Knowledge creation and the location of university research scientists’ interpersonal exchange relations: within and beyond the university

Our study examines how the location (geographic and organizational distance) of the direct interpersonal exchange relationships a university researcher establishes and main tains affects his or her knowledge creation. In order to create new knowledge, researchers seek to combine and exchange information and know-how with others and must often go outside the boundaries of their universities to obtain the needed resources. We explore the impact of working with others, both within and outside the organization, on new knowledge creation. We argue for a curvilinear effect between distance and knowledge creation, in that spatially close and distant exchange partner locations will have a greater effect on knowledge creation than intermediate distances. Hypotheses, tested on a large sample of university biomedical research scientists, are largely supported.

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