Role of Inter-organizational Knowledge Networks in Innovation-driven Collaborations of Biotechnology Industry

This exploratory and ongoing research aims to extend our understanding of knowledge networking and its role in inter-organizational collaboration. In the context of organizational innovativeness, while the line of current research has mainly focused on structural aspects of knowledge network, to study the role of knowledge network on innovation, this research explores knowledge content and knowledge process aspects of firms´ network beyond the structural element. The context of our study is the patent co-authorship networks of biotechnology firms in Victoria, Australia. The data were extracted via the Australia patent database (Auspat) from 2001-2010. Using social network analysis and statistical analyses, our study examines knowledge network of firms in terms of content, process and structure of the network. The result highlights the need for understanding the interactions among these three aspects of knowledge networks and provides some suggestions for the current conflict in theoretical arguments and empirical results identified in this literature.