The Impact of the Preferential Attachment Level on the Innovation Network Structure and Innovation Efficiency

In the formation process of innovation networks, the level of preferential attachment between agents has an important impact on the resulting structural and functional characteristics of a network. A simulation model of innovation networks with variable preferential levels of attachment is established to study these impacts. Negative preferences tend to form chain-type structures, while positive preferences tend to form star-type structures. Furthermore, a simulation process of innovation is added to the network model to test the impact of the resulting structures on innovation efficiency. For explorative innovation, the structure with unbiased preference has the fastest innovation speed, but the structures with strong positive preference show lower innovation costs. For exploitive innovation, strong negative preferences generate the fastest innovation speed and relatively low cost, while strong positive preferences show a slightly lower cost than negative preference structures but a much lower innovation speed. Finally, some internal mechanisms of the results are discussed.