Raymond Levitt Director, Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects

We analyze the adoption of three comparable technological innovations in computer-aided drafting through networks of firms in the United States and Europe to investigate the impact of market structure on networks and diffusion. We observe that the allocation of work and the role relationships between specialists in the network vary across market structures. We find that (1) innovations that align to the allocation of work in the network diffuse more quickly and (2) role relationships between specialists in the network moderate the impact of misalignment on diffusion. JEL classification: 01