双层网络嵌入下结构洞对企业二元创新的影响

The Effects of Structure Hole on Firm′s Dual Innovation from the Perspective of Double-layer Embeddness

网络结构特征影响企业知识转移与知识组合效果,进而对创新绩效产生复杂作用。利用我国165家上市企业2007-2018年专利面板数据,实证检验企业知识与协同双层网络嵌入对二元创新绩效的影响,并分析战略柔性和开放度对上述关系的调节作用。研究结果表明,企业知识网络结构洞正向影响利用式创新绩效,负向影响探索式创新绩效;协同网络结构洞与二元创新均存在负相关关系。同时,战略柔性和开放度调节双层网络结构洞与二元创新的关系,且变量间存在有效匹配关系:知识网络结构洞—开放度促进利用式创新绩效提升,而协同网络结构洞—战略柔性促进探索式创新绩效提升。研究结论为解决结构洞与企业创新关系的分歧带来新思路,同时为企业创新绩效提升提供理论借鉴。

In the era of knowledge economy,enterprises gradually change from"closed innovation"to"open innovation",and the innovation network established by cooperation becomes an important way for enterprises to share knowledge resources and realize value acquisition.It has been pointed out that the innovation activities of enterprises are embedded in both collaborative networks formed by social relationships of R&D cooperation and knowledge networks formed by knowledge combination,and these network structural characteristics influence knowledge transfer and knowledge combination of enterprises,which in turn have complex effects on innovation performance.However,although the literature has confirmed the close connection between double-layer network structural features and enterprise innovation,the mechanism of the role of double-layer network structural holes and enterprise innovation activities is still unclear in academia.On the one hand,some scholars believe that network structure holes can provide social capital and bring information control advantages for enterprises,which are beneficial to enterprise innovation;on the other hand,some scholars point out that network structure holes reduce the frequency of communication among individuals,which is not conducive to the dissemination of tacit knowledge and hinders innovation activities to a certain extent.Then,what exactly is the relationship between double-layer network structure hole and enterprise innovation performance?Are the results different due to different types of innovation?Is there an effective adaptation of the innovation network structure to dual innovation?Do contextual differences also lead to different research findings?All these questions need to be further investigated.Based on this,this paper constructs the mechanism of the role of knowledge network structure hole and synergistic network structure hole on firms'dual innovation performance based on knowledge base theory and social network theory and introduces contextual variables such as strategic flexibility and openness to analyze their moderating roles in the relationship between knowledge network,synergistic network and dual innovation performance.This study takes listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares as the research sample and follows the following three principles to screen the industries.First,the industries are highly competitive and require continuous technological innovation to ensure their industry status.Second,the industries have the technology and knowledge-intensive characteristics and the intensity of R&D investment is the key to enterprise technological innovation.Third,the industries are more aware of the patent application and protection and have easy access to patent information.The final unbalanced panel data from 2007-2018(N=559)were obtained for 165 enterprises in China,involving high-tech industries such as computer,communication,and other electronic equipment manufacturing,information transmission,software and information technology services,and electrical machinery.In addition,after the Hausman test,this study uses a negative binomial random effects regression model for analysis.The empirical results show that structural holes in knowledge network are beneficial to a firm′s exploitative innovation performance,but impede a firm′s exploratory innovation performance.Moreover,there are negative correlations between collaboration network structure hole and firm′s ambidextrous innovation.At the same time,the interaction among strategic flexibility,openness and the two-layer network structure hole affects the firms′ambidextrous innovation,and there are adaptabilities among the variables:"structural holes in knowledge network——openness"promotes exploitative innovation performance,while"structural holes in collaboration network——strategic flexibility"promotes exploratory innovation performance.This paper combines the knowledge base theory,social network theory,and the research results in the field of dual innovation performance of enterprises.It enriches the research on the relationship between two-tier network structure holes and firm′s dual innovation performance in a specific area.Unlike previous literature,this study finds that the embedding of knowledge networks and collaborative networks has different effects on firm innovation performance,and there is an effective matching relationship between the double-layer network structure hole and organizational context.The findings of this study enrich the research results of open innovation,and network outcome holes,and bring new ideas to solve the disagreement of the relationship between structural holes and corporate innovation.In addition,considering that the adaptation relationship between two-tier network structure and organizational context can have different impacts on the dual innovation activities of firms,managers should combine the characteristics of corporate knowledge and collaborative network structure and organizational strategies to make targeted management decisions.When companies tend to carry out exploitative innovation,they should promote the transfer and utilization of knowledge elements by increasing the degree of openness,to efficiently achieve the improvement of the understanding of existing technologies;while when companies tend to carry out exploratory innovation,they need to strengthen the strategic flexibility to match the high uncertainty of exploratory innovation with the flexible allocation of resources,to make companies boldly break through the current knowledge domain to capture new market opportunities.The companies needs to be more flexible in resource allocation to match the high uncertainty of exploratory innovation and to push them to break through the current knowledge domain to capture new market opportunities.