Recent studies on R&D activities have paid attention to inventors' networks and showed that their structural positions affected knowledge transfer within a firm. In our opinion, however, the prior studies have three important shortcomings. First, there are “providers” and “acquirers” in knowledge transfer. While providers refer to inventors who provide knowledge necessary to generate new knowledge, acquirers refer to inventors that acquire knowledge from others, combine their knowledge, and generate new knowledge. However, prior studies on providers are fewer and most focus on acquirers. We need to focus on not only acquirers but also providers to clarify the mechanisms of the innovation process. Second, although prior studies on acquirers have noted the importance of networks spanning structural holes in innovation, their effects are not consistent in prior studies on providers. Third, prior studies on providers did not consider the difference between intra-unit and inter-unit knowledge transfer. Recent studies have shown that the factors encouraging or discouraging knowledge transfer differ according to the two types of knowledge transfer. Thus, it follows that the effects of providers' networks on knowledge transfer vary accordingly.
We consider the three problems of prior studies and examine how providers' intra-firm networks affect intra-unit and inter-unit knowledge transfer. For this empirical investigation, we collected and analyzed the affiliations and citations of inventors from a Japanese audio electronics firm. The results highlighted three points, as follows. First, knowledge of a provider spanning large structural holes is likely to be used by inventors in the same unit. Second, the centrality of a provider and intra-unit knowledge transfer have an inverse U-shaped relationship. Third, knowledge of a central provider is likely to be used by inventors in different units. These results imply that the effects of providers' networks depend on the channels of knowledge transfer.
