Game Changer: The Topology of Creativity MATHIJS DE VAAN Columbia University DAVID STARK Columbia University BALAZS VEDRES Central European University Please address all correspondence to David Stark, Department of Sociology, Columbia University, 606 W. 122nd Street, New York, NY 10027;
[email protected]. Research for this paper was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, # SES-1123807. For their comments, criticisms, and suggestions, we are grateful to Shamus Khan, Gianluca Carnabuci, Matteo Prato, Elena Esposito, Koen Frenken, Monique Girard, Gernot Grabher, Michael Hutter, Francesco Mazzucchelli, Damon J. Phillips, and the participants of the CODES seminar at Columbia’s Center on Organizational Innovation. Thanks to the European University Institute in Florence and to the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for supporting Stark during his leave year while this manuscript was in preparation. Game Changer: The Topology of Creativity MATHIJS DE VAAN DAVID STARK BALAZS VEDRES Columbia University Columbia University Central European University Abstract. What accounts for creative success when the unit of innovation is a team? In particular, what are the sociological factors that explain why some ensembles are able to meet the challenge of creating a cultural product that is not only inventive but also critically acclaimed? We build on work pointing to structural folding – the network property of a cohesive group whose membership overlaps with that of another cohesive group. To explore the processes whereby structural folding contributes to creative success, we draw on new insights in cultural sociology. We hypothesize that the effects of structural folding on game changing success are especially strong when overlapping groups are cognitively distant.