Year: 2018
Type: article
Abstract: This paper examines how the alliance moderates the relationship between the inventors' structural position and the innovation processes. Prior studies show that the inventors' structural position influences the choice of knowledge in R&D. Also, recent empirical studies find that the inter-firm relationship as well as the inventors' structural position influences the choice of knowledge in R&D. However, it is difficult to identify the inventors who are related to the alliance. Therefore, I test the theory on Sony's R&D activities for Blu-ray disc (BD) because an important R&D consortium was established in the industry and we can identify the inventors who developed technologies for BD. The findings are as follows. Centrality of an inventor in the intra-firm network is positively associated with her impact on her firm's R&D activities. However, the participation in the R&D consortium weakens the positive relationship between centrality of an inventor and her impact on her firm's R&D activities. Therefore, because the inter-firm relationship could affect the innovation processes, managers need to pay attention to how to manage core inventors.
Author: Tomoyuki, Shimbo
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7208329579