game changer:structural folds with cognitive distance

in video game development

david stark

columbia university

My research collaborators:

Balazs VedresCo-PI, Central European University

Mathijs de VaanPhD candidate, Columbia University

This project supported by a grantfrom the National Science Foundation.

Innovationis recombinationproduced by the

collision of evaluativeprinciples.

Innovationat the overlap

“Structural Folds:Generative Disruption in Overlapping Groups”

Vedres and StarkAm J Soc 2010

Innovationat the overlap

Brokerageat the gap

Structural foldStructural hole

This project brings these analytic moments together, combining

attention to structural features

A B

This project brings these analytic moments together, combining

attention to structural features

and

attention to cultural practices.

Network analysts have tended to assume that cognitive distance mirrors social distance.

We relax that assumption.

What matters in explaining creative success?

The diversity of the cognitive/cultural elements

or

the structural folding of group membership?

Russian semiotician Yuri Lotman

Semiosphere not as a codeBut as multiplicity of codes

A B

Russian semiotician Yuri Lotman

Semiosphere not as a codeBut as multiplicity of codes

A B

Russian semiotician Yuri Lotman

Semiosphere not as a codeBut as multiplicity of codes

The more difficult the translationof the non-intersecting, the more valuablethis paradoxical communication becomes.

The tension of two tendencies.

A B

Data

16,507 video games139,727 individuals

Global video game production, 1979-2009

We operationalize cognitive distance and group structure by studying team formation.

How does the history of a team’s makeup shape its creative success?

How to do historical network analysis when the units of analysis are fleeting episodic projects?

It is not the history of the team per se that is of interest. Instead, we gather very detailed data on the histories of the team members.

With these we can reconstruct the cognitive distance and the community memberships for every project team.

For 139,727 individuals in 16,507 production teams across 30 years …

Analysis

Cognitive diversity

Videos games differ in their stylistic elements.

Each game has been coded for the presence or absence of 105 different stylistic (cognitive) elements.

As they move through the project space, individuals are exposed to various cognitive elements…

… allowing us to construct a cognitive profile for every individual

and from these to compute for every team and for all communities within a team a measure of cognitive distance.

Group structure

Videos games differ in their group structure depending on the cohesive ties that are formed as members worked with each other in the past.

Through these cohesive structures members acquire informal codes of work and tacit knowledge of each other.

As they move through the project space, individuals have opportunities to work together with others…

As they move through the project space, individuals have opportunities to work together with others…

… allowing us to reconstruct for every team the distinctive cohesive groups;

to identify the cognitive distance across these groups;

and to identify, in particular, whether these groups are isolated, brokered, or structurally folded.

We then test whether cognitive distance and structural folding contribute to creative success.

We expect to find significant positive effectsfor cognitive folding, i.e., when cognitively distant groups are structurally folded.

Dependent variables

Our dependent variables recognize that cultural products can be innovative without being successful (and vice versa).

Therefore...

Three dependent variables:

1) A project can be innovative; it can be stylistically distinctive.

2) A project can be critically successful.

3) But a project will be a game changer only when it is innovative and critically successful.

Findings

Distinctiveness Critical Success Gamechanger

Team variables Cognitive folding + + Structural folding Brokerage ― Cognitive distance + # of communities

Mean community size + + Member variables # of team members ―

―

# of newbies + + + Games tenure

+ +

Past critical success + + + High performers

+

Awarded member +

+

Control variables included

Yes Yes Yes

Distinctiveness Critical Success Gamechanger

Team variables Cognitive folding + + Structural folding Brokerage ― Cognitive distance + # of communities

Mean community size + + Member variables # of team members ―

―

# of newbies + + + Games tenure

+ +

Past critical success + + + High performers

+

Awarded member +

+

Control variables included

Yes Yes Yes

Distinctiveness Critical Success Gamechanger

Team variables Cognitive folding + + Structural folding Brokerage ― Cognitive distance + # of communities

Mean community size + + Member variables # of team members ―

―

# of newbies + + + Games tenure

+ +

Past critical success + + + High performers

+

Awarded member +

+

Control variables included

Yes Yes Yes

Distinctiveness Critical Success Gamechanger

Team variables Cognitive folding + + Structural folding Brokerage ― Cognitive distance + # of communities

Mean community size + + Member variables # of team members ―

―

# of newbies + + + Games tenure

+ +

Past critical success + + + High performers

+

Awarded member +

+

Control variables included

Yes Yes Yes

Distinctiveness Critical Success Gamechanger

Team variables Cognitive folding + + Structural folding Brokerage ― Cognitive distance + # of communities

Mean community size + + Member variables # of team members ―

―

# of newbies + + + Games tenure

+ +

Past critical success + + + High performers

+

Awarded member +

+

Control variables included

Yes Yes Yes

The effects of structural folding are compounded when cohesive groups are not only overlapping but also cognitively distant.

Such cognitive folding mobilizes a productive tension of rules, roles, and categories that promotes successful innovation.