Research On The Relationship Between Knowledge Network,Collaboration Network And Knowledge Search Behavior Of Inventors

Recently,many high-tech enterprises have accumulated a certain degree of knowledge.There are also various social relationships among inventors in the enterprises.The accumulated knowledge and social relations will affect the knowledge search behavior of inventors,and the inventors' behavior will also affect the innovation performance of the enterprises.Based on the two perspectives of knowledge network and social network,I explores the relationship among the inventors' knowledge elements position in knowledge networks,the inventors' position in collaboration networks and the local search behavior of inventors.Through the collection of Huawei's patents data for 2004-2013,an empirical analysis is conducted to verify the hypothesis.The results show that:(1)The degree centrality of a inventor's knowledge elements in an enterprise's knowledge network is positively related to the depth and breadth of inventor's local search;(2)The degree of a inventor's knowledge elements span the structural hole in an enterprise's knowledge network is negatively related to the depth and breadth of inventor's local search;(3)The positive relationship between inventors' knowledge elements degree centrality in knowledge network and the depth(or the breadth)of local search is positively moderated by the degree centrality of inventors in collaboration networks.(4)The positive relationship between inventors' knowledge elements degree centrality in the knowledge inventor network and the depth(or the breadth)of local search is positively moderated by the degree of inventors span structural holes in collaboration networks;(5)It isn't confirmed that the relationship between the degree of inventors' knowledge elements span structural holes and inventors' knowledge search behavior is moderated by the position of inventors in collaboration network.Finally,through case study and comparative analysis,the inventors are divided into four categories.According to the characteristics of the inventors,they are named as organizational dependents,diversified scholars,knowledge researchers and knowledge explorers.And I make recommendations from both the individual and organizational levels.This research expand the theories of knowledge networks,collaboration networks and knowledge search.It also proposes personal development suggestions for inventors,and provides management advice for different type of inventors.