Learning Amid Technological Disruption: Evidencefrom U.S. Inventors, 1836-1999

Abstract

How do inventors in disruptive technological environments accumulate knowledge? When disruption erodes the value of inventors’ knowledge, their time becomes one of their most precious resources. Inventors can learn by accumulating experience over time, but inventors operating in highly disruptive environments require faster alternatives. One alternative is collaboration, which allows inventors to aggregate knowledge quickly. To assess how disruption affects inventors' strategies for knowledge aggregation, we study how the benefits inventors received from experience and from collaboration in teams of co-inventors changed across historical periods and technological fields with different disruption rates. Our analysis uses novel datasets that track the careers and record the impact of the inventions of U.S.-based patent inventors that started their careers between 1836 and 1999. Our results show that the importance of prior patenting experience for the creation of high-impact inventions decreased in the early 20th century, while the importance of collaborating in large teams increased. Both shifts were greater for inventors that patented in more disruptive technological fields, indicating that technological disruption induced inventors to collaborate. Our results generate critical insights for individuals, teams, and organizations that compete in the disruptive contemporary knowledge economy.