Chapter 2: Stakeholder Centrality Potential and Relational Identification in Technological Innovation Networks

Interest-based motivations predict stakeholders sharing the same interests will likely act similarly within a social network. Contrariwise, identity-based motivations forecast similar stakeholders will feel threatened by each other and rather behave differently in order to remain distinct from one another in a social network. Although identity-motivated behaviors can appear irrational from an interest-based perspective, both perspectives are complementary in explaining the complexity encountered when analyzing interactions occurring in technological innovation networks, where knowledge recombination is believed to trigger innovation despite complex supply chain relationships. Identities are commonly approached as a simple antecedent to innovation in the literature, nurturing or deterring initiatives. Through an original and dynamic typology of centrality potential based on relational identifications among stakeholders of technological innovation network, we rather aim to describe how identities and identifications may predict future stakeholder behaviors.