产学研联盟组合伙伴地理集中度如何影响企业创新绩效——中介效应与调节效应分析

How partner geographic concentration in industry-university-research alliance portfolios influences focal firms′innovation performance:Analyses of mediating and moderating effects

企业与来自不同地区的高校、科研机构建立多个产学研联盟已经成为了中国当前的普遍现象。然而,现有研究对此现象缺乏足够关注,也未厘清产学研联盟组合伙伴地理分布特征与企业创新绩效之间的关系。基于此,本研究使用186家中国制造业上市公司2013-2017年的非平衡面板数据,探讨了产学研联盟组合伙伴地理集中度影响企业创新绩效的作用机制和情境条件。研究发现,产学研联盟组合伙伴地理集中度对企业创新绩效具有显著的负向影响,企业吸收能力在该关系中发挥了部分中介作用。此外,制度发展水平、市场竞争、环境不确定性均强化了产学研联盟组合伙伴地理集中度对企业创新绩效的负向作用。研究结论拓展了产学研联盟、联盟组合以及伙伴地理特征对企业创新绩效影响的相关研究,并为中国企业的产学研联盟组合实践提供了启示。

With the rapid development of the market economy and the increasingly fierce competitive environment,the environmental uncertainty faced by Chinese firms has increased.Thus,firms rely more on industry-university-research(IUR)alliances to improve their innovation performance.To build an innovative country and promote economic and social development,China has formulated a series of policies that promote in-depth collaborations between firms,universities,and research institutes.In this context,many Chinese firms maintain multiple IUR alliances simultaneously,forming IUR alliance portfolios.Although focal firms′alliance partners in IUR alliance portfolios have demonstrated clear geographic distribution characteristics,the relationship between the geographic distribution characteristics of IUR alliance portfolio partners and focal firms′innovation performance remains unclear.Its influence mechanism and situational conditions also lack in-depth analyses.Investigating the impact of the geographical distribution characteristics of IUR alliance portfolio partners on focal firms′innovation performance can extend the literature on IUR alliances,alliance portfolios,and other related research areas and provide inspiration for the IUR alliance portfolio practices of Chinese firms.This study first explores the impact of the geographic distribution characteristics of IUR alliance portfolio partners on focal firms′innovation performance.As the external knowledge acquired by firms cannot be directly transformed into innovation performance,and firm absorptive capacity plays an important role in this process,this study also explores the mediating role of absorptive capacity.The uneven development of regional systems,fierce market competition,and high uncertainty in the external environment are typical Chinese situational characteristics and can influence firms′strategic decision-making and innovation behaviour.Thus,this study further explores the contingent roles of these three factors.This study′s research hypotheses are tested using unbalanced panel data from 186 Chinese manufacturing firms from 2013 to 2017 and adopting the random effects panel negative binomial regression method.The research results yield the following findings.First,IUR alliance portfolio partner geographic concentration has a negative effect on the focal firms′innovation performance,and firm absorptive capacity plays a partial mediating role in this relationship.Second,institutional development level strengthens the negative effect of IUR alliance portfolio partner geographic concentration on firm innovation performance.Third,market competition strengthens the negative effect of IUR alliance portfolio partner geographic concentration on firm innovation performance.Fourth,environmental uncertainty strengthens the negative effect of IUR alliance portfolio partner geographic concentration on firm innovation performance.A series of robustness tests demonstrates the strong robustness of the results.This study makes three main theoretical contributions.First,this study examines the relationship between the characteristics of IUR alliance partners and firm innovation performance at the alliance portfolio level,and analyses its mechanism and context conditions.Thus,it adds to the research on IUR alliances.Second,this study focuses on a special kind of alliance portfolio in the Chinese context,namely,the IUR alliance portfolio.It also explores the roles of contingency factors which own the characteristic of the Chinese context and absorptive capacity in the relationship between IUR alliance portfolio configuration′s partner dimensions and firm innovation performance.Thus,this study extends research on the impact of alliance portfolio configuration′s partner dimensions on firm innovation performance.Third,this study investigates the effect of alliance partners′geographic concentration on firm innovation performance at the IUR alliance portfolio level.Thus,it enriches the research on the relationship between alliance partners′geographic distribution characteristics and firm innovation performance.The main practical implications of this study are as follows.First,when other conditions remain unchanged,firms should choose IUR alliance partners from different regions where possible to construct IUR alliance portfolios.Second,firms should recruit employees with rich experience and strong skills,encourage employees to strengthen their communication with technical personnel from alliance partners in IUR alliance activities,and understand as well as learn from alliance partners so as to cultivate firm absorptive capacity.Third,when choosing IUR alliance partners to configure IUR alliance portfolios,firms should fully consider the match between the characteristics of IUR alliance portfolio partners and the external environment.