The impact of occupying cut-vertices positions on the creativity of key inventor in collaborative network

Although most previous studies focused on the static effect of relational ties, egocentric network or a whole network on key inventors' creativity, few have explored the dynamic impact of network cutvertices that combine above three levels. Based on patent data of 46 domestic firms from 1995 to 2010, we use negative binomial regression model to analyze the effect of occupying past and current cut-vertices positions on key inventors' creativity. The analysis is conducted at a group level and time dimension. The results show that for a long time, the more cut-vertices key inventors occupy in the past collaborative networks, the lower his creativity is. But there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the occupation numbers of cut-vertices positions in the current collaborative networks and the key inventors' creativity, for both long time and short time. The results confirm the importance of occupying the current cut-vertices positions and time factor in considering the role of network dynamic.