1 Social Networks Assignment 1: University-Industry Collaboration and Social Networks U. Matzat

1

Social Networks

Assignment 1:

University-Industry Collaboration and Social

Networks

U. Matzat

TU/e - Innovation in networks and alliance management/Network Society, 0ZM05/0EM15/0A150 2

Course design Aim: knowledge about concepts in network

theory, and being able to apply them, in particular in a context of innovation and alliances

1. Intro2. Network theory and background3. Network methods4. Small world networks5. Business alliances as one example of network

strategy6. Assignment 1: analyzing university-company

networks (ego-centered networks)7. Assignment 2: …


A Recap: Two Approaches to Network Analysis Complete Networks

The relations of all actors are taking into account

Existing data (archival) Case study (f.i. a family

or this class) Where is the boundary

of the network?

Ego centered network Network from the

perspective of the actor Extension of traditional

survey instruments Random sampling

possible Statistical analysis

possible


The Assignment:

We analyze what are the barriers hindering collaboration between university researchers and companies from being (more) successful?

With “collaboration” we mean a working arrangement between at least one university researcher and one or more employees of a commercial firm with the intention to develop further an idea or a preliminary product of university researchers so that it can be brought to the market.


The Assignment

Think of ways in which the ego-centerd network of the researcher may influence

the success of collaboration with a company

Derive two hypotheses. Make use of ideas of Burt's (2001) theory of structural holes or of Coleman's (1988) closure theory.


The Assignment

Test those hypotheses using the dataset we provide.

SPSS data set “collaboration_2005.sav”:

File contains 150 cases (rows) information about the researcher, his/her

university position, his/her faculty, his/her ego-centered network data, and characteristics of the collaboration.


The report Structure and content of the report must resemble a scientific article

Introduction Brief discussion of the topic: university-industry collaboration

and social networks. Theory

Present a theoretical framework and derive two hypotheses. Method

Describe the data, measurements, and statistical methods. Results

Describe the networks in detail (e.g., size, density) depending on your theory

Present the results of the analysis, by means of table/picture, and a verbal clarification of the table/picture.

Discussion/Conclusion What do the results say about your theory? Would it make

sense to run other analyses? How could one improve this study? What did we learn?


Logistics

DEADLINE: Monday, November 3, 11:00 am

WORD-ATTACHMENT (.docx) EMAILBOX Uwe Matzat ([email protected]) and Chris Snijders ([email protected] )

I am available for questions:

IPO 1.32/ [email protected]


Problem – Theory- Empirical Research

1.) The problem we work on is: The success of collaboration (variable v56-v59b)

2.) Formulate a (ego-centered) social network theory that explains why some researchers have more success in their collaboration with firms than others.

3.) Test the two hypotheses that were developed

in the theory section and present the results.


The data set

Information about collaborations of 150 Twente University researchers of different disciplines

position of the researcher

v5

21 13,9 13,9 13,9

14 9,3 9,3 23,2

27 17,9 17,9 41,1

13 8,6 8,6 49,7

6 4,0 4,0 53,6

68 45,0 45,0 98,7

2 1,3 1,3 100,0

151 100,0 100,0

Professor

Associate Professor

Assistant Professor

Postdoc

Researcher

Ph.D. student

other, namely...

Total

ValidFrequency Percent Valid Percent

CumulativePercent


In general collaboration with a commercial company is strongly appealing to me.

v04

40 26,5 26,5 26,5

67 44,4 44,4 70,9

34 22,5 22,5 93,4

10 6,6 6,6 100,0

151 100,0 100,0

completely agree

agree

neutral

disagree

Total


CumulativePercent


Faculty of the researcher

v4

35 23,2 23,2 23,2

57 37,7 37,7 60,9

59 39,1 39,1 100,0

151 100,0 100,0

CTW

EWI

TNW

Total


CumulativePercent


To what extent do you consider the collaboration with the business firm to be successful?

v56

5 3,3 3,4 3,4

23 15,2 15,4 18,8

79 52,3 53,0 71,8

22 14,6 14,8 86,6

20 13,2 13,4 100,0

149 98,7 100,0

2 1,3

151 100,0

2

3

4

5

6

Total

Valid

0Missing

Total

Frequency Percent Valid PercentCumulative

Percent


To what extent are the goals of the collaboration achieved?

v57

5 3,3 3,4 3,4

38 25,2 25,7 29,1

66 43,7 44,6 73,6

14 9,3 9,5 83,1

25 16,6 16,9 100,0

148 98,0 100,0

3 2,0

151 100,0

2

3

4

5

6

Total

Valid

0Missing

Total


Percent


If there would be a possibility to cooperate with this business firm in the future, would you then do this again?

v58

2 1,3 1,4 1,4

6 4,0 4,1 5,4

13 8,6 8,8 14,3

43 28,5 29,3 43,5

83 55,0 56,5 100,0

147 97,4 100,0

4 2,6

151 100,0

1

2

3

4

5

Total

Valid

0Missing

Total


Percent


With hindsight: to what extent has the business firm tried to “take your technology and run”?

v59a

69 45,7 46,9 46,9

33 21,9 22,4 69,4

22 14,6 15,0 84,4

17 11,3 11,6 95,9

6 4,0 4,1 100,0

147 97,4 100,0

4 2,6

151 100,0

1

2

3

4

5

Total

Valid

0Missing

Total


Percent


With hindsight: to what extent has the business firm succeeded in “taking your technology and run”?

v59b

37 24,5 25,0 25,0

19 12,6 12,8 37,8

12 7,9 8,1 45,9

16 10,6 10,8 56,8

5 3,3 3,4 60,1

59 39,1 39,9 100,0

148 98,0 100,0

3 2,0

151 100,0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Total

Valid

0Missing

Total


Percent


Methods of data analysis

multiple linear regression analysis

dependent variables: v56-v59b

think about how to combine a selection of them into one single indicator – depending on your theory

select independent variables:

a) network characteristicsb) control variables


The data preparation

You only have to work with SPSS!

However, you definitely have to transform the given data set, for example by creating new variables with the “compute” command within SPSS. So a considerable amount of work consists of data recoding and data transformation to compute the appropriate network characteristics that you think are important.

Have a look at the hints for measuring network characteristics on the course website (in the zip file). Don’t take the SPSS commands literally.


To Do:

Have a look at the data

Understand how to calculate the network characteristics

Re-read the stuff about social network theories

Try it out!

Send the report to me (and Chris Snijders as a ‘backup’) until Nov 3

Documents

1 Social Networks Assignment 1: University-Industry Collaboration and Social Networks U. Matzat