Muge Ozman

Inter-firm networks and innovation: a survey of literature

This survey covers the recent literature on inter-firm networks as far as they have implications for innovation and technological change. The studies are classified according to the direction of causality in network studies. In the literature, some studies focus on the effect of networks, while others on the origins and formation of networks. These are represented as a circular flow diagram of network research. Circular diagram includes three themes of analysis as: (1) origins of networks, (2) firm performance, (3) network structure, and shows the relationship between these themes as observed in network research. The aim of this survey is to guide researchers working on inter-firm networks about the theoretical and empirical results obtained up to now in the field and to highlight those areas which need further work.

Knowledge Dynamics in a Network Industry

In this paper, we model the impact of networks on knowledge growth in an innovating industry. Specifically, we compare two mediums of knowledge exchange: random interaction, and the case in which interaction occurs on a fixed architecture. In a simulation study, we investigate how the medium of knowledge exchange contributes to knowledge growth under different scenarios related to the industrys innovative potential. We measure innovative potential by considering the extent to which knowledge can be codified, and the available technological opportunities. Our results tend to support the conjecture that spatial clustering generates higher long-run knowledge growth rates in industries characterized by highly tacit knowledge, while the opposite is true when the degree of codification is important.

Modularity, Industry Life Cycle and Open Innovation

This paper discusses the incentives behind, and effects of open innovation in different stages of an industry life cycle. It argues that in the beginning of an industry life cycle, open innovation policies usually serve the dual purpose of exploring distant knowledge sources, and exploiting potential network effects to strengthen the installed base of a technology. In the later phases of the industry life cycle, after the emergence of a dominant design, open innovation incentives and effects depend largely on the product system architecture. Modularity at different parts of the product system is an important dimension which influences the types of open innovation strategies implemented by firms.

Technological diversity and inventor networks

This article examines the relationship between the structure of intra-firm inventor networks and the technological diversity of firms. We test this relationship for a panel of 222 firms in the ICT sector for the period 1995–2003, by utilizing data on their granted patents. The results reveal that the relation between the strength of ties between inventors in R&D teams and the firms’ technological diversity is curvilinear. In other words, while strong ties between inventors can promote diversity, there is a limit to this positive effect. After this limit, strong ties can inhibit diversity, possibly by limiting the capabilities of network members to process novelty. In addition, we find that the impact of the scale-free metric on technological diversity is negative.

W. Brian Arthur: The nature of technology: what it is and how it evolves

Brian Arthur, whose previous work has been a source of inspiration for many of us who are interested or involved in technology studies, addresses some important questions concerned with the nature of technology. The first question, which comprises the first half of ‘‘The Nature of Technology’’, is concerned with defining technology. Can we find a unique way of explaining the vast array of different technologies? What do these technologies have in common? In the second half of the book, Arthur continues to explore the dynamic nature of technologies: how do technologies come into being and how do they evolve? In the first part, Brian Arthur considers the three different ways in which we use the word technology. Firstly, a technology can be taken individually (‘‘technology singular’’ as he calls it). Singular technologies fulfill a human purpose, like the steam engine and the computer. Secondly, technology can be taken as a domain. He defines a domain as the ‘‘assemblage of practices and components’’. For example, he considers ‘‘electronics’’ as a technology domain. Thirdly, technology is ‘‘an entire collection of devices and engineering practices available to a culture’’. This meaning does not refer to a particular technology. Rather, it refers to the way we use the word in general sense. An example of this usage would be when we talk of ‘‘technology as a hope for mankind’’. The book concentrates on the developmental processes of the first two meanings. What do these meanings have in common? The first principle is that technologies are based on combinations of technologies including earlier versions of themselves. The idea of combination and recursiveness stresses that each technology can be seen as a hierarchical structure in which there are combinations of assemblies, which are themselves composed of subassemblies and each subassembly is a technology in its own right and fulfills some purpose. The second principle is that technologies are