创新能力冗余与价值创造:社会交换理论视角下合作关系的中介作用

Innovation Capability Slack and Value Creation:The Mediating Role of Cooperative Relationships from the Perspective of Social Exchange Theory

创新能力冗余是企业提升韧性和应对环境压力的资源基础,已有研究尚未明确创新能力冗余促进企业韧性的内在机制。基于427家高技术企业样本数据,从社会交换理论视角出发探讨不同类型创新能力冗余和合作关系对企业短、长期价值创造的作用机理。研究发现:①不同类型创新能力冗余价值创造规律存在显著差异,不同合作关系对创新能力冗余与短、长期价值创造关系的中介作用不同;②从短期价值创造看,沉淀创新能力冗余比非沉淀创新能力冗余更有效,而从长期价值创造看,非沉淀创新能力冗余比沉淀创新能力冗余贡献更大;③人际关系能够同时中介不同创新能力冗余对短、长期价值创造的积极影响,契约关系无法中介不同创新能力冗余对短期价值创造的影响。据此构建高技术企业凭借创新能力冗余实施价值创造的理论模型,可为企业创新能力冗余价值治理与自身韧性提升提供理论依据。

The temporarily idle innovation capability in enterprises forms the innovation capability slack.In face of VUCA,it is still uncertain whether the innovation capability slack can play a"buffer"role like the organizational slack of physical resources and help enterprises cope with the external crisis environment.In order to explore the potential role and value creation mechanism of innovation capability slack and seek the path for enterprises to improve their resilience,this paper takes value creation as the transmission system of enterprise resilience,and analyzes the impact of innovation capability slack on long-term and short-term value creation through large sample survey data.At the same time,this paper discusses the relationship between innovation capacity slack,cooperation and value creation of high-tech enterprises in the context of social exchange theory.The study takes Chinese high-tech enterprises as the research object and obtains 427 effective data through a large sample survey.On the one hand,the differences in creating long-term and short-term value of different types of innovation capacity slack are clarified based on regression analysis and semipartial correlation analysis;on the other hand,through the mediation analysis and bootstrap test,the mediation effect of cooperation on the relationship between innovation capability slack and value creation is verified.The study finds that compared with the unabsorbed innovation capability slack which has not been fully absorbed by the enterprise,it is easier for the absorbed innovation capability slack to promote the enterprise performance.At the same time,the unabsorbed innovation capability slack is more likely to promote the enterprise to realize its own market value improvement than the absorbed innovation capability slack.There is a significant difference in the mediating role of contract relationship between innovation capability slack and long-term and short-term value creation.In addition,interpersonal relationship can play a significant role in mediating the effects of two kinds of innovation capacity slack on long-term and short-term value creation.Compared with the existing research,this paper has the following innovations.First,in most of the existing literatures the innovation capability of enterprises is in the"utilized"state,and the impact that the innovation capability is in the"unused"state may have on value creation is seldom discussed.This study focuses on the idle state of innovation ability,builds a new perspective on the cognition of innovation ability,and makes up for the deficiency of previous studies on the"unused"state of innovation ability.Secondly,on the basis of the strategic significance of organizational slack,this study distinguishes the short-term and long-term performance of value creation from the perspective of time,and analyzes the difference and mechanism of the impact of the two types of innovation capability slack on short-term and long-term value creation,breaking through the deficiency of previous studies that only focused on the impact of physical resource slack on a single type of performance(such as enterprise performance or innovation performance).Third,combined with the exchange behavior of innovation capability slack among enterprises,this study distinguishes two typical cooperative relationships between enterprises from the perspective of social exchange theory,and through empirical analysis,it discusses the differences and the mechanism of the mediating role of contractual relationship and interpersonal relationship on the relationship between innovation capability slack and value creation.Therefore for enterprises,the quantitative structure of the absorbed and unabsorbed innovation capability slack in a specific period should be reasonably allocated.Managers need to maintain flexible governance of innovation capability slack in combination with changes in value creation goals.Finally,it is more suitable for enterprises to pursue short-term value creation goals through innovation capability slack.However,given the risk of supply interruption of innovation resources and the pressure of market value expansion without interpersonal relationship cooperation,it is vital to establish a more stable and formal contractual relationship that will be more conducive to the pursuit of market value objectives by enterprises.