Knowledge transfer efficiency measurement with application for open innovation networks

Abstract

Knowledge transfer efficiency is an important indicator to evaluate the performance of open innovation (OI). However, there are few researches on the measurement of knowledge transfer efficiency in the context of OI networks. To make up this gap, this study explores the measurement of knowledge transfer efficiency based on the weighted OI network. Firstly, this paper builds the weighted OI network model with node and edge weights. On the basis of the weighted OI network model, the weighted path length and clustering coefficient are introduced and analysed. Moreover, the efficiency of knowledge transfer is further proposed as the main measure of knowledge transfer efficiency by comprehensively embodying the above factors, and then an extended application of the proposed main measure is developed to identify and locate the important members with great impact on knowledge transfer. Finally, a real case of several OI networks is provided to illustrate the applicability of the weighted OI network model and the knowledge transfer efficiency measurement method.