Crossing Technological Boundaries: Brokerage and the Emergence of Innovation Networks

Firms face elevated levels of uncertainty in collaborations focused on new technologies. While third parties may foster such collaborations by reducing technological and relational uncertainties (i.e., tertius iungens), they might have competitive incentives to prevent such connections (i.e., tertius gaudens). Building on this theoretical tension, this study investigates how brokerage and incumbent technology network structure shape emergent technology networks. We argue that organizations in the position of knowledge brokers tend to facilitate tie formation between partners to help mitigate uncertainty in an emergent technology, yet this tendency is reversed when keeping the separation between partners allows them to secure competitively advantageous positions. We collect longitudinal data on research and development collaborations in the cancer therapy industry, and conduct in-depth interviews with scientists and industry experts. We test our theoretical framework through stochastic actor-oriented modeling by examining the emergence of technology networks after the technological breakthrough of monoclonal antibodies for cancer therapy. Our findings indicate that over time, the role of brokers in fostering or preventing triadic closure across technologies significantly impacts the structure of emergent technology networks.