Technological diversity and inventor networks

This article examines the relationship between the structure of intra-firm inventor networks and the technological diversity of firms. We test this relationship for a panel of 222 firms in the ICT sector for the period 1995-2003, by utilizing data on their granted patents. The results reveal that the relation between the strength of ties between inventors in R&D teams and the firms' technological diversity is curvilinear. In other words, while strong ties between inventors can promote diversity, there is a limit to this positive effect. After this limit, strong ties can inhibit diversity, possibly by limiting the capabilities of network members to process novelty. In addition, we find that the impact of the scale-free metric on technological diversity is negative.