Knowledge that flows and knowledge that grows: Inventive performance in the semiconductor field

This paper aims to extend our understanding of the inventive process in the context of organizational fields. To this end, the paper integrates two well-established yet largely unrelated notions about the inventive process. On the one hand, research has shown that knowledge circulates unevenly among the firms populating a field, forming an inter-organizational network of knowledge flows. On the other hand, firms continuously renew and transform the knowledge that flows through this network as a consequence of their knowledge absorption and knowledge generation activities. Bringing these views together allows us to present a more encompassing picture of the inventive process, and it yields a set of novel testable hypotheses. Based on a sample of companies operating in the semiconductor industry over the period 1976-2002, our hypotheses are corroborated.