营销渠道中双边专用性投资对合作创新绩效影响的实证研究

The Role of Bilateral Specific Investments on Co-innovational Performance in Marketing Channel

本文在资源基础理论拓展分析基础上,研究渠道伙伴之间双边专用性投资对合作创新绩效的影响。通过对国内340家制造商相关数据的实证分析,结果表明,双边专用性投资有利于合作双方正式契约的实施和关系信任的形成。同时,正式契约和关系信任与彼此之间的关系学习呈正相关关系,进而促进了合作创新绩效。另外,关系信任本身也促进了合作创新绩效。但是,正式契约与合作创新绩效之间的关系不是十分明显,必须通过关系学习这一中介变量才能对合作创新绩效产生影响。而且,与正式契约相比,中国企业应更加看重与合作伙伴关系信任的发展。本文的结论对于发展在中国情境下营销渠道的合作具有重要的意义。

At present, more and more companies, especially the companies in the marketing channel, form alliances and then engage in co-innovational performance to counterbalance or weaken the uncertainty which impacts them in the context of global economy, as well as to short cycle of technology and high cost of R＆D. Co-innovational performance is becoming a factor that measures whether the alliance succeeds. Haler Group＇s prosperity benefits from its partners including both suppliers and buyers. The extant literature shows that specific asset is the prerequisite for the alliance and is the key to the co-innovational performance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the bilateral specific investments and the co-innovational performance in marketing channel. Moreover, lots of risks and hazards, called opportunistic behavior, exist in the process of alliance, and the bilateral specific investment is a better effective mechanism than the unilateral specific assets. Transaction Cost Theory （TCT） claims the formal contract can effectively circumvent the hazards of opportunism, however, Rational Exchange Theory proposes that the relational trust can promote and strengthen the cooperative behavior, and hence it can eliminate the risks involved in the relationship. Co-innovational performance can＇t exist without knowledge transfer, so the relationship learning should be involved in the process. Using survey data from 340 manufacturers in China, the empirical study shows that bilateral specific investments can effectively stimulate the performance of formal contract and form of relational trust, which will serve as catalysts for relationship learning that promotes significantly the co-innovational performance, Meanwhile, the relational trust has a significant relationship with the co-innovational performance, but the formal contract does not. The conclusions have the far-reaching influence on the marketing channel cooperation in the context of China. In addition, expanding the application level of RBV and innovation from a single firm to the alliance is another contribution in the paper.