Mapping Sydney's Innovation System (a pet project)

Hi Everyone,

This is a test to crowdsource mapping out Sydney's Innovation System using Google Docs and NodeXL. To start, I have added CIE and a few affiliated organizations to the initial network map:

To add yourself to the map:

• Open the raw data spreadsheet in google docs and add your (organization's) name to the "Vertices" tab.
• Add a size, roughly equivalent to how many start-ups or teams your organization represents (rule of thumb is 5-6 per team)
• Add a URL to your logo
• Add some info about you in the Tooltip column (or a URL to your homepage)

To add your affiliations to the map:

• Open the "Edges" tab in same spreadsheet
• For each affiliation, add yourself and the affiliate (make sure the spelling is the SAME as in the "Vertices" tab!)

Do NOT change the formatting or columns in the spreadsheet. Unfortunately, I could not upload the xlsx spreadsheet as is, so the map can be drawn automatically. Instead, I have to copy and paste the raw data from the google doc version into the NodeXL version to regenerate the graph. 

If the map on this page looks massively out of date, please nag us at cie@unsw.edu.au to regenerate it. We'll then update this post, and tweet about the update.

Best Paper Award at EuroMOT and podcast on social networks

Somehow I hardly seem to find the incentive to blog about only one thing. It's only when there's at least two things to blog about that I log on.

Last Month (September), a paper I co-authored with Ian McCarthy and Elicia Maine won the best paper award at the Fourth European Conference on Management of Technology (or EuroMOT 2009 for short). The prestigious award was sponsored by Arthur D. Little, "the world's first and oldest management consulting firm". A copy of the paper, titled "In Search of Entrepreneurial Network Configurations: Using Q-Analysis to Study Network Structures and Flows" is available via SSRN.


The second part of this blog is that I just listened to a CBC Quirks and Quarks podcast over dinner, which featured this book:

I can't quite tell if the authors are rediscovering scale free networks and just analyzing one network at time (by association or behaviour: obesity, smoking, friendship, ..) or if there is more to this book than a new longitudinal dataset. It looks like they have a good publicist, since they're getting good reviews at CNN and NY Times. If I find a copy, I'll give it a read.

Ok, here's a third tidbit to blog about. While Eric Sanderson's TED talk was not very clear on how he crunched his numbers, I am intrigued to see he is overlaying multiple networks of species (animals, plants, humans) and related ecological attributes. This sounds not unlike my research on the interaction between structures and flows (see SSRN link above).

Publication announcement: Network Embeddedness as a Predictor of Performance for New Technology-Based Firms

Another publication I am a co-author of just got accepted for publication at the International Journal of Technoentrepreneurship:

Network Embeddedness as a Predictor of Performance for New Technology-Based Firms
by Martin J. Bliemel, Elicia M.A. Maine
Abstract: The logic of network embeddedness has been widely used in the technology entrepreneurship literature in recent years, yet its operationalization and use are neither well understood nor agreed upon. This paper provides a literature review of the logic of network embeddedness as it has been invoked and operationalized to predict the performance of New Technology-Based Firms (NTBFs). We find that: 1) existing studies, both inside and outside of the technology entrepreneurship literature, employ the logic of embeddedness and operationalize network embeddedness in vastly different ways; 2) empirical NTBF studies frequently use linear and unidimensional measures when invoking embeddedness to explain NTBF performance; and 3) surprisingly few studies rationalize NTBF performance using curvi-linear methods, interaction effects or contingency factors that account for firm contexts and firm constraints. All other operationalizations are subject to unbounded conclusions, thus overlooking the costs of maintaining network relationships. The studies that consider such constraints support the logic of network embeddedness, in that there is a growth-stage appropriate portfolio size and composition that leads to superior performance. Network embeddedness appears to be a useful predictor for NTBF performance when operationalized at both the dyad and network levels and accounting for firm characteristics and environmental conditions. Without accounting for such firm and environment specific variations, the predictive value of network embeddedness is far lower. An appropriate operationalization of embeddedness for predicting the performance of NTBFs should take both the relative benefits and the relative drawbacks of strong and weak ties into account. We propose that it should also account for the limited capacity of the firm to engage in external exchanges of either strength. With such contingencies, network embeddedness can guide executive’s decisions in managerial resource allocation, and policymakers in industry networking activities to stimulate regional firm growth.
Keywords: Network Embeddedness, Growth, Technology Entrepreneurship, New Technology-Based Firm, Networks, Performance

To learn more about my research, you'll have to either read my papers, or just meet me in person. My upcoming presentation at AOM is a good start.
For more info about Elicia's research, you can also check out her new Advanced Materials Commercialization site with Jim Utterback and Elizabeth Garnsey.