Knowledge and Collaboration Networks and Local Search Behaviors of Inventors

Abstract

Inventors are embedded both in knowledge networks consisting of links between knowledge elements and in collaboration networks with other inventors. The two networks are decoupled, their structural features are distinct, and they interactively influence inventors’ local searches for knowledge. Based on a longitudinal patent data, we explore the effects of two structural features of inventors in the networks—centrality and structural holes—on their local search behaviors. We find that inventors’ centrality in a firm’s knowledge network will contribute to the depth and breadth of their local searches while structural holes will hinder it. Moreover, the efficiency of centrality in the knowledge network for local search increases when inventors hold central positions and span structural holes in the collaboration network. These findings have implications for research on network embeddedness, knowledge search, and their accompanying micro-foundations.