TY - CHAP
T1 - NOT YOUR STEPPING STONE
T2 - COLLABORATION AND THE DYNAMICS OF FIRM EVOLUTION IN THE LIFE SCIENCES
AU - Koput, Kenneth W.
AU - Powell, Walter W.
N1 - Funding Information:
An earlier draft was presented to the Organization Science Winter Conference, Feb. 2000, the SCANCOR workshop, the GSB strategy workshop at Stanford, and the OB/IR workshop at the Haas School at UC Berkeley. We thank various participants, especially Trond Petersen and Toby Stuart, for useful feedback. We are particularly grateful to Joel Baum, Frank Dobbin, and Brian Uzzi for detailed and very helpful comments. Thanks also to the Co-evolution of States and Markets group (John Padgett, director, Sanjay Jain, David Stark, Sander van der Leeuw, Doug White, and Xueguang Zhou, participants) at the Santa Fe Institute for extensive commentary. Research support provided by National Science Foundation grant #9710729, W. W. Powell and K. W. Koput, co-principal investigators, and the Sante Fe Institute, where the final draft was completed.
PY - 2004
Y1 - 2004
N2 - In this chapter, we make the argument that science-based firms in the life sciences are expected to actively expand the volume and scope of collaborations, and broaden the kinds of partners with whom they collaborate, as they grow larger, older, and become successful. We base our arguments on a general process of organizational learning in which organizations with diverse ties are exposed to a broader stock of knowledge, heterogeneity in the portfolio of collaborators facilitates innovation, and repeat contracting enables organizations to deepen their protocols for the exchange of information and resources. We draw from these ideas the conclusion that interfirm collaboration is not a transitional stage, or stepping stone, to success or maturity, but a significant organizational practice in technologically advanced fields. Extending this argument, we suggest this strategy of interfirm collaboration represents neither dependency nor specialization but an alternative way of accessing knowledge and resources.
AB - In this chapter, we make the argument that science-based firms in the life sciences are expected to actively expand the volume and scope of collaborations, and broaden the kinds of partners with whom they collaborate, as they grow larger, older, and become successful. We base our arguments on a general process of organizational learning in which organizations with diverse ties are exposed to a broader stock of knowledge, heterogeneity in the portfolio of collaborators facilitates innovation, and repeat contracting enables organizations to deepen their protocols for the exchange of information and resources. We draw from these ideas the conclusion that interfirm collaboration is not a transitional stage, or stepping stone, to success or maturity, but a significant organizational practice in technologically advanced fields. Extending this argument, we suggest this strategy of interfirm collaboration represents neither dependency nor specialization but an alternative way of accessing knowledge and resources.
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U2 - 10.1016/S1572-0977(04)10003-4
DO - 10.1016/S1572-0977(04)10003-4
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:36148942063
SN - 0762311320
SN - 9780762311323
T3 - Advances in Interdisciplinary Studies of Work Teams
SP - 59
EP - 81
BT - Complex Collaboration
PB - JAI Press
ER -