IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/stratm/v40y2019i10p1593-1609.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Instrumental and affective ties within the laboratory: The impact of informal cliques on innovative productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Manuel Gómez‐Solórzano
  • Marco Tortoriello
  • Giuseppe Soda

Abstract

Research Summary In this paper, we contribute to research on networks and innovation by distinguishing between instrumental and affective ties and assessing their impact on individual innovativeness. In particular, using original data from the corporate R&D laboratory of a global pharmaceutical company, we evaluate how a specific structural arrangement (i.e., belonging to a clique) affects inventors' innovative productivity. Our results show that both instrumental/knowledge‐sharing cliques and affective/friendship cliques correlate positively with inventors' innovative productivity. However, we also observe that when inventors straddle knowledge‐sharing and friendship cliques, their innovative productivity declines. Managerial Summary Firms competing in knowledge‐intensive industries rely on the productivity of their inventors to develop innovations. Within these firms, inventors' innovative productivity is influenced by the people they interact with and by the benefits and costs associated with maintaining these relationships. We find that inventors' innovative productivity is enhanced by having strong and embedded relationships with their colleagues, regardless of these relationships being based on knowledge‐sharing ties or friendship ties. However, when inventors are caught in between strong knowledge‐sharing ties and strong friendship ties, their innovative productivity suffers, ultimately hampering the firm's innovative capabilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Manuel Gómez‐Solórzano & Marco Tortoriello & Giuseppe Soda, 2019. "Instrumental and affective ties within the laboratory: The impact of informal cliques on innovative productivity," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(10), pages 1593-1609, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:stratm:v:40:y:2019:i:10:p:1593-1609
    DOI: 10.1002/smj.3045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3045
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/smj.3045?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mengxing Song & Lingling Guo & Jianwei Shen, 2023. "The Relationship between Alumni Network and Exploratory Innovation: The Mediating Role of Enterprise Risk-Taking," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-18, November.
    2. Annosi, Maria Carmela & Appio, Francesco Paolo & Martini, Antonella, 2024. "Institutional context and agile team innovation: A sensemaking approach to collective knowledge creation," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    3. Rueger, Jasmina & Dolfsma, Wilfred & Aalbers, Rick, 2021. "Perception of peer advice in online health communities: Access to lay expertise," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    4. repec:oup:rseval:v:32:y:2024:i:2:p:426-440. is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Zhou, Meihua & Angelopoulos, Spyros & Ou, Carol & Liu, Hongwei & Liang, Zhouyang, 2023. "Optimization of dynamic product offerings on online marketplaces: A network theory perspective," Other publications TiSEM 75d71155-88bf-4ff7-aba1-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Song, Le & Ma, Yinghong, 2022. "Evaluating tacit knowledge diffusion with algebra matrix algorithm based social networks," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 428(C).
    7. Jiang, Syuan-Yi, 2022. "Transition and innovation ecosystem – investigating technologies, focal actors, and institution in eHealth innovations," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    8. Vincenzo Corvello & Maria Cristina Chimenti & Carlo Giglio & Saverino Verteramo, 2020. "An Investigation on the Use by Academic Researchers of Knowledge from Scientific Social Networking Sites," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-16, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:stratm:v:40:y:2019:i:10:p:1593-1609. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/0143-2095 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.