如何创新以规避不正当竞争侵害:模块创新还是架构创新

How to Make Innovation to Avoid Dysfunctional Competition Infringement:Modular Innovation or Architectural Innovation

创新获益不足制约着转型经济企业核心技术长远发展,不正当竞争侵害是创新获益的主要障碍。基于创新获益框架和战略三脚架视角,探讨模块创新和架构创新策略对创新者遭遇不正当竞争侵害的影响以及环境特征的调节作用。采用问卷调研法,通过分析238家企业的实地调研数据发现:①转型情境下模块创新容易遭受不正当竞争侵害,架构创新不容易遭受不正当竞争侵害;②竞争强度有助于增强模块创新和架构创新与不正当竞争侵害的关系,制度空缺会削弱模块创新和架构创新与不正当竞争侵害的关系;③行业地位会削弱架构创新与不正当竞争侵害的关系,对模块创新与不正当竞争侵害关系的影响作用不显著。据此,提出创新企业应根据自身所处情境特征选择合适的创新策略,以规避不正当竞争侵害,提高创新获益。

Enterprises that have achieved innovation face the infringement of dysfunctional competition.Imitation,plagiarism,and other dysfunctional competition infringements have seriously weakened the innovation motivation of enterprises,resulting in a lack of breakthroughs in Chinese modular technology.In contrast,Chinese firms have demonstrated fruitful innovations in reconstructing their technology and product architectures,while their mechanisms of profit acquisition have received scant attention.The existing research has failed to explain how product innovation is less likely to be infringed in a transitional context,and it has limited the environmental conditions of imitation infringement to the interpretation of the legal protection environment and failed to analyze the impact of the innovator's industry and resource environment.Hence,this study analyzes the impact of modular and architectural innovation strategies on the innovator's exposure to dysfunctional competition infringement and the moderating role of environmental contexts based on the PFI(profiting from innovation)framework and strategic tripod perspective.The study uses a questionnaire survey method to analyze on-site survey data from 238 enterprises and test 8 theoretical hypotheses.It is found that different product innovation strategies lead to varying degrees of dysfunctional competition infringement,and companies need to choose appropriate product innovation strategies according to environmental conditions to avoid dysfunctional competition infringement and thus increase innovation benefits.This paper further refines the classification of product innovation according to the innovation reality in China.Different product innovation strategies affect the possibility of dysfunctional competition infringement by influencing motivation and the difficulty of imitation behavior.The statistical results show that the modular innovation strategy is more vulnerable to dysfunctional competition and architectural innovation is less vulnerable to dysfunctional competition in the transitional context.Competitive intensity enhances the positive relationship between modular innovation and dysfunctional competition infringement and strengthens the negative relationship between architectural innovation and dysfunctional competition infringement.Institutional void weakens the positive relationship between modular innovation and dysfunctional competition infringement and the negative relationship between architectural innovation and dysfunctional competition infringement.Industry power only weakens the negative relationship between architectural innovation and dysfunctional competition infringement and has insignificant effects on the positive relationship between modular innovation and dysfunctional competition infringement.Thus,innovators can choose appropriate innovation strategies to avoid dysfunctional competition infringement and improve innovation benefits according to the characteristics of the context.This study has two contributions.Foremost,it reveals the rule of dysfunctional competition infringement through the PFI framework with full consideration of imitators'preferences.It is observed that the innovation challenges of Chinese firms mainly focus on modular innovation,and there is an uneven development between Chinese product innovations.The study clarifies the differences in the impact mechanisms of two innovation strategies on dysfunctional competition infringement and theoretically guides firms with product innovation on how to protect innovation benefits more effectively.Second,it not only investigates the environmental conditions of dysfunctional competition infringement from the institutional perspective but also further explores how dysfunctional competition infringement is influenced by the characteristics of industry and resource environment based on a strategic tripod,which reveals the logic of the influence of contextual characteristics on imitators'ability and motivation,and better answers the question of how to protect innovation benefits under different contextual characteristics.According to the results,when developing modular innovation,enterprises can bundle and package their innovation modules with other components,and transform them into the form of architectural innovation.It helps to reduce the visibility of innovative technology to imitators and the motives of imitators through confusion,increase the difficulty of imitation,and thus avoid dysfunctional competition infringement.When establishing enterprise alliances and selecting industrial chain partners,enterprises need to consider the imitation motive and ability of the other enterprises in combination with the contextual characteristics.Enterprises should select those with weaker imitation motives and ability as their partners to reduce the risk of knowledge leakage.In addition to external cooperation,enterprises also need to broaden their knowledge domain,build their complementary assets and increase the difficulty of imitation to avoid dysfunctional competition and protect innovation benefits.