摘要
现有对研发联盟重复合作与企业创新绩效关系的研究大多忽略了创新绩效在创新程度方面的进一步细分,同时也忽略了多类型伙伴的协同研发对两者关系的边界条件。基于上述研究局限,研究探讨了企业与多类型伙伴间的重复合作对突破性创新绩效和渐进性创新绩效的影响机理和作用效果。通过对中国医药制造行业61家公司2007—2017年的340个研发联盟样本的实证分析,结果表明重复合作促进了企业的渐进性创新绩效,但阻碍了突破性创新绩效;研发联盟伙伴类型多样性负向调节重复合作与企业渐进性创新绩效的关系,正向调节重复合作与企业突破性创新绩效的关系。
The existing research about the relationship between repeated ties of multi-partner R&D alliances and firm innovation performance has inconsistent research conclusions. The reason for this controversy may be that these studies did not further break down the firm innovation performance according to the degree of innovation,and also ignored the impacts of collaborations or conflicts among multiple-type partners. In view of the above research limitations, based on the theoretical perspective of multi-partner collaboration or conflict, this article explores the impact mechanism and effect of repeated ties between the firm and multi-partners on incremental and radical innovation performance, and the moderating effects of partner type diversity.Based on the samples of 340 multi-partner R&D alliances of 61 listed companies in China’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry from 2007 to 2017, we applied the negative binomial regression analysis with fixed-effect panel data and a series of robustness tests. The empirical results support all theoretical assumptions and we get two research conclusions. The first one is that the repeated ties between the firm and multi-partners enhance incremental innovation performance yet impede radical innovation performance. This conclusion shows that the radical innovation and the incremental innovation need to match with different knowledge impact mechanisms. Specifically,the radical innovation requires changing existing innovation trajectories, combining heterogeneous knowledge, and flexible innovation processes. The incremental innovation, which focuses on technological improvements, needs to exploit existing knowledge, and the direction and process of incremental innovation are relatively clear. Repeated ties are the further in-depth exploration of existing knowledge and contribute to the alliance stability. Therefore,they(repeated ties) can promote incremental innovation performance but hinder radical innovation performance. The second research conclusion is that multi-type partner diversity negatively moderates the relationship between repeated ties and incremental innovation performance, yet positively moderates the relationship between repeated ties and radical innovation performance. This conclusion shows that there are interactions among different types of partners. The increase of partner types makes it easier to obtain external heterogeneous knowledge within the alliance, but also increases the cost and difficulty of exploring existing knowledge. At the same time, the different operating rules of partners also increase the flexibility and adaptability of cooperation. Therefore, higher partner type diversity of the multi-partner alliances has higher radical innovation performance and lower incremental innovation performance.The research has significant theoretical contributions and practical guidance. On the one hand, the research explores the role of repeated ties on two types of innovation performance and the moderating effects of multi-type partners, connecting the two independent research directions of network structure(partner tie) and network content(partner type). This research also further advances the existing theoretical framework in the field of alliance cooperative innovation and deepens our understanding of the interaction among multi-type partners. On the other hand, the study responds to the needs of the current era of collaborative innovation in Chinese firms. In particular, it can provide management suggestions for the promotion of the "deep integration" policy of multi-type partners.There are also some limitations in research. First, there are other possible ways to measure firm innovation performance. Secondly, the research is mainly based on objective data, and the method is relatively simple. Finally,the country and industry categories of the research context are limited, which may affect the generalization of the research conclusions. Future research can do further explorations based on these limitations, to verify and expand the application scope and the boundary conditions of the theory.
作者
梁杰
谢恩
赵龙峰
LIANG Jie;XIE En;ZHAO Longfeng(School of Management,Xi’an Polytechnic University,Xi’an 710049,China;School of Economics&Management,Tongji University,Shanghai 200092,China)
出处
《科学学与科学技术管理》
CSSCI
CSCD
北大核心
2020年第7期38-49,共12页
Science of Science and Management of S.& T.
基金
国家自然科学基金面上基金项目(71572143)
教育部人文社会科学青年基金项目(19YJC630093)
陕西省软科学研究计划一般项目(2018KRM55)
关键词
重复合作
多类型伙伴
突破性创新绩效
渐进性创新绩效
repeated ties
multi-type partners
radical innovation performance
incremental innovation performance
