Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

9-2019

Abstract

We investigate the salience of expertise in creating high impact inventions and question experts’ ability to deploy novel ideas. Specifically, we examine the relationships between expertise, component originality, and a team's structural holes’ position in the collaborative network and propose that, in relative terms, expert teams create lower impact inventions if they deploy more original components and if they occupy structural holes. We test and confirm our hypotheses in a sample of semiconductor firms. In post‐hoc analyses, we find a three‐way interaction where the negative effect of structural holes almost disappears when an expert team experiments with original components whereas an increase in non‐redundancy is detrimental when teams with high expertise use familiar components. Our findings inform a foundational view of the invention process and provide novel insights into the contingent benefits of domain expertise.

Keywords

component originality, expertise, inventor teams, patents, structural holes

Discipline

Strategic Management Policy | Technology and Innovation

Research Areas

Strategy and Organisation

Publication

Journal of Management Studies

Volume

56

Issue

6

First Page

1073

Last Page

1104

ISSN

0022-2380

Identifier

10.1111/joms.12447

Publisher

Wiley

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12447

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