We empirically examine the antecedents and innovation consequences of organizational
knowledge brokering, the ability to effectively apply knowledge from one technical domain to
innovate in another. We do so by tracking all the start-up biotechnology firms founded to
commercialize the then-emergent recombinant DNA technology. We examine how firms'
interaction with their external environment helps shape their heterogeneous knowledge
brokering capacity, which in turn is associated with uneven ex-post innovative performance …

We empirically examine the antecedents and innovation consequences of organizational
knowledge brokering capability, the ability to effectively apply knowledge from one technical
domain to innovate in another. We do so by tracking all the start-up biotechnology firms
founded to commercialize the then-emergent recombinant DNA technology. Building on
prior research in this area, we extend the knowledge brokering concept by examining how
firms' interaction with their external environment helps bolster their heterogeneous …