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Revealing the Intricate Effect of Collaboration on Innovation

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  • Hiroyasu Inoue
  • Yang-Yu Liu

Abstract

We studied the Japan and U.S. patent records of several decades to demonstrate the effect of collaboration on innovation. We found that statistically inventor teams slightly outperform solo inventors while company teams perform equally well as solo companies. By tracking the performance record of individual teams, we found that inventor teams’ performance generally degrades with more repeat collaborations. Though company teams’ performance displays strongly bursty behavior, long-term collaboration does not significantly help innovation. To systematically study the effect of repeat collaboration, we defined the repeat collaboration number of a team as the average number of collaborations over all the teammate pairs. We found that mild repeat collaboration improves the performance of Japanese inventor teams and U.S. company teams. Yet, excessive repeat collaboration does not significantly help innovation at both the inventor and company levels in both countries. To control for unobserved heterogeneity, we performed a detailed regression analysis and the results were consistent with our simple observations. The presented results revealed the intricate effect of collaboration on innovation, which may also be observed in other creative projects.

Suggested Citation

  • Hiroyasu Inoue & Yang-Yu Liu, 2015. "Revealing the Intricate Effect of Collaboration on Innovation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0121973
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121973
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Giuseppe Delmestri & Fabrizio Montanari & Alessandro Usai, 2005. "Reputation and Strength of Ties in Predicting Commercial Success and Artistic Merit of Independents in the Italian Feature Film Industry," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 975-1002, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Hiroyasu Inoue, 2018. "The community structure of business establishments and its properties: evidence from joint patent applications," Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 465-475, December.
    2. Kibaek Lee & Jaeheung Yoo & Munkee Choi & Hangjung Zo & Andrew P Ciganek, 2016. "Does External Knowledge Sourcing Enhance Market Performance? Evidence from the Korean Manufacturing Industry," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Kibaek Lee & Jaeheung Yoo, 2019. "How does open innovation lead competitive advantage? A dynamic capability view perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(11), pages 1-18, November.
    4. Kjersten Bunker Whittington & Molly M. King & Isabella Cingolani, 2024. "Structure, status, and span: gender differences in co-authorship networks across 16 region-subject pairs (2009–2013)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 129(1), pages 147-179, January.
    5. Whittington, Kjersten Bunker, 2018. "“A tie is a tie? Gender and network positioning in life science inventor collaboration”," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 511-526.
    6. K D S Fernald & H P G Pennings & J F van den Bosch & H R Commandeur & E Claassen, 2017. "The moderating role of absorptive capacity and the differential effects of acquisitions and alliances on Big Pharma firms' innovation performance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-22, February.
    7. Ángel Peiró‐Signes & Inés Díez‐Martínez & Marival Segarra‐Oña, 2024. "The drivers of cooperation for innovation and the role of environmental orientation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 2929-2952, July.
    8. Petr Hajek & Roberto Henriques, 2017. "Modelling innovation performance of European regions using multi-output neural networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, October.
    9. Choi, Youngjae & Ryu, Seokhyun & Park, Sun Young & Lee, Sungjoo, 2025. "Technology transfer of user-driven technological innovation: Evidence from patents in the medical device industry," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).

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