A study of the influence of network structural embeddedness on organization innovativeness

This paper explores the impact of network structural embeddedness of an organization on its innovativeness. Based on a survey of 104 organizations in the medium and high technology sectors in Saudi Arabia, we explored the relationships between different network characteristics (i.e. network density, centrality) and organization’s type and degree of innovativeness. Using a logistic regression analysis, the study finds that there is a positive and significant relationship between organization’s network density and centrality with both product innovation and process innovation. Additionally, the study investigated the influence of network characteristics on the degree of novelty of innovation (i.e. radical innovation). The findings reveal that having a central network position in terms of betweenness and degree centrality have a positive and significant relationship with novel innovation. However, the study results show insignificant relationship between network density and novel innovation.