供应链下游企业是技术创“新”的知识源吗?

Is downstream the knowledge source for technological innovations?

虽然学者们讨论了下游企业知识对创新的作用,这个方向尚需系统深入的研究。本文以新颖性作为区分不同创新的基准,从两个维度表达创新的新颖性:是否开展于新领域;是否基于新知识。交叉两个维度,划分4种创新:类型1创新在熟悉领域运用成熟知识;类型2创新在熟悉领域运用新知识;类型3创新在新领域运用成熟知识;类型4创新在新领域运用新知识。基于美国汽车零部件供应商的专利构建实证研究,结果发现运用下游企业知识在类型3创新中最为重要,在类型1创新中与企业内部知识同等重要,而在类型2和类型4创新中对质量没有影响。

Although previous studies have touched upon the role of downstream firms＇ knowledge on the innovation, there still need a systemic and deep discussion on the effect of using downstream firms＇ knowledge in the inventions. In this paper, we focus on the new- ness of inventions, and according to it to classify innovations. We use two dimensions to express the innovation＇ s newness： the novelty of the technological domain （ the innovation is initiated in an unfamiliar domain to the supplier） and the emergingness of the knowledge elements （emerging or nascent technological knowledge is used in the innovation）. Then four types of innovations generated by crossing these two dimensions, and each type exhibits different kind of technological newness ： the type 1 innovations （ using mature knowledge in a familiar domain） , the type 2 innovations （applying emerging knowledge in a familiar domain） , the type 3 innovations （using mature knowledge to enter a novel domain） , and the type 4 innovations （ using emerging knowledge to enter a novel domain）. An empirical analysis applying patent data of the US automotive industry shows that, automakers are the most effective knowledge source for the supplier＇ s type 3 innovations, and they are equally effective to the supplier＇ s internal source for the type 1 innovations; the use of automakers＇ knowledge has no significant relationship to the usefulness of the type 2 or the type 4 innovations.