Team Assembly Mechanisms Determine Collaboration Network Structure and Team Performance

doi:10.1126/science.1106340

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Team Assembly Mechanisms Determine Collaboration Network Structure and Team Performance

Roger Guimerà,¹^* Brian Uzzi,²^* Jarrett Spiro,³ Luís A. Nunes Amaral¹

Agents in creative enterprises are embedded in networks thatinspire, support, and evaluate their work. Here, we investigatehow the mechanisms by which creative teams self-assemble determinethe structure of these collaboration networks. We propose amodel for the self-assembly of creative teams that has its basisin three parameters: team size, the fraction of newcomers innew productions, and the tendency of incumbents to repeat previouscollaborations. The model suggests that the emergence of a largeconnected community of practitioners can be described as a phasetransition. We find that team assembly mechanisms determineboth the structure of the collaboration network and team performancefor teams derived from both artistic and scientific fields.

¹ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
² Kellogg School of Management and Department of Sociology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
³ Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.

^* These authors contributed equally to this work.

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: amaral{at}northwestern.edu

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