A paper, by Dr. Zhu and Dr. Serdar, has been accepted for publication in International Journal of Innovation Management
Dr. Siwei Zhu and Dr. Gokce Serdar from Paseka School of Business conducted an exploratory study, which has been accepted for publication in International Journal of Innovation Management, rating as Q2 in SJR.
This study conceptualizes inventors as agents that connect knowledge elements within a knowledge network. Inventors’ searches thus focus on a knowledge element’s combinatorial potential—its suitability for combination with other knowledge elements to generate innovation. Using a survey-based network approach with top chemical scientists in the R&D department of a leading US oil & gas company, our study reveals the search strategy through knowledge networks that inventors are likely to reduce their effort on internal search but maintain external search to identify the combinatorial potential of knowledge elements, making them more likely to create fruitful knowledge combinations for innovation.