Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Emergence of Cooperation in Competitive Economic Environments

令人费解的是，竞争会以截然不同的方式影响经济行为体之间的关系。它使一些参与者相互孤立，在更激烈的情况下，它疏远——滋生敌意和不信任，并使他们陷入不断升级的竞争。但对其他参与者来说，同样明显的竞争局面却产生了相反的效果：它让他们走到了一起。它促进了个人接触和信息交流，并帮助参与者看到合作机会。为什么会有如此不同的结果？为了理解这一点，论文学生将与旧金山湾区药物开发行业的高级管理人员和科学家进行结构化访谈。该项目努力包括所有这样的湾区公司。决定竞争对手是倾向于孤立和疏离，还是相反地倾向于沟通和合作的因素，对竞争环境中的创新企业有着深远的影响。人种学证据表明，与竞争行业同行的社会和合作关系给创新企业和整个工业区域带来了强大的发展优势。相比之下，不与竞争对手沟通或合作的公司往往无法评估想法的优点，这使得他们坚持构思糟糕的项目，或者无法识别有前途的项目。理解为什么有些公司最终与竞争对手隔绝，而另一些公司则建立了社会联系和合作，这对地方和区域发展政策的管理者和设计者具有实际意义。在学术和更广泛的流通渠道发表研究结果，应该有助于一场正在进行的热烈的公众辩论，即什么样的政策最有利于现有或潜在工业区的发展。

Mark GranovetterDenis TrapidoStanford UniversityIt is puzzling that competition can affect relations among economic actors in very different ways. It isolates some actors from each other, and in more drastic cases, it alienates -- breeds hostility and distrust and entraps them in escalating rivalry. But for other actors, the same apparent situation of competition has the opposite effect: it brings them together. It stimulates personal contacts and information exchange and helps actors see opportunities for cooperation. Why such different outcomes? To understand this, the dissertation student will conduct structured interviews with senior managers and scientists in San Francisco Bay Area's drug development industry. The project strives to include all such Bay Area companies. What determines whether competitors tilt toward isolation and alienation or, on the contrary, toward communication and cooperation, has profound consequences for innovating firms in competitive environments. Ethnographic evidence suggests that social and collaborative relations with competing industry peers give innovating firms and entire industrial regions a strong developmental advantage. By contrast, firms that do not communicate or cooperate with competitors are often unable to evaluate the merits of ideas, which makes them stick to badly conceived projects or fail to recognize promising ones. Understanding why some firms end up isolated from competitors while others forge social connections and cooperation has practical implications for managers and designers of local and regional development policies. Publication of results in scholarly as well as wider circulation outlets should contribute to a lively ongoing public debate as to what policies best serve the advancement of existing or potential industrial regions.