On the Comparison of a Team's Directed and Undirected Innovation Networks

An innovation team is usually formed for a task in which the partners collaboratively commit to the same goals, and form knowledge-complementary and mutually accountable working relationships. Using a deep processing graphite R&D center as an example and collecting the data from the members' published papers in CPCI-S (Conference Proceedings Citation Index - Science), EI (The Engineering Index), and SCI(Science Citation Index) databases, we extract the cooperation and consultation relationships to construct the undirected and directed network. By analyzing the cohesion, connectedness of network subgroups and other measures, we show that when the R&D center is developing, subgroups are connected by the key members. Some members lead in internal cooperation while others excel in external communication. We also find that the team has an obvious hierarchy and appears fragile. Our research on the R&D center both increases our current theoretical knowledge and guides managerial practice.