Journal
SCIENTOMETRICS
Volume 126, Issue 9, Pages 7811-7836Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-021-04089-5
Keywords
Employee co-invention network dynamics; Firm exploratory innovation; Employee co-invention network centralization; Knowledge-employee network equilibrium
Funding
- Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (CN) [20GLC012]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [71974096]
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [30921012201]
- Young Teachers Research Foundation Project of School of Economics and Management in Nanjing University of Science and Technology [JGQN2002]
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This study examines the relationship between intra-firm employee co-invention network dynamics and firm exploratory innovation, proposing an inverted U-shaped relationship. The research also reveals the moderating effect of intra-firm network structures on this relationship.
Drawing on a dynamic approach, increasing research investigates network dynamics at the inter-firm level in recent years. However, little is known about intra-firm employee network dynamics and their consequences for firm exploratory innovation. This paper addresses the gap by focusing on employee co-invention network dynamics conceptualized as employee turnover and across-team movement. Based on the knowledge-based view and transactive memory system theory, this research elaborates on the dual mechanism of employee co-invention network dynamics and proposes an inverted U-shaped relationship between employee co-invention network dynamics and firm exploratory innovation. Furthermore, employees and their innovation are structurally embedded in the intra-firm networks. This paper investigates the moderation effect of intra-firm network structures. First, employee co-invention network centralization, indicating a core-periphery co-invention structure among employees, may negatively moderate the inverted U-shaped relationship. Second, knowledge-employee network equilibrium, indicating an evenly- and broadly- distributed knowledge structure among employees, may positively moderate the inverted U-shaped relationship. Based on patent data of 76 high-tech firms over 31 years from 1990 to 2020, this paper develops novel quantitative measures and conducts panel regression analysis. Results support all the above predictions.
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