The role of individual specialization in knowledge production and diffusion

Across three essays I examine the roles generalist and specialist knowledge workers (e.g., scientists and inventors) play in producing and diffusing knowledge. Exploiting a set of policy shocks, I seek to show in the first essay how presence of generalists in hiring organizations can be conducive to effective post-recruitment knowledge diffusion. One of the underlying mechanisms is further explicated in the second essay, in which I propose that generalists facilitate knowledge diffusion because they are more likely to occupy brokerage positions in collaboration networks. In the third essay, I explore how degree of specialization also serves as signals. In particular, collaborators are arguably more capable of capturing status spillovers following award winning events when they are more specialized and intellectually close to awardees. Implications for subsequent productivity and collaborations are examined as well.

Many thanks to Di’s dissertation committee: • Committee Chair: Daniel Tzabbar, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Management, Drexel University • Committee Member: Jay Lee, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Management, Drexel University • Committee Member: V.K. Narayanan, Ph.D. Professor of Management, Drexel University • Committee Member: Lauren D’Innocenzo, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Management, Drexel University • Committee Member: Dennis Park, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Management, University of Texas at Dallas