Paper info

Knowledge networks and organizational network legitimacy: Lessons from China's Emerging TD-SCDMA Mobility Technology

Brian Low and Wesley Johnston

The paper was published at the 25th IMP-conference in Marseille, France in 2009.

 Emerging technologies are developed in knowledge networks. But as the complexity of these technologies increases, the need to formulate appropriate organizational network legitimacy strategies becomes a strategic issue. Through market, relational, investment and social legitimacy, subsidiaries of multinationals have been known to capture the knowledge circulating through the network webs of relationships. In China's emerging and politically sensitive 3G TD-SCDMA mobility technology, this paper examines how Nokia China remains a key player through these legitimacies. The results suggest that organizational network legitimacy increases the firm's opportunity to participate in this technology because legitimacy facilitates knowledge collection and local interpretation which is valuable in an unpredictable institutional environment.