SPECIALIZATION AND BROKERAGE: A THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE GROWTH
Gianluca Carnabuci
Jeroen Bruggeman
Some scholars, mainly economists, argue that knowledge growth is enhanced by specialization, whereas others, mainly sociologists, argue in favor of knowledge brokerage. By casting the process of knowledge growth in a network representation, we are able to point out formally that specialization and brokerage are contradicting strategies. We then resolve this contradiction in a dynamic theory of knowledge growth, which we subsequently test on data describing all technological knowledge patented in the United States between 1975 and 1999. Our theory explains why domains of technological knowledge grow at different rates.
