Conference co-participation as a factor of new knowledge creation: network analysis.

Scientific and professional conferences represent unique opportunities to search for new knowledge: representatives from leading universities, high- tech firms and other organizations from all over the world come together to discuss topical issues and exchange latest findings. However, prior studies on knowledge- and innovation-related effects of conferences consider such events as if they were isolated entities, whereas in reality the value of a conference depends on what other events its participants attended before and whom they had met previously. Our study aims to relax this assumption and account for the interconnected nature of conferences and its implications for knowledge outcomes of participating firms. We build on the notion that knowledge processes are embedded in the structure of co-participation networks and investigate how different positions of firms in such networks relate to subsequent new knowledge creation of these firms, using the sample of 470 small firms from electronic industry. Our findings suggest that some positions in conference co-participation networks are more beneficial for knowledge creation, while the other are less beneficial for that. In particular, we found that having a central position in such a network as well as being well-connected to other highly central firms have negative relationship with subsequent knowledge creation. At the same time, being a broker in the co-participation network has a positive relationship with subsequent knowledge creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]