政府支持对企业技术创新的影响——基于资源基础观与制度基础观的整合视角

The Impact of Government Support on Enterprises' Technological Innovation:Integration of RBV and IBV

理论界与实务界关于政府支持是否能够促进企业技术创新有着持续的争论。本文认为,解决这一争论的关键在于整合资源基础观与制度基础观视角,区分企业技术创新是探索式创新还是利用式创新,以及引入对制度情境的考量。为此,本文以广东省173家企业为样本,研究发现:(1)相对于利用式创新而言,政府支持更有利于企业进行探索式创新;(2)相对国有企业而言,民营企业能更有效地利用政府支持促进探索式创新;(3)相对于制度发展水平低的地方,处于制度发展水平高的地方的企业能更有效地利用政府支持,促进探索式创新。这些结论具有重要的理论和现实意义。

Existing theorists and practitioners have a long debate on whether the government support have effects on firms＇ technology innovation. We propose that the way to solve this debate is to integrate resource based view and institution based view by distinguishing between the explorative and exploitive innovation, and proposing that government support will have different effects on explorative and exploitive innovation, and these relationships will be moderated by firm ownership and institutional environment. Based upon a sample of 173 companies located in Guangdong Province, we examine the effects of government support on firm＇s innovation while considering the effects of ownership and institutional environment as moderators. The results show that ： 1 ） Government support have an significant positive effects on exploratory innovation but have no significant effect on the exploitative innovation; 2） Compared to the private -owned enterprises, state -owned enterprises weakens the positive effect of government support on explorative innovation ;3 ） Institutional environment strengthens the positive relationship between the gov- ernment support and exploratory innovation. These results have important theoretical and practical implications. First, these results indicate that the effects of government support on innovation depend on the type of technology innovation, and also on the ownership struc- ture and institutional environment. This conclusion deepens the research on innovation strategy in emerging econo- mies by integrating institution based view and resource based view to explore how the interaction of firm ownership, institutional environment, and government support have different effects on explorative and exploitive innovation. Second, the findings reveal the underlying mechanisms of the role of government support in promoting enterpri- ses＇ technology innovation. The extant literature on relationship between government support and technology innova- tion has yielded mix results. This paper studies suggest that the enterprises＇ technological innovation should be divid- ed into exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation, thereby helping to deconstruct the nature of the relation- ship between them. The study finds that government support has important impact on exploratory innovation, but has no significant impact on exploitative innovation. Moreover, the study also finds that ownership and institutional envi- ronment are important moderators,adjusting even change the relationship between government support and explora- tory innovation, thus provides the boundary of the relationship between government support and innovation. Third, the findings also have important implications for policy makers and firms in China. For the government, they need to be fully aware that, government support for promoting technical innovation is always context depend- ent. When making policy for supporting firms＇ innovation, Governments should take full considerations of firms＇ in- novation type, the firms＇ ownership, and also the institutional environments. For managers in Chinese firms, they need to deeply understand that, with the deepening of reform and the gradual improvement of the institutional envi- ronment, innovation promoting role of government support, especially for exploratory innovation will become increas- ingly apparent. In this case, companies need to take full advantage of government support, vigorously carry out busi- ness innovation, especially exploratory innovation activities in order to enhance the capability of independent innova- tion. And it is important to respond to the New Normal economy for state -owned enterprises, and to increase effi- ciency （especially innovation efficiency） and enhance the vitality. In conclusion, extant literature offers conflicting views regarding how institutional support affects firms innova- tion. This paper advances this line of inquiry by proposing that institutional support has different effects on explora- tive and exploitive innovation, and theses effects are critically depend on ownership structure and institutional envi- ronment. Understanding how, why, and when some firms can better utilize institutional support represents an intrigu- ing avenue for further research.