4 papers
Firstborn Advantage in the Ivory Tower: Mass Science, Expanding Scholarly Families, and the Reshaping of Academic Stratification
Likun Cao, Jie Hua, James Evans
This paper investigates the mechanisms underlying scientific stratification in the era of transition from elite to mass science. Existing scholarship has largely examined scientifi…
Modularity, Architectural Innovation, and New Venture Success
Likun Cao, Ziwen Chen, James Evans
Startups face a classic dilemma in innovation strategy: should they pursue cumulative, low-risk improvements or disruptive, high-risk breakthroughs? The Henderson and Clark framewo…
Deep versus Broad Technology Search and the Timing of Innovation Impact
Likun Cao, James Evans
This study offers a new perspective on the depth-versus-breadth debate in innovation strategy, by modeling inventive search within dynamic collective knowledge systems, and undersc…
Subjective Perspectives within Learned Representations Predict High-Impact Innovation
Likun Cao, Rui Pan, James Evans
Existing studies of innovation emphasize the power of social structures to shape innovation capacity. Emerging machine learning approaches, however, enable us to model innovators'…