RESEARCHER: David Obstfeld


This is a multi-year project funded by the National Science Foundation. Emergent combinations of social networks, knowledge, and resources lead to innovation within and across organizations. This research pays special attention to brokerage activities that facilitate these combinations. Research in organization theory, strategy, and sociology recognizes the importance of social combinations to innovation, entrepreneurship, and firm competitiveness, but we know little about the social processes and interpersonal skills underlying the creation of such combinations and how they are fostered on the ground.

Three key questions are explored: 1) How do social networks, individual knowledge, and resources combine and lead to organizational innovation? 2) To what extent does participation in innovation also lead to promotion within a firm? 3) How do these relations vary within and across different firms? This research is ongoing.