Divisive Faultlines and Knowledge Search in Technological Innovation Network: An Empirical Study of Global Biopharmaceutical Firms

Abstract

Divisive faultlines caused by the uneven distribution of relationship strength play an essential role in knowledge search in the technological innovation network, which serves as an important requirement for the technological innovation network’s macro level to expand to the meso-subgroup level and promote its healthy development. Given that the biopharmaceutical industry, as a high-tech industry, plays a vital role in promoting healthy development, this paper uses the joint patent applications of global biopharmaceutical firms from 2003 to 2018 as a sample to construct a technological innovation network, to explore the relationship between divisive faultlines and knowledge search in the technological innovation network. We also study the moderating effect of structural holes in this relationship. The empirical results show that divisive faultlines significantly affect the depth of knowledge search in the technological innovation network. Divisive faultlines have an inverted U-shaped effect on the breadth of knowledge search in the technological innovation network. Structural holes positively moderate the relationship between divisive faultlines and depth of knowledge search but negatively moderate the inverted U-shaped relationship between divisive faultlines and breadth of knowledge search. This research reveals the relationship between divisive faultlines and the knowledge search in the technological innovation network. The research results provide a theoretical basis and management enlightenment to improve biopharmaceutical firms’ knowledge search ability and promote healthy and sustainable development.

Research on Technological Divisive Faultlines in Cliques: Evidence From China’s Biomedical Industry Innovation Network

“…Their work proved that divisive faultlines within subgroups would lead to network polarization. Besides, there is an inverted u-shaped relationship between divisive faultlines and knowledge search breadth in technology innovation networks [18]. Accordingly, Cheng et al took agricultural technology joint patent application and new energy vehicle patent construction cooperation network as samples.…”

“…In this paper, the TDF is defined as the invisible dividing lines that divide a clique into two or more subcliques due to differences in the technological similarity between firms that lead to uneven strength of inter-firm relationships. It characterizes the differences of all the firm pairs' technological similarities within a clique, and its value is defined as the intensity of the TDF [17] [18].…”

“…Firms within the clique are more willing to communicate with others with similar technologies to pursue greater knowledge flow [24] so that firms can solve their innovation problems within the sub-clique with a stronger sense of belonging. Therefore, it can be inferred that the TDF will make firms tend to complete innovation activities in the sub-clique with more technical similarity, weaken the unity of the clique and hinder the knowledge flow among the sub-cliques [18] [21].…”

Investigation of Nexus between Knowledge Learning and Enterprise Green Innovation Based on Meta-Analysis with a Focus on China

“…The search breadth of green resources refers to the breadth of enterprises' searching and acquiring external knowledge, which is mainly reflected in the number of external knowledge channels used, the breadth of external knowledge fields searched, and the number of levels or types of external knowledge searched [16,28,100].…”

“…The search depth of green resources refers to the enterprise's mining and reuse of the externally searched and acquired knowledge, mainly manifested in the frequency and persistence of cooperation and communication with knowledge sources [16,28,100].…”