INFORMATION SECURITY

Information Security

Information Security

Introduction

The present paper is based on a case study of a high-tech-small-firm (HTSF) that carries out their inter-organizational search for new knowledge by spanning both technological and network boundaries. The aim of the paper is to examine how this spanning of technological boundaries and a network structure of weak ties influences the opportunity to broker knowledge. A knowledge search can be strictly dyadic involving only two organizations, while inter-organizational knowledge brokering refers to the process of bridging disconnected ideas from at least two distant organizations. Simultaneously it involves some form of transformation of these ideas, into the new context (Hargadon and Sutton, 1997; Burt, 2005).

Information Security

Generally, organizations search for new knowledge in order to overcome inertia and generate new opportunities (March, 1991). The search can be either in-depth and involve intensive collaboration with a few important organizations, or broad and involve getting access to many different organizations in order to find diversified knowledge. Over the past decade, a number of studies have investigated these different search strategies in relation to innovation performance based on patents (Rosenkopf and Nerkar, 2001; Katila and Ahuja, 2002) and surveys (Laursen and Salter, 2006).

The literature on search and performance is also linked to the structural perspective on social networks, which focuses on the network structure and the quality of the relation rather than on the search process and the breadth vs depth of the relation (Granovetter, 1973; Powell et al., 1996; Burt, 2005). In terms of network structure, an important distinction between strong and weak ties has been identified. Weak ties are not embedded in a given network structure, and therefore involve less knowledge redundancy. Hence, weak ties are argued to be a potential gateway to new knowledge, and, consequently, opportunities for broad search (Hansen, 1999; Uzzi, 1999; Ruef, 2002; Capaldo, 2007; Mors and Lynch, 2010). In this study, a weak tie is defined as a non-contractual relation with an actor that the focal organization has not previously interacted with and only has one or two meetings with. Furthermore, the organizational relation is not embedded in underlying inter-personal relations (Granovetter, 1985; Uzzi, 1997).

Studies have shown that, when investigating how to search, it is important not only to focus on network boundaries, but also to determine whether technological boundaries have been crossed. Referring to Hargadon and Sutton (1997), Ahuja (2000a) indicates that knowledge exchange between organizations in the same industry may have different risk and opportunity implications than knowledge exchange across organizations in different industries. Whether technological boundaries are crossed in addition to organizational boundaries is rarely discussed (Ahuja, 2000a), apart from a few notable exceptions (Rosenkopf and Nerkar, 2001; Sampson, 2007; Gilsing et al., 2008; Mors and Lynch, 2010). Only Mors and Lynch's (2010) study of individuals includes the strength of ties, which means that there has been very little research on the spanning of technological boundaries and weak ties.

Basic Network Structures

Case Study Organization - Basic Network Structures

The Case Study Organization (CSO) provides Information Technology (IT) security and services for various ...