Tufool Alnuaimi

Revisiting the small-world phenomenon: Efficiency variation and classification of small-world networks

Research has explored how embeddedness in small-world networks influences individual and firm outcomes. We show that there remains significant heterogeneity among networks classified as small-world networks. We develop measures of the efficiency of a network, which allow us to refine predictions associated with small-world networks. A network is classified as a small-world network if it exhibits a distance between nodes that is comparable to the distance found in random networks of similar sizes—with ties randomly allocated among nodes—in addition to containing dense clusters. To assess how efficient a network is, there are two questions worth asking: (a) What is a compelling random network for baseline levels of distance and clustering? and (b) How proximal should an observed value be to the baseline to be deemed comparable? Our framework tests properties of networks, using simulation, to further classify small-world networks according to their efficiency. Our results suggest that small-world networks exhibit significant variation in efficiency. We explore implications for the field of management and organization.

A Template for Invention: Renewing & Recycling Knowledge Components

We explore how old technologies can be recombined to generate new inventions. We consider four ways by which old technologies can serve as templates: subtraction, reconfiguration, addition, and rep...

Optimism, Vulnerability, and Entrepreneurial Intent: Occupation Change Intentions in Rural East Africa

We examine how income seeking attitude, economic and occupational vulnerability jointly influence individual intentions to switch into entrepreneurship under desperate poverty. We posit that vulnerability negatively moderates the relationship between optimism and entrepreneurial intention. We find support for our predictions in a sample of 673 individuals from two sub-locations in rural Kenya. The study design enables us to compare intention to change occupation into entrepreneurship against changing into other occupations. We find that intention to change into entrepreneurship has a distinctly different causal process. We discuss implications of our findings entrepreneurship under conditions of desperate poverty and the theory of planned behavior.

Not With my Own: Long-term Effects of Cross-country Collaboration on Subsidiary Innovation in Emerging Economies

Prior literature has established that international collaboration on R&D is an important means for generating new and impactful ideas through the cross-border integration of knowledge. We show that cross-country collaboration improves not just the resulting inventions, but also has a long-term benefit for the involved inventors in terms of continuing to generate higher-impact patents in the future. However, our results also show that the improved performance of specific inventors in an MNC subsidiary does not translate to broader subsidiary-level capabilities at innovation. One possible explanation might be that inventors obtaining international exposure often do not develop collaborative ties with other inventors in the subsidiary, favoring instead to collaborate internationally on subsequent R&D projects.