预研情景下关键研发者中间人角色转换研究——基于通信行业的数据

Research on the resistance of key inventors′brokerage role transformationin the context of pre-research:Based on the telecommunication industry data

本文基于移动通信技术迭代的预研情景,以10家通信企业在4G、5G预研阶段中的184名关键研发者为样本,从网络结构和网络内容角度出发,分析以往合作网络中关键研发者的关系强度和结构洞对其当前网络中间人角色转换的影响,并考察关键研发者的知识深度和知识宽度在其中发挥的调节作用。Logit回归分析结果表明:以往合作网络中关键研发者的关系强度和结构洞对其中间人角色转换均产生显著的负向影响,关键研发者的知识深度和知识宽度均显著削弱这一负向影响,但在共同调节作用下,知识深度削弱关系强度对中间人角色转换的负向影响这一效应消失。在此基础上,本文采用Link检验检测模型是否遗漏重要的解释变量,并使用两种不同的工具变量法解决模型可能存在的内生性问题。研究结论不仅从动态网络角度进一步拓展了关键研发者和中间人角色的相关研究,也为企业在环境高度不确定情况下的创新活动管理提供一定的理论指导和建议。

With the revolution in technology and the acceleration of product upgrades,higher requirements have been placed on the innovation capabilities of telecommunication companies.These companies have gradually put more technical advantages,R&D funds,and senior research personnel into pre-research.However,pre-research presents companies with challenges owing to its exploratory nature and uncertainty.As the main participants in pre-research activities,key inventors have rich R&D experience,excellent innovation ability,and deep knowledge accumulation.Simultaneously,they occupy core positions in internal collaboration networks,span many structural holes,and act as important knowledge brokers.They must transform different brokerage roles to adapt to the changing environment at different pre-research stages.Although there have been numerous studies on key inventors and brokerage roles,most have paid more attention to the problems in their respective fields.Very few researchers have focused on key inventors′brokerage role changes in the pre-research stage.Therefore,exploring this problem has important practical and theoretical significance for high-tech companies in effectively conducting pre-research activities.Based on the framework of dynamic network analysis proposed by Ahuja and the time factor,this study examines the transformation of the brokerage roles of key inventors in different pre-research stages from two aspects:network structure and content.For the former,tie strength and structural holes of key inventors in collaborative networks were selected as independent factors.For the latter,knowledge width and depth were selected as moderating variables.A total of 184 key inventors in the 4G and 5G pre-research stages of ten telecommunications companies were chosen to build the sample.Correspondingly,based on the patent data information,we construct collaborative networks of inventors in the pre-research stage for each company and measure the variables at each observation point.We explore the impact of the key inventors′tie strength and structural holes in the two pre-research stages of 4G and 5G on the brokerage role transformation with six hypotheses and apply the link test to detect whether our model misses important variables.Finally,to manage possible endogeneity problems,we use two different instrumental variable methods.The results,first,show that tie strength has a significant negative effect on brokerage role transformation.Specifically,the greater the key inventors′tie strength in previous collaborative networks,the more difficult it is for brokerage role transformation in the current stage.Second,the study indicates that the number of structural holes key investors occupy has a significant negative effect on the change in brokerage roles.Namely,the more structural holes in previous collaborative networks,the more difficult it is for brokerage roles to be transformed in the current stage.Our robustness tests demonstrated the consistency of these conclusions.Finally,our results verified the moderating effect of knowledge width and depth.Both weakened the negative relationship between the network variables and brokerage role transformation.However,after examining the full model,we found that the weakening effect of knowledge depth on the relationship between tie strength and brokerage role transformation disappears.This study had two theoretical implications.First,it combines the dynamic analysis framework of network structure and content to explore the internal mechanism of key inventors′brokerage role transformation.By doing so,they also illuminated individual network changes in micro level pre-research activities.It not only expands the research scenarios and views of brokerage roles,but also provides references for subsequent studies to understand brokerage roles from the perspective of dynamic networks.Second,based on an analysis of brokerage roles,this study reveals the essence and genesis of their changes in the internal innovation process.Finally,this study also promotes innovation theory research of key inventors with a network dynamics perspective.This study has practical implications for pre-research management.First,companies should try to diversify key inventors′collaborators and maintain appropriate contacts and interactions among them to avoid solidification and homogenization of their ego networks.Next,according to different R&D circumstances,companies should purposefully build inventor networks that enhance mutual interactions and connections to improve the efficiency of key inventors′new knowledge internalization.Finally,companies should focus on the technical fields in which key inventors excel and the extent of proficiency,increasing the knowledge breadth and depth to make them become“generalists”or“specialists”.