This empirical study compares the impact of knowledge structures on relational patterns in markets for emergent technology and in a mass market within the electronics industry. We hypothesized that in markets for emergent technologies, sellers and buyers do not have a common image of product use, and to reach it they must communicate contextual knowledge rooted in engineering practice. Furthermore, insofar as knowledge is contextual (as opposed to articulated in a mass market), sellers’ and buyers’ experts must engage in an intense technological dialogue. These hypotheses were tested by a key-parametric qualitative field study and quantitative network analysis. Communication activity was found more intense in the seller-buyer network in the emergent technology market than in the mass market. The seller-buyer network of emergent technology was also more hierarchical, with technical experts located at the center of the technological dialogue regarding product application. Shared practice and co-development proved to be dominant forms of work organization in the market for emergent technologies. By contrast, sequential development epitomized the activities in the seller-buyer network of the standard product. Implications for network theory, economic sociology, and organization studies are discussed.
Akerlof, George A.1970‘The market for “lemons”: Quality, uncertainty and the market mechanisms’ . Quarterly Journal of Economics84: 488-500.
2.
Araujo, Luis , and Geoffrey Easton1999‘A relational resource perspective on social capital’ in Corporate social capital: Networks for strategy, marketing, human resources and entrepreneurship. S. Gabbay and R. Leenders (eds), 68-87. Amsterdam: Kluwer.
3.
Attwell, Paul1987‘The deskilling controversy’ . Work and Occupations14: 323-346.
4.
Barley, Stephen R.1996‘Technicians in the workplace: Ethnographic evidence for bringing work into organization studies’ . Administrative Science Quarterly41: 404-441.
5.
Barley, Stephen R. , and Gideon Kunda2001‘Bringing work back in’. Organization Science12/1: 76-95.
6.
Borgatti, Stephen P. , and Martin Everett1997UCINET V., Network Analytic Software. Chicago: Analytic Technology.
7.
Borgatti, Stephen P. , Candace Jones, and Martin Everett1998‘Network measures of social capital’. Connections21/2: 27-36.
8.
Burt, Ronald S.1987‘Social contagion and innovation: Cohesion versus structural equivalence’ . American Journal of Sociology92: 1287-1335.
9.
Burt, Ronald S.1992Structural holes: The social structure of competition. New York: Harvard University Press.
10.
Coleman, James , Elihu Katz, and Herbert Menzel1957‘The diffusion of an innovation among physicians’. Sociometry20/4: 253-270.
11.
Collins, Harry M.1974‘The tea set: Tacit knowledge and scientific networks’ . Science Studies4: 165-186.
12.
Collins, Harry M.1993‘The structure of knowledge’ . Social Research60/1: 95-116.
13.
Collins, Harry M.1995‘Humans, machines and the structure of knowledge’ . Stanford Humanities Review4/1: 67-84.
14.
Crane, Diana1972The invisible colleges: Diffusion of knowledge in scientific communities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
15.
Darr, Asaf2000‘Technical labour in an engineering boutique: Interpretive frameworks of sales and R&D engineers’ . Work, Employment and Society14/2: 205-222.
16.
Darr, Asaf2002‘The technicisation of sales work’ . Work, Employment and Society16/1: 47-65.
17.
Easton, Geoff , and Luis Araujo1999‘Inter-firm responses to heterogeneity of demand over time’ in The formation of inter-organizational networks. M. Ebers (ed.), 66-94. New York: Oxford University Press.
18.
Ebers, Mark1999The formation of inter-organizational networks. New York: Oxford University Press.
19.
Eccles, Robert G.1985The transfer pricing problem: A theory for practice. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
20.
Freeman, Linton C.1979‘Centrality in social networks: Conceptual clarification’ . Social Networks1: 215-239.
21.
Freeman, C.1986‘The diffusion of innovation—Microelectronics technology’ in Product design and technological innovation. R. Roy and D. Wield (eds), 193-200. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
22.
Freidson, Eliot1973‘Professions and the occupational principle’ in The professions and their prospects. E. Freidson (ed.), 19-38. Beverly Hills and London: Sage.
23.
Fruin, W. Mark1997Knowledge works: Managing intellectual capital at Toshiba. New York: Oxford University Press.
24.
Geertz, Clifford1978‘The bazaar economy: Information and search in peasant marketing’ . The American Economic Review68/2: 28-37.
25.
Granovetter, Mark S.1985‘Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness’ . American Journal of Sociology91: 481-510.
26.
Håkansson, Håkan , and Jan Johanson1992‘A model of industrial networks’ in Industrial networks: A new view of reality. B. Axelsson and G. Easton (eds), 28-35. London and New York: Routledge.
27.
Hennart, Jean-Francois1988‘Upstream vertical integration in the aluminium and tin industries’ . Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization9: 281-299.
28.
Jones, Candace , William Hesterly, and Stephen P. Borgatti1997‘A general theory of network governance: Exchange conditions and social mechanisms’. Academy of Management Review22/4: 911-945.
29.
Knorr-Cetina, Karin1981The manufacture of knowledge: An essay on the constructivist and contextual nature of science. Oxford: Pergamon.
30.
Knorr-Cetina, Karin1999Epistemic cultures: How sciences make knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Latour, Bruno , and Steve Woolgar1979Laboratory life: The social construction of scientific facts. Beverly Hills: Sage.
33.
Lipparini, Andrea , and Maurizio Sobrero1999‘Coordinating multi-firm innovative processes: Entrepreneurs as catalyst in small-firm networks’ in The formation of inter-organizational networks. M. Ebers (ed.), 199-219. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
34.
Lütz, Susanne1998‘Learning through intermediaries: The case of inter-firm research collaborations’ in The formation of inter-organizational networks. M. Ebers (ed.), 220-237. New York: Oxford University Press.
35.
McLoughlin, Ian , and Jon Clark1994Technological change at work. Buckingham: Open University Press.
36.
Miles, Raymond E. , and Charles C. Snow1994Fit, failure, and the hall of fame: How companies succeed or fail. New York: Free Press.
37.
Oberschall, Anthony , and Eric M. Leifer1986‘Efficiency and social institutions: Uses and misuses of economic reasoning in sociology’. Annual Review of Sociology12: 233-253.
38.
Pacey, Arnold1992The maze of ingenuity: Ideas and idealism in the development of technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
39.
Pentland, Brian T.1991‘Organizing moves in software support hot lines’ . Administrative Science Quarterly37/4: 527-548.
40.
Pinch, Trevor J. , and Wiebe E. Bijker1987‘The social construction of facts and artifacts: Or how the sociology of science and the sociology of technology might benefit each other’ in The social construction of technological systems. W. E. Bijker, E. C. Hughes, and T. J. Pinch (eds), 17-50. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
41.
Podolny, Joel1994‘Market uncertainty and social character of economic exchange’ . Administrative Science Quarterly39: 458-483.
42.
Powell, Walter W.1990‘Neither market nor hierarchy: Network forms of organizations’ . Research in Organizational Behavior12: 295-336.
43.
Prietula, Michael , and Herbert A. Simon1989‘The experts in your midst’. Harvard Business Review67/1: 120-124.
44.
Rogers, Everett M. , and Lawrence Kincaid1981Communication networks: Toward a new paradigm for research. New York: Free Press.
45.
Smith, P. C. , and J. Laage-Hellman1992‘Small group analysis in industrial networks’ in Industrial networks: A new view of reality. B. Axelsson and G. Easton (eds), 37-61. London and New York: Routledge.
46.
Talmud, Ilan1999‘Corporate social capital and corporate liability’ in Corporate social capital: Networks for strategy, marketing, human resources and entrepreneurship. S. Gabbay and R. Leenders (eds), 96-195. Amsterdam: Kluwer.
47.
Uzzi, Brian1997‘Social structure and competition in interfirm networks: The paradox of embeddedness’ . Administrative Science Quarterly42: 35-67.
48.
Van Maanen, John , and Stephen R. Barley1984‘Occupational communities: Culture and control in organizations’. Research in Organizational Behavior6: 287-365.
49.
Von Hippel, E.1988The sources of innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
50.
Von Hippel, E.1994‘Sticky information and the locus of problem solving: Implications for innovation’ . Management Science40/4: 429-439.
51.
Wasserman, S. , and K. Faust1994Social networks analysis: Methods and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
52.
Williamson, Oliver. E.1985The economic institutions of capitalism. New York: Free Press.
53.
Zuboff, Shoshana1988In the age of the smart machine. New York: Basic books.
