Social network heterogeneity benefits individuals at the expense of groups in the creation of innovation
Innovation is fundamental for development and provides a competitive advantage for societies. It is the process of creating more complex technologies, ideas, or protocols from existing ones. While innovation may be created by single agents (i.e. individuals or organisations), it is often a result of...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Physics: Complexity |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-072X/ac9447 |
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| author | F Zarei J Ryckebusch K Schoors L E C Rocha |
| author_facet | F Zarei J Ryckebusch K Schoors L E C Rocha |
| author_sort | F Zarei |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Innovation is fundamental for development and provides a competitive advantage for societies. It is the process of creating more complex technologies, ideas, or protocols from existing ones. While innovation may be created by single agents (i.e. individuals or organisations), it is often a result of social interactions between agents exchanging and combining complementary expertise and perspectives. The structure of social networks impacts this knowledge exchange process. To study the role of social network structures on the creation of new technologies, we design an evolutionary mechanistic model combining self-creation and social learning. We find that social heterogeneity allows agents to leverage the benefits of diversity and to develop technologies of higher complexity. Social heterogeneity, however, reduces the group ability to innovate. Not only the social structure but also the openness of agents to collaborate affect innovation. We find that interdisciplinary interactions lead to more complex technologies benefiting the entire group but also increase the inequality in the innovation output. Lower openness to interdisciplinary collaborations may be compensated by a higher ability to collaborate with multiple peers, but low openness also neutralises the intrinsic benefits of network heterogeneity. Our findings indicate that social network heterogeneity has contrasting effects on microscopic (local) and macroscopic (group) levels, suggesting that the emergence of innovation leaders may suppress the overall group performance. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cfb2c866099b442d9aa84de50b2a06b2 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2632-072X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Physics: Complexity |
| spelling | doaj-art-cfb2c866099b442d9aa84de50b2a06b22024-11-18T18:06:11ZengIOP PublishingJournal of Physics: Complexity2632-072X2022-01-013404500210.1088/2632-072X/ac9447Social network heterogeneity benefits individuals at the expense of groups in the creation of innovationF Zarei0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1421-6107J Ryckebusch1K Schoors2L E C Rocha3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9046-8739Department of Economics, Ghent University , Ghent, Belgium; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ghent University , Ghent, BelgiumDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Ghent University , Ghent, BelgiumDepartment of Economics, Ghent University , Ghent, BelgiumDepartment of Economics, Ghent University , Ghent, Belgium; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ghent University , Ghent, BelgiumInnovation is fundamental for development and provides a competitive advantage for societies. It is the process of creating more complex technologies, ideas, or protocols from existing ones. While innovation may be created by single agents (i.e. individuals or organisations), it is often a result of social interactions between agents exchanging and combining complementary expertise and perspectives. The structure of social networks impacts this knowledge exchange process. To study the role of social network structures on the creation of new technologies, we design an evolutionary mechanistic model combining self-creation and social learning. We find that social heterogeneity allows agents to leverage the benefits of diversity and to develop technologies of higher complexity. Social heterogeneity, however, reduces the group ability to innovate. Not only the social structure but also the openness of agents to collaborate affect innovation. We find that interdisciplinary interactions lead to more complex technologies benefiting the entire group but also increase the inequality in the innovation output. Lower openness to interdisciplinary collaborations may be compensated by a higher ability to collaborate with multiple peers, but low openness also neutralises the intrinsic benefits of network heterogeneity. Our findings indicate that social network heterogeneity has contrasting effects on microscopic (local) and macroscopic (group) levels, suggesting that the emergence of innovation leaders may suppress the overall group performance.https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-072X/ac9447innovationsocial networkssocial heterogeneityagent based modellingcreation of ideascollaboration |
| spellingShingle | F Zarei J Ryckebusch K Schoors L E C Rocha Social network heterogeneity benefits individuals at the expense of groups in the creation of innovation Journal of Physics: Complexity innovation social networks social heterogeneity agent based modelling creation of ideas collaboration |
| title | Social network heterogeneity benefits individuals at the expense of groups in the creation of innovation |
| title_full | Social network heterogeneity benefits individuals at the expense of groups in the creation of innovation |
| title_fullStr | Social network heterogeneity benefits individuals at the expense of groups in the creation of innovation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Social network heterogeneity benefits individuals at the expense of groups in the creation of innovation |
| title_short | Social network heterogeneity benefits individuals at the expense of groups in the creation of innovation |
| title_sort | social network heterogeneity benefits individuals at the expense of groups in the creation of innovation |
| topic | innovation social networks social heterogeneity agent based modelling creation of ideas collaboration |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-072X/ac9447 |
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