@article {1232209, title = {Engineering Serendipity: When Does Knowledge Sharing Lead to Knowledge Production?}, journal = {Strategic Management Journal}, year = {Forthcoming}, abstract = {

We investigate how knowledge similarity between two individuals is systematically related to the likelihood that a serendipitous encounter results in knowledge production. We conduct a field experiment at a medical research symposium, where we exogenously varied opportunities for face-to-face encounters among 15,817 scientist-pairs. Our data include direct observations of interaction patterns collected using sociometric badges, and detailed, longitudinal data of the scientists{\textquoteright} postsymposium publication records over 6 years. We find that interacting scientists acquire more knowledge and coauthor 1.2 more papers when they share some overlapping interests, but cite each other{\textquoteright}s work between three and seven times less when they are from the same field. Our findings reveal both collaborative and competitive effects of knowledge similarity on knowledge production outcomes.

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}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3256}, author = {Jacqueline N. Lane and Ganguli, Ina and Gaule, Patrick and Guinan, Eva C. and Lakhani, Karim R.} }