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

令人困惑的是，竞争可以以非常不同的方式影响经济行为者之间的关系。它使一些行为者彼此孤立，在更严重的情况下，它使他们疏远-滋生敌意和不信任，使他们陷入不断升级的竞争。但对其他行为者来说，同样明显的竞争状况却产生了相反的效果：它使他们走到了一起。它促进个人接触和信息交流，并帮助行为者看到合作机会。为什么会有如此不同的结果？为了理解这一点，论文的学生将进行结构化的采访与高级管理人员和科学家在旧金山弗朗西斯科湾区的药物开发行业。该项目努力包括所有这些湾区公司。是什么决定了竞争者是倾向于孤立和疏远，还是相反，倾向于交流和合作，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地区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未能认识到有前途的项目。了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社会联系与合作，对地方和区域发展政策的管理者和设计者具有实际意义。在学术和更广泛的发行渠道上发表研究结果，应有助于就哪些政策最能促进现有或潜在工业地区的发展展开活跃的持续公众辩论。

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.