Instrumental and affective ties within the laboratory: The impact of informal cliques on innovative productivity

• Published date: 01 October 2019
• Author: Marco Tortoriello,Giuseppe Soda,Manuel Gómez‐Solórzano
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3045
• Date: 01 October 2019

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Instrumental and affective ties within the

laboratory: The impact of informal cliques on

innovative productivity

Manuel Gómez-Solórzano

1

| Marco Tortoriello

2,3

| Giuseppe Soda

2,3

1

Tilburg School of Economics and

Management, Tilburg University, Tilburg,

The Netherlands

2

Department of Management and

Technology, Bocconi University, Milan,

Italy

3

SDA Bocconi School of Management,

Milan, Italy

Correspondence

Manuel Gómez-Solórzano, Tilburg School

of Economics and Management, Tilburg

University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.

Email: M.D.GomezSolorzano@uvt.nl

Abstract

Research Summary: In this paper, we contribute to

research on networks and innovation by distinguishing

between instrumental and affective ties and assessing their

impact on individual innovativeness. In particular, using

original data from the corporate R&D laboratory of a

global pharmaceutical company, we evaluate how a spe-

cific structural arrangement (i.e., belonging to a clique)

affects inventors' innovative productivity. Our results

show that both instrumental/knowledge-sharing cliques

and affective/friendship cliques correlate positively with

inventors' innovative productivity. However, we also

observe that when inventors straddle knowledge-sharing

and friendship cliques, their innovative productivity

declines.

Managerial Summary: Firms competing in knowledge-

intensive industries rely on the productivity of their inven-

tors to develop innovations. Within these firms, inventors'

innovative productivity is influenced by the people they

interact with and by the benefits and costs associated with

maintaining these relationships. We find that inventors'

innovative productivity is enhanced by having strong and

embedded relationships with their colleagues, regardless

of these relationships being based on knowledge-sharing

ties or friendship ties. However, when inventors are caught

in between strong knowledge-sharing ties and strong

Received: 2 February 2018 Revised: 25 April 2019 Accepted: 27 April 2019 Published on: 12 June 2019

DOI: 10.1002/smj.3045

Strat Mgmt J. 2019;40:1593–1609. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/smj © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 1593

friendship ties, their innovative productivity suffers, ulti-

mately hampering the firm's innovative capabilities.

KEYWORDS

affective ties, embedded triads, individual level, innovative

performance, instrumental ties

1|INTRODUCTION

The ability to generate innovations is a key driver of a firm´s economic performance (Arora,

Belenzon, & Patacconi, 2018). Particularly in technologically progressive industries such as pharma

or semiconductors, being able to create and capture value critically hinges upon a firm's ability to

innovate (Henderson & Cockburn, 1994; Jiang, Tan, & Thursby, 2011). While firms' innovativeness

can be studied at different levels of analysis and through different perspectives, a growing stream of

research in the field of strategic management has started to pay attention to the role of individuals

within the organization as one of the main drivers of its innovative capabilities (Dahlander,

O'Mahony, & Gann, 2016; Gambardella, Panico, & Valentini, 2015; Paruchuri & Awate, 2017;

Rhee & Leonardi, 2018). Researchers and inventors contribute to firms' innovativeness through not

only their individual human capital (Nyberg and Wright, 2015; Nyberg, Moliterno, Hale, & Lepak,

2014; Coff & Kryscynski, 2011; Skaggs & Youndt, 2004) but also the network of relationships and

informal interactions used to exchange knowledge, information, and ideas (Carnabuci & Operti,

2013; Grigoriou & Rothaermel, 2017; Sosa, 2011). Hence, scholars interested in strategic social and

human capital are increasingly focusing on the role of intra-firm networks of collaboration to under-

stand how knowledge is mobilized and how firms innovate. Indeed, successful patterns of interac-

tions through which knowledge is mobilized and shared in organizations could represent a critical

intangible asset to explain firms' ability to achieve a position of competitive advantage, and being

able to identify such structures and mechanisms represents an important research endeavor for strat-

egy and network scholars alike.

Furthering this perspective, we investigate the effect that diverse relational content has on individ-

uals' innovative performance. In particular, we suggest that the exclusive reliance on instrumental

(e.g., knowledge-sharing) ties as the only driver of the process leading to the generation of innova-

tions might be overlooking meaningful complementary explanations to this process that can be found

in the existence of affective-based or non-instrumental types of relationships (e.g., friendship ties).

As it has been previously suggested, for instance, non-instrumental ties can influence the way in

which individuals seek, access, and mobilize resources impacting creativity, motivation, collabora-

tion, and ultimately innovation (Casciaro & Lobo, 2008; Sosa, 2011). As innovation requires

long-term and stable commitment among the parties involved, the constant support, mutual trust, and

willingness to help that characterize embedded relationships become critical to increase the likeli-

hood of success for a given collaborative endeavor (Kilduff & Brass, 2010; Obstfeld, 2005; Uzzi,

1996). Finally, considering the instrumental or affective nature of embedded relationships could pro-

vide new insights into the process and mechanisms through which access to knowledge, information,

or other resources favors individuals' innovative performance. These arguments suggest that jointly

considering the relational content, the structure, and the position of individuals in different informal

networks deserves further investigation if we are to understand how people contribute to the

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