Examining Socio-Technical Networks in Scientific Academia/Industry Collaborations

We frequently think of university scientists as inventors of new technologies, which are transferred from the university to industry organizations for innovation and diffusion. Because such processes are communication and information intensive, there are high expectations that use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) can facilitate technology transfers and subsequent economic development. However, communication processes that foster scientific discovery and knowledge transfer are embedded in social networks; if ICT use influences technology transfer, it is likely to be through these networks. At the same time, ICTs will be shaped through their use in these social networks. We suggest a socio-technical perspective is best suited to study these reciprocal influences. In this paper, we outline a program of research to examine socio-technical networks in scientific academia/industry collaborations. We begin by reviewing key findings and projections about use of ICTs in knowledge creation and transfer processes and then outline our approach for studying socio-technical networks that span academic/industry boundaries. Introduction and motivation In relating academia and industry, we frequently think of university scientists as discoverers of new phenomena and inventors of new technologies. Their basic research discoveries and inventions become innovations when the new technologies are applied, or used to develop new products and processes (von Hippel, 1988; Eveland, 1986). Industry organizations historically have been a key locus of such innovations (Constant, 1987). Ideally, the linear diffusion of innovations from the university, through industry, to the wider community will result in economic and social returns to individuals, organizations, and governments. Using this linear model of diffusion, and a simple model of communication, policy makers and visionaries 1 Based on the early technical communication models of Shannon and Weaver (1949), Johansen (1991) and others (cf. Ruhleder and King, 1991) have modeled the ways in which information and communication technologies facilitate communication, information sharing and collaboration -fundamental aspects of processes of have speculated that a massive application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) could dramatically increase the diffusion rate of scientific discovery and invention (Gilder, 1997; Negroponte, 1995; PITAC, 1999). Researchers also expect ICT use among scientists in academia and industry to play a critical role in shaping innovation processes. These expectations rest, in part, on the observation that scientists already rely on ubiquitous, high-speed telecommunications systems, such as email, cellular phones, and fax, and computerized data collection, storage and distribution systems. However, the path from invention to economic returns is neither straightforward, nor determinate, nor proximate. Diffusion scholars know that inventions do not automatically become innovations, and economic and social returns from innovations accrue very slowly, if at all (Rogers, 1995). Researchers who have carefully examined the contexts of economic opportunity, in Silicon Valley for example, have stressed the need for empirically grounded challenges to linear diffusion models of innovation (Castells, 1989; Castells, 1996). Notably, studies show that social networks play a critical and complicated role in the transformations from invention to innovation and diffusion (Akrich, 1993; Camagni, 1991; Saxenian, 1996), particularly when social interactions sustain “communities of practice” which foster invention and innovation (Brown and Duguid, 1991; Constant, 1987; Garvey and Griffith, 1979). A massive infusion of ICTs into these social communication processes is unlikely to make the path more direct or predictable or locally controllable. In globally networked societies, there is no guarantee that local investments in scientific collaborations will yield any local returns (Amin and Robbins, 1991); it is also possible that ICTenabled networks of scientists may instead facilitate the export of scientific knowledge to more powerful centers of economic and research activity, by-passing local economic development. Understanding the interdependent influences of ICT use and social networks is critical to understanding how expanding ICT use may be influencing the diffusion of invention and innovation diffusion (Rogers, 1995). Their studies have raised expectations that ICTs can, to some degree, lower the barriers to invention and innovation that are directly related to communication, collaboration and information sharing processes.