Rethinking individual technological innovation: Cooperation network stability and the contingent effect of knowledge network attributes

The innovation of inventors is doubly embedded in a cooperation network of collaborations among inventors, and knowledge network composed of linkages among knowledge elements. Network research has provided many insights for individual innovation, yet prior research treats the network as static, ignoring its dynamics. Drawing on social network theory, this study develops a theoretical model that links a focal inventor's ego cooperation network stability to innovation. Furthermore, it investigates three knowledge network contingencies, namely technological complexity, knowledge diversity, and the stability of the focal inventor's ego knowledge network, which moderate the relationship between ego cooperation network stability and innovation. Hypotheses are tested using patent data of Huawei's 1,531 inventors filed in China between 2004 and 2013. The results show that the focal inventor's ego cooperation network stability has an inverted U-shaped effect on innovation. Moreover, technological complexity weakens this effect, while knowledge network stability enhances it.