Chris Liu, Technology and Operations Management, DBA
Dissertation Chair: Professor Toby Stuart
Three Essays on Spatial Networks, Knowledge Production, and Performance
The three papers in this dissertation all explore the impact of social networks on knowledge production and performance. These papers pay particular attention to the antecedents that shape how networks arise. The first paper in this dissertation focuses on mentor-trainee dyads. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, I explore the causal determinants of pairing between mentors and their students. I then implement both a selection-on-observables framework and a Heckman selection model to illustrate that although trainees match to their prior mentors based only upon prior scientific interests and geography, they adopt their mentor's commercial interests. The second and third papers both explore how spatial propinquity shapes the structure of communication networks and subsequent performance. Using a unique dataset collected at one biopharmaceutical firm, I show that excessive spatial crowding inhibits the status accrual of knowledge workers. Furthermore, proximity to symbiotic alters enhances a scientist's network range and performance, as measured through end-of-year bonuses. Lastly, the third paper uses daily email logs to illustrate how newcomers integrate into the extant knowledge network of a biopharmaceutical firm. Taken together, these three papers begin to elucidate how social networks are formed and the impact these dynamic networks have on knowledge production and performance.
