Intrafirm collaboration network dynamics, external cooperation network embeddedness, and firm knowledge search

In the context of open innovation, firms urgently expand knowledge search and acquisition externally, forming complex interactions between internal networks and their knowledge exploration behaviours. However, prior research has overlooked network dynamics and treated internal networks as static. Drawing upon social network theory and the knowledge-based view, our study constructs a theoretical model that links intrafirm collaboration network dynamics with knowledge search within firms. We also investigated external contextual mechanisms such as the relationship strength, relationship breadth, and network centrality of corporate external networks. These moderate the relationship between intrafirm collaboration network dynamics and firms' knowledge search. We empirically test the hypotheses using data from listed firms in the Chinese computer, communication, and electronic equipment manufacturing industry (C39) between 2014 and 2021. The results indicate that the intrafirm collaboration network dynamic has an inverted U-shaped effect on firms' knowledge search breadth and depth. Relationship strength and network centrality weaken these effects.