1,721,069 research outputs found
Three Essays on the Impact of Geographic and Social Proximity on Innovation
Get PDFThe ability of an economy to generate and diffuse ideas has a profound influence on its ability to sustain growth. Our understanding of a key economic phenomenon behind agglomeration and modern growth - localization economies - relies on basic assumptions about how knowledge is recombined locally versus over distance. Whereas scholars have extensively studied the effects of proximity on the diffusion of ideas, the micro-foundations of knowledge recombination remain undeveloped. In particular, we know surprisingly little about how geographic, social and knowledge proximity shape the way ideas are generated, recombined, and discovered by others.
In the first study, I provide novel empirical evidence grounded in an original theoretical framework to explain how the composition of near-neighbor scientists influences the direction of inventive activity. Co-located individuals are more likely to engage in low expected value but high variance payoffs interactions ("water cooler"). To address endogeneity concerns due to selection into co-location and matching, I exploit an unexpected random relocation of scientists due to asbestos removal at UPMC Paris. Results are consistent with the theory and shed light on how proximity affects innovation: random versus chosen co-location leads to higher levels of experimentation, and has a positive impact on breakthrough ideas for collaborations across academic fields.
In the second study I explore the decline in collaboration that follows the separation of previously co-located co-authors. Not all co-author pairs are equally affected by an increase in geographic distance, as social proximity substitutes for it when the returns to collaboration are high. Collaborations that bridge otherwise disconnected communities of experts are the most negatively affected by separation.
Finally, the third study examines how social and geographic proximity affect the discovery and funding of creative projects in online crowdfunding. Whereas the internet reduces many distance-related frictions, local and distant investors exhibit different investment patterns. The distance effect is explained by investors who likely have a social relationship with the entrepreneur, and does not persist after the first investment (i.e., it is likely driven by search costs). Thus, crowdfunding seems to eliminate many distance-related frictions, but not those related to social interactions.Ph
Three Essays on the Impact of Geographic and Social Proximity on Innovation
No full textThe ability of an economy to generate and diffuse ideas has a profound influence on its ability to sustain growth. Our understanding of a key economic phenomenon behind agglomeration and modern growth - localization economies - relies on basic assumptions about how knowledge is recombined locally versus over distance. Whereas scholars have extensively studied the effects of proximity on the diffusion of ideas, the micro-foundations of knowledge recombination remain undeveloped. In particular, we know surprisingly little about how geographic, social and knowledge proximity shape the way ideas are generated, recombined, and discovered by others.
In the first study, I provide novel empirical evidence grounded in an original theoretical framework to explain how the composition of near-neighbor scientists influences the direction of inventive activity. Co-located individuals are more likely to engage in low expected value but high variance payoffs interactions ("water cooler"). To address endogeneity concerns due to selection into co-location and matching, I exploit an unexpected random relocation of scientists due to asbestos removal at UPMC Paris. Results are consistent with the theory and shed light on how proximity affects innovation: random versus chosen co-location leads to higher levels of experimentation, and has a positive impact on breakthrough ideas for collaborations across academic fields.
In the second study I explore the decline in collaboration that follows the separation of previously co-located co-authors. Not all co-author pairs are equally affected by an increase in geographic distance, as social proximity substitutes for it when the returns to collaboration are high. Collaborations that bridge otherwise disconnected communities of experts are the most negatively affected by separation.
Finally, the third study examines how social and geographic proximity affect the discovery and funding of creative projects in online crowdfunding. Whereas the internet reduces many distance-related frictions, local and distant investors exhibit different investment patterns. The distance effect is explained by investors who likely have a social relationship with the entrepreneur, and does not persist after the first investment (i.e., it is likely driven by search costs). Thus, crowdfunding seems to eliminate many distance-related frictions, but not those related to social interactions.Ph
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Three Essays on the Impact of Knowledge Accumulation on the Process of Knowledge Creation with a Focus on Collaboration
Get PDFThe cumulative nature of knowledge constantly alters the innovative landscape and thus the process of knowledge creation. In this dissertation, I explore the impact of cumulativeness on individual-level collaboration as it shapes the production of new ideas. I focus on two main influencing factors: conditions of access to knowledge and knowledge accumulation as it leads to increased specialization. This is important since the ability to build on knowledge influences the evolution of innovation trajectories.In the first study, I explore the composition of collaboration and the impact of a researcher level of expertise on the type of knowledge created. Leveraging a natural experiment, the launch of Microsoft Kinect, which triggered an unanticipated reduction in the cost of motion-sensing technology, I examine how individuals respond to opportunities for knowledge creation opened by a change in conditions of access to knowledge. Despite growing emphasis on the importance of specialists for knowledge creation, I identify generalists - researchers with broader exposure to knowledge - as playing a particularly important role in the process of innovation with implications for the type of knowledge created. Specifically, generalists have a higher propensity than specialists to respond to opportunities for knowledge creation that span knowledge areas and play a central role in coordinating collaboration between specialists required to execute on the opportunities. In the second study, I focus on the impact of increased specialization due to knowledge accumulation on the rate of collaboration. The knowledge burden hypothesis - that reaching the knowledge frontier is progressively costly due to knowledge accumulation and results in increasing specialization and collaboration - is one of several theories advanced to explain the widely documented observation that researcher team size is increasing over time. I exploit a natural experiment, the collapse of the USSR as an exogenous shock to the knowledge frontier in theoretical mathematics, to provide results of a first causal test in support of the knowledge burden hypothesis. This identification exercise is important since this hypothesis leads to policy implications that do not apply to other explanations of increases in team size. Lastly, in the third study, I discuss the influence of collaboration and individual-level breadth and depth of expertise in potentially influencing the rate and direction of a big science project. A narrative on commercial quantum computing innovation, a controversial contemporaneous endeavour, suggests the influential role of an entrepreneurial venture coordinating large-scale collaboration to exploit an opportunity at the intersection of knowledge areas.Ph.D
Three Essays on the Impact of Knowledge Accumulation on the Process of Knowledge Creation with a Focus on Collaboration
No full textThe cumulative nature of knowledge constantly alters the innovative landscape and thus the process of knowledge creation. In this dissertation, I explore the impact of cumulativeness on individual-level collaboration as it shapes the production of new ideas. I focus on two main influencing factors: conditions of access to knowledge and knowledge accumulation as it leads to increased specialization. This is important since the ability to build on knowledge influences the evolution of innovation trajectories.In the first study, I explore the composition of collaboration and the impact of a researcher level of expertise on the type of knowledge created. Leveraging a natural experiment, the launch of Microsoft Kinect, which triggered an unanticipated reduction in the cost of motion-sensing technology, I examine how individuals respond to opportunities for knowledge creation opened by a change in conditions of access to knowledge. Despite growing emphasis on the importance of specialists for knowledge creation, I identify generalists - researchers with broader exposure to knowledge - as playing a particularly important role in the process of innovation with implications for the type of knowledge created. Specifically, generalists have a higher propensity than specialists to respond to opportunities for knowledge creation that span knowledge areas and play a central role in coordinating collaboration between specialists required to execute on the opportunities. In the second study, I focus on the impact of increased specialization due to knowledge accumulation on the rate of collaboration. The knowledge burden hypothesis - that reaching the knowledge frontier is progressively costly due to knowledge accumulation and results in increasing specialization and collaboration - is one of several theories advanced to explain the widely documented observation that researcher team size is increasing over time. I exploit a natural experiment, the collapse of the USSR as an exogenous shock to the knowledge frontier in theoretical mathematics, to provide results of a first causal test in support of the knowledge burden hypothesis. This identification exercise is important since this hypothesis leads to policy implications that do not apply to other explanations of increases in team size. Lastly, in the third study, I discuss the influence of collaboration and individual-level breadth and depth of expertise in potentially influencing the rate and direction of a big science project. A narrative on commercial quantum computing innovation, a controversial contemporaneous endeavour, suggests the influential role of an entrepreneurial venture coordinating large-scale collaboration to exploit an opportunity at the intersection of knowledge areas.Ph.D
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