Adhen Benlahlou (p)

Corinne Autant-Bernard

We study the impact of research collaboration in co-inventions network on total research output. Inventors's links create direct and indirect spillovers across the network. We characterize the interior equilibrium efforts level in research when agents spend efforts in multiple projects for every network structure. In work in progress, we structurally estimate this model using a unique dataset of patents linked to cancer R&D. We will use our estimates to study the impact of heterogeneous vs. non-discriminatory subsidy policies and empirically rank inventor according to the production-maximizing subsidies they should receive.

Cilem Selin Hazir (p)

Corinne Autant-Bernard

Multilateral R&D project networks are often used as a policy tool to foster diffusion and creation of knowledge in high-tech clusters. In this study, these collaborations are considered as a network of temporary teams among innovation actors, and the origins of "structural holes" (Burt, 1992) are investigated. Structural holes in a network of R&D teams are particular network positions since teams spanning them can access to non-redundant knowledge flows, and modify knowledge diffusion in the cluster and over time by playing brokerage and control roles. To explain the origins of structural holes, the framework proposed by Zaheer and Soda (2009) is taken as a basis. In their framework inherent opportunities and inertial constraints arising from prior network relations are proposed as the two main factors driving structural holes. In this study their framework is applied to the context of cluster collaborations in the light of industrial clusters, innovation systems, and proximity dynamics literature, and by extending the actor heterogeneity dimension. Then, the extended framework is tested using data on multilateral R&D collaborations labeled by the Images & Reseaux Cluster, which is one of the competitiveness clusters that resulted from the French Competitiveness Policy.
The anticipated contribution of the study has three dimensions. First, it tries to extend the literature on formation of R&D collaboration networks, which has considered structural holes mainly as by-products of tie formation and overlooked team level, by providing systematic explanations on their origins in multilateral collaboration networks. Second, it tries to extend the literature on diffusion of knowledge in clusters. In this literature much attention has been accorded on brokerage and control roles played by individual actors between cluster members and extra-cluster actors. Whereas in this study, brokerage and control roles played by teams of innovation actors between past and current knowledge content produced by the cluster are explored. Lastly, the study contributes to the existing empirical literature on the outcomes of the French Competitiveness Policy by studying the Images & Reseaux Cluster for the first time.