizational learning literatures, we argue that three characteristics of an investing firm’s portfolio of start-ups will enhance its creation of exploratory knowledge. Using longitudinal data on a panel of 40 telecommunications equipment manufacturers, we find that investing firms produce more exploratory knowledge when their portfolios include start-ups that are moderately diverse, mature, and possess codified technological knowledge.

An Option to Partner: A Dyadic Analysis of CVC Relationships

This paper takes a real options view of corporate venture capital (CVC), which are direct minority equity investments made by established companies in privately held entrepreneurial ventures. CVC investments have been characterized as creating growth options for corporate investors. We argue corporate investors often exercise these growth options by forming strategic alliances with their portfolio firms. We identify and empirically test a set of factors that lead established firms to exercise the growth options embedded in CVC investments by forming strategic alliances with the entrepreneurial ventures in which they invested. We explore how uncertainty surrounding a CVC investment influences the likelihood of future alliance formation.

The paradox of openness and value protection strategies: Effect of extramural R&D on innovative performance

The emphasis in firms on extramural research and development (R&D), involving increased engagement with external entities in the conduct of research, can also result in knowledge leakage. Knowledge leaks can undermine firm competitiveness, and to prevent this, firms deploy various isolating mechanisms to protect their knowledge. Integrating insights from the resource-based view and evolutionary theory, we hypothesize an inverted curvilinear relationship between extramural R&D and innovation and explain why the value protection strategies employed by firms change the relationship at various degrees of external knowledge sourcing. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 506 French manufacturing firms using data from three surveys conducted in the period 1998 to 2006. We find an inverted-U-shaped relationship between extramural R&D and innovation performance. This relationship is moderated by employee retention and secrecy such that the benefits of extramural R&D are weakened at lower degrees of extramural R&D...