Working Paper: NBER ID: w23431
Authors: Olav Sorenson
Abstract: Social relationships channel information, influence, and access to scarce resources. As a consequence, social networks – the patterns of these relationships across the members of a community – influence who comes up with important innovations, whether and how rapidly those innovations get adopted, and who has the ability to commercialize them. They therefore also affect the overall rate at which innovation occurs in the economy. This essay provides an introduction to and review of the research on social networks most relevant to innovation, with a particular focus on the earliest stages of the innovation process. It then discusses the likely consequences of a variety of policy interventions that could either reduce the importance of social relationships to innovation or alter the patterns of relationships in ways that might promote innovation.
Keywords: innovation; social networks; policy; entrepreneurship; information flow
JEL Codes: O31; O32; Z13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Social relationships (Z13) | Flow of information necessary for innovation (O36) |
| Social influence (C92) | Adoption of innovations (O36) |
| Social networks (Z13) | Access to resources necessary for innovation (O36) |