The Impact of the Preferential Attachment Level on the Innovation Network Structure and Innovation Efficiency

Lei Hua,Dan Jin,Jiyou Shao,Zhong Yang,Haoran Zhang

doi:10.1155/2021/9928897

Abstract

In the formation process of innovation networks, the level of preferential attachment between agents has an important impact on the resulting structural and functional characteristics of a network. A simulation model of innovation networks with variable preferential levels of attachment is established to study these impacts. Negative preferences tend to form chain-type structures, while positive preferences tend to form star-type structures. Furthermore, a simulation process of innovation is added to the network model to test the impact of the resulting structures on innovation efficiency. For explorative innovation, the structure with unbiased preference has the fastest innovation speed, but the structures with strong positive preference show lower innovation costs. For exploitive innovation, strong negative preferences generate the fastest innovation speed and relatively low cost, while strong positive preferences show a slightly lower cost than negative preference structures but a much lower innovation speed. Finally, some internal mechanisms of the results are discussed.

Highlights

Innovation networks can help individuals cooperate and obtain the sources required in the process of innovation and have become the main organizational form of modern innovation activities
We explain the mechanism that leads to these simulation results from two perspectives: (1) the influence of network preference on the network structure and (2) the influence of the corresponding network structure on the knowledge dynamics in the innovation process
Different levels of preferential attachment mainly affect three aspects of network structure: the shortest path length [33], network bottleneck [48], and conversational churning [42] between agents. e differences, created by different forms of preferential attachment, can be spotted at a glance in the structure of the resulting networks, as shown in Figure 1. e smaller the value of θ, the more obvious the chain-type structure of the network. en, the shortest path length between any two points on the network is longer. e larger the value of θ, the more obvious the star-type structure of the network. erefore, the central nodes form greater bottlenecks of the network, which inhibit the flow of knowledge

Summary

Introduction

Innovation networks can help individuals cooperate and obtain the sources required in the process of innovation and have become the main organizational form of modern innovation activities. The impact of different levels of preferential attachment on network structure needs further exploration. Erefore, this paper explores the characteristics of the network structure under different levels of preferential attachment and further discusses the influence of the resulting structures on innovation efficiency.

Results

Conclusion