The coevolution of endogenous knowledge networks and knowledge creation

Title: The coevolution of endogenous knowledge networks and knowledge creation Author: Elena M. Tur Affiliation: INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) Year of enrolment: December 2011 Expected final date: December 2015 STATE-OF-THE-ART Simulation models are useful to explain evolutionary processes. They have been widely used to model knowledge networking, the process by which agents interact to create knowledge. They have also been used to model knowledge creation by agents in a network. So far, simulation models have somehow neglected the interrelation of the processes of knowledge creation and network formation. This interrelation arises because agents choose the partners with whom they are going to create knowledge and, as they do, change their future behavior and outputs. Most of the empirical studies aiming at explaining the relation between the network of an agent and his performance use measures of the network around one agent as a determinant of the output of the agent, and thus disregard any possible feedback. As a consequence, results are mixed and inconclusive. Some studies indicate that knowledge is a collaborative process, that is to say, that the more intensely agents collaborate, the more knowledge they create. Other studies suggest that the number of collaborators is not a determinant of the performance of agents and finally, some studies find that collaborating can be somehow harmful for performance. These different studies consider an exogenous network structure, i.e. they take this structure as given and predict its impact on knowledge creation. This is not realistic, mainly because agents choose their collaborators for specific reasons, including reputation or previous performance. Thus, network formation and creation are endogenous processes. The structure of the network affects the output of agents, which determines the future structure of the network. Previous empirical studies did not account for this feedback, which can explain the ambiguous results they obtained.