How Does A Firm’s Previous Social Network Position Affect Innovation? Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

Abstract

The impact of social network position on innovation has been widely confirmed in past studies. However, research on the time-lag structure of the impact is still insufficient. Within the time window 2010 to 2017, this study constructs a two-mode social network between Chinese listed companies and other participants. To analyze the lag structure of the effect of social network position on innovation, this study uses a panel negative binomial regression model transformed by the Almon polynomial. The results show that a firm does need an advantageous past social network position for innovation. Previous local and global centrality in a social network has a different influence on innovation. For the local centrality indices, degree centrality has a positive impact in the short-term, but has a negative impact in the long-term; the impact of betweenness centrality is not significant in the short-term and is negative in the long run. For the global centrality indices, closeness centrality has a positive influence that decreases with the increase of the time-lag. At the same time, using the method of necessary condition analysis (NCA), this study calculates the bottleneck for a given innovation level. Finally, based on these research conclusions, the theoretical implications and management practice implications are summarized.

Innovation Diffusion of Mobile Applications in Social Networks: A Multi-Agent System

“…Then, the intensity of the network effect can improve the value utility of the mobile applications and extend the duration of innovation diffusion. In line with the research of Wei et al [3] and Muller and Peres [7], this research evidence also supports the important role of network structure in the diffusion of mobile application innovation. Our findings also emphasize the impact of the user's preferences and neighbor's influence on personal decisions.…”

“…Nowadays, market competition in mobile applications is increasingly fierce. The success of the mobile application in market promotion not only helps Internet enterprises to seize the market and create business value, but also allows firms establish a good reputation and gain a competitive advantage [1][2][3].…”

“…">IntroductionNowadays, market competition in mobile applications is increasingly fierce. The success of the mobile application in market promotion not only helps Internet enterprises to seize the market and create business value, but also allows firms establish a good reputation and gain a competitive advantage [1][2][3].The innovation diffusion of mobile applications always occurs in user groups. Since users can communicate and interact with others, most of the diffusion of mobile applications is based on each user in a social network [4,5].…”

City Centrality, Migrants and Green Inovation Efficiency: Evidence from 106 Cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt of China

“…No scholars have analyzed whether the structure of city innovation networks will affect innovation. In addition, existing research generally believes that higher degree centrality reduces the cost of acquiring knowledge and talent for network members, so the degree centrality positively affects innovation performance [25]. However, this article concludes that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between city centrality and green innovation efficiency, which makes up for the lack of analysis of the positive and negative effects of centrality in the existing literature.…”

“…Some researchers believe that heterogeneity in innovation performance comes from the abilities to access and create the resources [23], when using external knowledge resources to innovate, it's easy for enterprises to produce innovation without the guidance of partners if innovative resources can be fully absorbed and utilized [24]. Dong found that the acquisition of innovative resources depends on knowledge network centrality [25]. Therefore, the centrality increases the chances of acquiring innovative resources [26], the innovation network plays an important role for network members to acquire innovation resources through inter-organizational relationships, and the positions of members in the network structure directly affect their ability to acquire resource.…”