Network Structure and Innovation Ambiguity Effects on Diffusion in Dynamic Organizational Fields.

Computational modeling simulated innovation diffusion through six prototypical in-terregional network structures and two distributions of partnering tendencies in dy-namic organizational fields. Compared to regional constraints, connections among all geographic regions decreased clearly beneficial innovation diffusion (a low-threshold adoption model) but increased ambiguous innovation diffusion (a social influence model). Compared with uniform partnering tendencies, normally distributed partner-ing tendencies increased diffusion of ambiguous innovations. Overall, local and inter-regional network structures interacted with the observability of an innovation’s ben-efits to determine diffusion. As an organizational population develops, net-works of relations form among its members. Adap-tive change can diffuse through these networks (Kraatz, 1998), but structural disparities may deter-mine whether an innovation sweeps through the field or languishes in obscurity. To the extent that