Building innovation networks: the process of partner selection by young knowledge intensive firms

Abstract

This paper addresses the selection of partners in innovation networks. It builds on the existing literature to develop an integrative framework that encompasses the main factors identified as influencing selection of partners by young knowledge-intensive firms. It considers that both persistence and novelty are present in the network building process, and so integrates several explanations advanced by the literature: social capital, imprinting and inertia for tie persistence; network embeddedness and proximity for new tie selection. Using a rare event logit model, we estimate the likelihood of selecting an innovation partner using data about the partnerships established by young Portuguese biotechnology firms, purposefully collected through questionnaire-based face-to-face interviews, complemented with documentary information. The results uncover different network building strategies in terms of partner selection to access the different types of resource needed for innovation and highlight the advantages of adopting an integrated framework.