当前合作网络结构对关键研发者创造力的影响

The Influence of Current Collaborative Network Structure on the Creativity of Key Inventors

以往文献对关键研发者创造力的研究很少。本文区分了关键研发者和一般研发者,并利用国内10家主要家电企业的发明型和实用新型专利数据研究了212名关键研发者当前合作网络结构的局部和整体上的优势对其创造力的影响。本文所提出的假设认为当前网络的局部特征,即结构洞的数量,以及当前网络的全局特征,即中间中心度和间接连接数量均会对关键研发者的创造力产生显著正向影响;同时,还认为中间中心度对间接连接数量与关键研发者创造力之间的关系有着显著的正向调节作用,固定效应负二项回归模型的分析结果支持了这些假设。此外,研究还发现,相比于改进性创新,当进行探索性创新时,当前间接连接可以显著提高关键研发者的创造力。文章随后对这些结果进行了进一步探讨分析,并点明其对于企业创新管理者的参考价值和意义。最后,本文还分析了该模型的不足之处以及未来的研究方向。

According to the 80-20 rule,a few persons play influential roles in the decision making process.The success of knowledge intensive enterprises in competition primarily depends on creative talents.In this article,we define these outstanding people as key inventors who are so creative that they drive R＆D projects,make technical breakthroughs and generate a large number of patents.Key inventor management is an important topic in the area of human resource management.If key inventors can be supported properly,firms will greatly benefit from their innovative activities.Although previous literatures have widely investigated factors on the creativity of common inventors and the identification of key inventors,the questions about whether some casual links exist between current network structures and key inventors＇ creativity have not been explored.Understanding these relationships can not only contribute to our theoretical and empirical knowledge about key inventors＇ innovation activities,but also yields practical implications for managing their creativity as well as building effcient and effective R＆D teams.In the first section,we theoretically differentiate key inventors from common employees.We further propose that the local and global characteristics of collaborative networks,as well as the number of current indirect connections would play significant and positive roles on key inventors＇ creativity.At the same time,this article also assumes that current betweenness centrality would positively moderate the relationship between current indirect ties and key inventors＇ creativity.The bigger the current betweenness centrality,the more benefits key inventors would gain from current indirect ties.This set of hypotheses systematically deduces the casual links between current network structures and key inventors＇ super creativity.In order to test these hypotheses,we examine how local and global advantages of 212 key inventors＇ current network attributes affect their creativity by using both invention and utility patent data from 10 major domestic appliance enterprises.Key inventors are identified by the ranking of patenting output.For instance,inventors who develop more than 10 patents and are among the best of the first 40 candidates in their firms are selected.We only focus on appliance firms because they belong to one of the most mature technical industries in China.Due to intensive competition,they always resort to patents for protecting intellectual property.To make our model more robust,the potential influence of past networks is also included and strictly controlled.As a result,fixed-effect negative binomial regression models support these hypotheses.Moreover,the additional regression analysis also demonstrates that current indirect ties work much differently according to the two types of innovations within firms：exploratory and incremental innovation.Exploratory innovation needs to absorb novel knowledge.Incremental innovation primarily uses the existing experience and knowledge.More specifically,while current indirect ties are positively correlated with key inventors＇ creativity under the condition of exploratory innovation （i.e.key inventors generate invention patents） the effect of them completely disappears when we include them in the model with incremental innovations （i.e.key inventors produce utility patents）.Therefore,for key inventors we argue that current indirect ties are much more important for exploratory innovation than incremental innovation.These results make a great sense for the use of current indirect ties.The findings of this study provide managerial implications for managers in charge of enterprise innovation.