IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-02430-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unraveling the dynamics and identifying the “superstars” of R&D alliances in IUR collaboration: a two-mode network analysis in China

Author

Listed:
  • Zeyu Xing

    (Wuhan University
    Wuhan University)

  • Li Wang

    (Zhejiang Laboratory
    Zhejiang Laboratory)

  • Debin Fang

    (Wuhan University
    Wuhan University)

Abstract

The collaborations between industry, university, and research institutes have become more relevant with the trend of knowledge commercialization, while whether there exists a “superstar” in R&D alliance networks, who played a key role in the diffusion and transfer of technology and knowledge, remains unexplored. Based on R&D activities information of joint patents in China, this study applied two-mode network analysis to understand the R&D alliance network of the industry-university-research institute (IUR) collaboration. Three types of networks, collaboration networks, knowledge networks, and inter-organizational technology networks among IUR are developed, and their evolution process is analyzed at different levels, including overall structure, individual characteristics, and temporal evolution among IUR. The results show that no permanent superstar is being the dominant position. Distinct modes have been emerging in different periods: in the formation period, the mode is U-R, I-U, U, R, I; in the growth period, the mode is I-R, I-U, I-U-R; in the mature period, the mode is I-U-R. In addition, different technology classes were aggregated in different periods. This paper attempts to provide countermeasures and recommendations for enterprises, universities, and research institutions to enable the success of their collaborations.

Suggested Citation

  • Zeyu Xing & Li Wang & Debin Fang, 2023. "Unraveling the dynamics and identifying the “superstars” of R&D alliances in IUR collaboration: a two-mode network analysis in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-19, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02430-2
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02430-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-02430-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-02430-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Pepe, 2011. "The relationship between acquaintanceship and coauthorship in scientific collaboration networks," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(11), pages 2121-2132, November.
    2. Mengting Maggie Yuan & Xue Guo & Linwei Wu & Ya Zhang & Naijia Xiao & Daliang Ning & Zhou Shi & Xishu Zhou & Liyou Wu & Yunfeng Yang & James M. Tiedje & Jizhong Zhou, 2021. "Climate warming enhances microbial network complexity and stability," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 11(4), pages 343-348, April.
    3. Wei Yang & Xiang Yu & Dian Wang & Jinrui Yang & Ben Zhang, 2021. "Spatio-temporal evolution of technology flows in China: patent licensing networks 2000–2017," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 46(5), pages 1674-1703, October.
    4. Haiyan Hou & Hildrun Kretschmer & Zeyuan Liu, 2008. "The structure of scientific collaboration networks in Scientometrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 75(2), pages 189-202, May.
    5. Alberto Pepe, 2011. "The relationship between acquaintanceship and coauthorship in scientific collaboration networks," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(11), pages 2121-2132, November.
    6. Thanh Trung Vo & Saeid Nezamabadi & Patrick Mutabaruka & Jean-Yves Delenne & Farhang Radjai, 2020. "Additive rheology of complex granular flows," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    7. Marco Tortoriello & Ray Reagans & Bill McEvily, 2012. "Bridging the Knowledge Gap: The Influence of Strong Ties, Network Cohesion, and Network Range on the Transfer of Knowledge Between Organizational Units," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 1024-1039, August.
    8. Dibiaggio, Ludovic & Nasiriyar, Maryam & Nesta, Lionel, 2014. "Substitutability and complementarity of technological knowledge and the inventive performance of semiconductor companies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(9), pages 1582-1593.
    9. Céline Flipo & Pier Vittorio Mannucci & Kevyn Yong, 2023. "The impact of cultural tightness on the relationship between structural holes, tie strength, and creativity," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 54(2), pages 332-343, March.
    10. Sprong, Niels & Driessen, Paul H. & Hillebrand, Bas & Molner, Sven, 2021. "Market innovation: A literature review and new research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 450-462.
    11. Hyunseok Park & Janghyeok Yoon, 2014. "Assessing coreness and intermediarity of technology sectors using patent co-classification analysis: the case of Korean national R&D," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 853-890, February.
    12. Cohen, Wesley M & Levinthal, Daniel A, 1989. "Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 569-596, September.
    13. Hilal Atasoy & Pei-yu Chen & Kartik Ganju, 2018. "The Spillover Effects of Health IT Investments on Regional Healthcare Costs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(6), pages 2515-2534, June.
    14. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/43aq8ffdqb82sbffkv69bt1eaa is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Hershberg, Eric & Nabeshima, Kaoru & Yusuf, Shahid, 2007. "Opening the Ivory Tower to Business: University-Industry Linkages and the Development of Knowledge-Intensive Clusters in Asian Cities," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 931-940, June.
    16. Kafouros, Mario & Wang, Chengqi & Piperopoulos, Panagiotis & Zhang, Mingshen, 2015. "Academic collaborations and firm innovation performance in China: The role of region-specific institutions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 803-817.
    17. Srikanth Paruchuri & Snehal Awate, 2017. "Organizational knowledge networks and local search: The role of intra‐organizational inventor networks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 657-675, March.
    18. Lachang Lyu & Weiping Wu & Haipeng Hu & Ru Huang, 2019. "An evolving regional innovation network: collaboration among industry, university, and research institution in China’s first technology hub," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 659-680, June.
    19. Corey C. Phelps, 2010. "A longitudinal study of the influence of alliance network structure and composition on firm exploratory innovation," Post-Print hal-00528392, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Yi & Chen, Kaihua, 2022. "Network growth dynamics: The simultaneous interaction between network positions and research performance of collaborative organisations," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    2. Cimenler, Oguz & Reeves, Kingsley A. & Skvoretz, John, 2014. "A regression analysis of researchers’ social network metrics on their citation performance in a college of engineering," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 667-682.
    3. Guan, Jiancheng & Liu, Na, 2016. "Exploitative and exploratory innovations in knowledge network and collaboration network: A patent analysis in the technological field of nano-energy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 97-112.
    4. Shuman Zhang & Changhong Yuan & Chen Han, 2020. "Industry–university–research alliance portfolio size and firm performance: the contingent role of political connections," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 45(5), pages 1505-1534, October.
    5. Cimenler, Oguz & Reeves, Kingsley A. & Skvoretz, John, 2015. "An evaluation of collaborative research in a college of engineering," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 577-590.
    6. Zhang, Ningning & You, Dingyi & Tang, Le & Wen, Ke, 2023. "Knowledge path dependence, external connection, and radical inventions: Evidence from Chinese Academy of Sciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    7. Chen, Kaihua & Zhang, Yi & Zhu, Guilong & Mu, Rongping, 2020. "Do research institutes benefit from their network positions in research collaboration networks with industries or/and universities?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 94.
    8. Hameeda A. AlMalki & Christopher M. Durugbo, 2023. "Systematic review of institutional innovation literature: towards a multi-level management model," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 731-785, June.
    9. Zakaryan, Arusyak, 2023. "Organizational knowledge networks, search and exploratory invention," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    10. Oerlemans, Leon & Chan, K.Y. & Knoben, Joris & Vermeulen, P.A.M., 2018. "Structural and geographical conditions for exploitative innovation : Evidence from South African manufacturing firms," Other publications TiSEM 4abcf615-a0d4-49ef-ba25-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Ko, Young Jin & O'Neill, Hugh & Xie, Xuanli, 2021. "Strategic intent as a contingency of the relationship between external knowledge and firm innovation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    12. Jiao, Hao & Wang, Tang & Yang, Jifeng, 2022. "Team structure and invention impact under high knowledge diversity: An empirical examination of computer workstation industry," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    13. Yue Zhao & Ronaldo Parente & Stav Fainshmidt & Steven Carnovale, 2021. "MNE host-country alliance network position and post-entry establishment mode choice," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(7), pages 1350-1364, September.
    14. Feng, Zhijun & Cai, Hechang & Chen, Zinan & Zhou, Wen, 2022. "Influence of an interurban innovation network on the innovation capacity of China: A multiplex network perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    15. Marco Tortoriello, 2015. "The social underpinnings of absorptive capacity: The moderating effects of structural holes on innovation generation based on external knowledge," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 586-597, April.
    16. Jie Mi & Zaiyang Xie & Shaojie Lv, 2023. "Star-studded or equalitarianism: how does the distribution of creative stars affect exploration–exploitation balance?," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 336-362, June.
    17. Mariotti, Francesca & Haider, Sajjad, 2020. "Managing institutional diversity and structural holes: Network configurations for recombinant innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    18. Na Zhang & Lu Cheng & Chao Sun & Julie Callaert & Bart Looy, 2023. "The role of inter- and intra-organisational networks in innovation: towards requisite variety," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(7), pages 4117-4136, July.
    19. Yibo Lyu & Quanshan Liu & Binyuan He & Jingfei Nie, 2017. "Structural embeddedness and innovation diffusion: the moderating role of industrial technology grouping," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(2), pages 889-916, May.
    20. Zihanxin Li & Guilong Zhu, 2021. "Knowledge Transfer Performance of Industry-University-Research Institute Collaboration in China: The Moderating Effect of Partner Difference," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-22, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02430-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.