Overcoming Local Search Through Alliances and Mobility

Recent research suggests that, due to organizational and relational constraints, firms are limited contextually—both geographically and technologically—in their search for new knowledge. But distant contexts may offer ideas and insights that can be extremely useful to innovation through knowledge recombination. So how can firms reach beyond their existing contexts in their search for new knowledge? In this paper, we suggest that two mechanisms—alliances and the mobility of inventors—can serve as bridges to distant contexts and, thus, enable firms to overcome the constraints of contextually localized search. Through the analysis of patent citation patterns in the semiconductor industry, we first demonstrate…