The impact of individual collaborative activities on knowledge creation and transmission
Authored by Nuha Zamzami, Andrea Schiffauerova
Date Published: 2017
DOI: 10.1007/s11192-017-2350-x
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Abstract
Collaboration is a major factor in the knowledge and innovation creation
in emerging science-driven industries where the technology is rapidly
changing and constantly evolving, such as nanotechnology. The objective
of this work is to investigate the role of individual scientists and
their collaborations in enhancing the knowledge flows, and consequently
the scientific production. The methodology involves two main phases.
First, the data on all the nanotechnology journal publications in Canada
was extracted from the SCOPUS database to create the co-authorship
network, and then employ statistical data mining techniques to analyze
the scientists' research performance and partnership history. Also, a
questionnaire was sent directly to the researchers selected from our
database seeking the predominant properties that make a scientist
sufficiently attractive to be selected as a research partner. In the
second phase, an agent-based model using Netlogo has been developed to
study the network in its dynamic context where several factors could be
controlled. It was found that scientists in centralized positions in
such networks have a considerable positive impact on the knowledge
flows, while loyalty and strong connections within a dense local
research group negatively affect the knowledge transmission. Star
scientists appear to play a substitutive role in the network and are
selected when the usual collaborators, i.e., most famous, and trustable
partners are scarce or missing.
Tags
Performance
Innovation
Productivity
Social Network
Network Structure
Nanotechnology
knowledge flows
Partnership
United-states
Industry
Biotechnology
Scientific collaboration
Co-authorship
Research
productivity