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Gruner, Richard S. --- "The Evolution of Collaborative Invention at a Distance: Evidence from the Patent Record" [2011] ELECD 434; in Ghosh, Shubha; Malloy, Paul Robin (eds), "Creativity, Law and Entrepreneurship" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Creativity, Law and Entrepreneurship

Editor(s): Ghosh, Shubha; Malloy, Paul Robin

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848449879

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: The Evolution of Collaborative Invention at a Distance: Evidence from the Patent Record

Author(s): Gruner, Richard S.

Number of pages: 48

Extract:

10. The evolution of collaborative
invention at a distance: evidence
from the patent record
Richard S. Gruner

Many forces now drive technological advancement through group innova-
tion. Increasingly, group innovation projects involve efforts to combine
globally dispersed expertise and to advance invention processes among
working groups separated by great distances. Administrative resources
embedded in worldwide corporate organizations and improved communi-
cation infrastructures such as the internet draw together and facilitate new
efforts to innovate through globally dispersed workgroups.
There are several reasons why increases in geographically dispersed
work groups may produce more or better innovations. Research groups
assembled worldwide may produce quicker or more effective innovation
by simply involving more designers with parallel skills in innovative tasks.
These groups may also be advantageous because they apply complemen-
tary expertise or skills held by parties in different countries and regions to
shared design tasks. Where parties in different countries or regions have
significantly different expertise (in number or in kind), joint efforts of
parties from multiple countries or regions may be particularly important
in bringing the right mix of expertise to bear in certain lines of innovation
development.
The growing importance of innovation projects involving physically
separated groups of employees or researchers has created an associated
need for new means to coordinate and promote efforts of designers inter-
acting at a distance. Recent research has emphasized the surroundings
and practices at both individual and organizational levels that can make
collaborative interactions effective, particularly in advancing engineering
research and development and other ...