On the influence of nodes' characteristic in inter-organisational innovation networks structure

This paper studies inter-organisational innovation networks, investigating the relations between the structure of the connections among members and a given node’s characteristic. Such relations are used to provide some insights into the attitude of network innovation. We propose an original methodology that considers nodes belonging to two different classes detecting the available configurations. The intensity of connections, as an additional layer of information, is also included to examine its relative influence on the network topology. We complete the analysis through the introduction of a qualitative intensity/connectance matrix that attempts to connote the innovation attitude of the network.We test the methodology on a real case study, discussing the detected configuration and the implication in terms of innovation attitude.