Inventor multiplexity and innovation performance: the implication of firm boundary

Innovative knowledge spans multiple contexts. We study the effect of knowledge contextuality on innovation output of inventors. For this, we model contextuality using the multiplexity of an inventor’s connections in technological, geographic, and collaborative networks. We show that innovation output increases when the inventor increases participation in the multiplex system by distributing the ties more equally across available contextual networks. Further, we show that multiplex participation within an organizational boundary is more effective than that outside the organizational boundary. While external knowledge is a sought-after resource to overcome the constraints of local search, we argue that internal knowledge provides the necessary balance between novelty and the costs of search.