Title: Revealing correlations between structure and innovation attitude in inter-organisational innovation networks

Authors: Giovanna Ferraro; Antonio Iovanella

Addresses: Department of Enterprise Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico, 1 – 00133, Rome, Italy ' Department of Enterprise Engineering, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico, 1 – 00133, Rome, Italy

Abstract: Innovation networks constitute a valid structure in which to foster members' abilities to interact and cooperate, reducing environmental uncertainty and enhancing ways to deal with the challenges that derive from economic change. This paper analyses the correlation between the structure of inter-organisational innovation networks and innovation performance. We consider the correlations between weighted quantities and the underlying structure of the network to describe hierarchies and organisational principles, arguing for their influence on innovation. To attest the effectiveness of the approach we propose, as a case study, the Enterprise Europe Network, describing its architecture along with its quantitative information.

Keywords: complex weighted networks; inter-organisational networks; innovation networks; centrality measures; network structure; innovation performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCEE.2016.073364

International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics, 2016 Vol.6 No.1, pp.93 - 113

Received: 26 Dec 2014
Accepted: 03 May 2015
Published online: 30 Nov 2015 *

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