2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Empirical Analysis of Strategic Formation of R&D Network

Research Project

Project/Area Number	19730165
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Applied economics
Research Institution	Yokohama National University (2009) University of Tsukuba (2007-2008)
Principal Investigator	NAKAJIMA Ryo University of Tsukuba, 国際社会科学研究科, 准教授 (70431658)
Project Period (FY)	2007 – 2009
Keywords	特許 / 研究開発 / ネットワーク
Research Abstract	In this study, I provided an empirical analysis of evolving networks of successful R&D collaboration in IT industry in the United States. Firstly, I analyzed the effect of existing network structure in the process of new R&D collaboration formation. I controlled for unobserved similarities among firms based on community structures with the network, and found a significant cyclic closure and preferential attachment effects. Secondly, I estimated the effect of patent inventors' collaboration networks on their productivity and mobility using U.S. patent application database. It is found that networked inventors are more productive and have longer tenure than non-networked inventors as the standard on-the-job-search model predicts. These results are consistent with the job search and match hypothesis between inventors and firms through collaboration networks.