Laurent Bergé

Centrality of regions in R&D networks: a new measurement approach using the concept of bridging paths

ABSTRACT Centrality of regions in R&D networks: a new measurement approach using the concept of bridging paths. Regional Studies. This paper introduces a novel measure of regional centrality in the context of research and development (R&D) networks. It first demonstrates some substantial problems of social network analysis (SNA)-based centrality measures to cope with regional R&D networks in a meaningful way. It then proposes a new measurement approach of regional network centrality based on the concept of interregional bridging paths (indirect connections at the regional level). The paper shows that the formal definition of the regional bridging centrality measure can be expressed in terms of three simple components: the participation intensity of a region in interregional R&D collaborations; its relative outward orientation in terms of all established links; and its diversification of R&D collaborations among partner regions. The measure and its behaviour with respect to other conventional centrality measures are illustrated by its application to the European co-patent network at the NUTS-2 level.

Bridging centrality as an indicator to measure the 'bridging role' of actors in networks: An application to the European Nanotechnology co-publication network

In the recent past, we can observe growing interest in STI studies in the notion of positioning indicators, shifting emphasis to actors in the innovation process and their R&D inter-linkages with other actors. In relation to this, we suggest a new approach for assessing the positioning of actors relying on the notion of bridging centrality (BC). Based on the concept of bridging paths, i.e. a set of two links connecting three actors across three different aggregate nodes (e.g. organisations, or regions), we argue that triangulation in networks is a key issue for knowledge recombinations and the extension of an actor’s knowledge base. As bridges are most often not empirically observable at the individual level of research teams, we propose an approximated BC measure that provides a flexible framework for dealing with the aggregation problem in positioning actors. Hereby, BC is viewed as a function of an aggregate nodes (i) participation intensity in the network, (ii) its openness to other nodes (i.e. the relative outward orientation of network links), and iii) the diversification of links to other nodes. In addition, we propose a generalised version of the BC measure that accounts for different node categories. An illustrative example on the European Nanotechnology co-publication network observed at the level of organisations demonstrates the usefulness and complementary interpretation power in comparison to conventional centrality measures.