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How Blockchain Innovations Emerge: From the Perspective of Knowledge Search

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HCI in Business, Government and Organizations (HCII 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12783))

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Abstract

Emerging technologies like Blockchain are firms’ important resources, rendering it significant to clarify their generation mechanisms. One potential way is knowledge search, which is an essential source of firms’ lacking knowledge. There are two types of search: local search and boundary-spanning search. They have a different impact on innovative outcomes. Besides, the innovations of emerging technologies have two aspects: R&D aspect and application aspect, depending on the domain to which the target of an innovation belongs. Because of the distinct features of these two aspects, knowledge search may influence R&D innovations and application innovations differently. We empirically test our hypotheses on Blockchain patent data retrieved from PATSTAT. The results show that there exist different effects that knowledge search has on R&D innovations and application innovations. While searching across the boundary may benefit patent novelty in application innovations, it will improve patent quality in R&D innovations. Our study has many academic contributions and practical implications, and its limitations leave room for further research on the topic.

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Acknowledgement

The work was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (#72072087), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20200339), Shenzhen Special Fund for the Development of Strategic Emerging Industries (No. JCYJ20170818100156260), research fund of Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province (2020YFSY0061), and Institute of Data Research in Humanities and Social Sciences at Nanjing University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Information Management, Institute of Data Research in Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, People’s Republic of China

    Jingxuan Huang, Lele Kang & Yiyang Bian

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  1. Jingxuan Huang
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  2. Lele Kang
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  3. Yiyang Bian
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Correspondence to Lele Kang .

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  1. Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA

    Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

  2. Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO, USA

    Keng Siau

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Huang, J., Kang, L., Bian, Y. (2021). How Blockchain Innovations Emerge: From the Perspective of Knowledge Search. In: Nah, F.FH., Siau, K. (eds) HCI in Business, Government and Organizations. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12783. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77750-0_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77750-0_12

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