知识搜寻、动态能力与数字创业——基于盒马鲜生的纵向单案例研究

Knowledge Search,Dynamic Capability,and Digital Entrepreneurship:A Longitudinal Case Study of Freshippo

数字创业突破了传统创业实体运营的时间和空间限制,改变了企业的创业模式以及人们的消费方式,因而成为业界和学界关注的焦点。现有文献多从单一视角考察知识搜寻或动态能力对企业创业活动的影响,较少对数字创业过程进行动态解析,而关于二者交互效应对数字创业影响机理的研究则更是缺乏。本文以盒马鲜生为研究案例,基于知识搜寻和动态能力的双重视角,探索两类因素及其互促机制在数字创业过程中表现出的规律特征。研究发现,数字创业是一个包含“机会识别→体系构建→价值实现→模式改进”四个阶段的动态过程。其中,知识搜寻为数字创业提供资源保障,动态能力促进创业资源合理配置,二者在不同阶段的互动效应以及更迭转换推动了数字创业的不断演进。本文揭示了数字创业的过程及内在机理,为数字经济时代的数字创业提供了理论借鉴和实践参考。

Digital entrepreneurship has broken through the time and space constraints of traditional entrepreneurial entities and changes the entrepreneurial models as well as the consumption patterns,and has become a hot topic in both academia and practice.Although existing studies statically described the connotation characteristics and the types of digital entrepreneurship,they lacked a longitudinal dynamic deconstruction of its process.In fact,the surroundings of digital entrepreneurship are filled with high uncertainty and dynamism,which requires firms to continuously trace the evolution process of digital entrepreneurship through adopting appropriate strategies.Therefore,it’s necessary to reveal the key features and evolution mechanisms of digital entrepreneurship at different entrepreneurial stages.Compared to general entrepreneurial activity,digital entrepreneurship requires more knowledge resources and greater dynamic capabilities.To successfully realize the goals of digital entrepreneurship,firms need to not only obtain key knowledge resources through knowledge search,but also rely on dynamic capabilities to deploy these resources.Thus,this paper takes Freshippo as an example,to explore the individual and interactive effects of knowledge search and dynamic capabilities in the evolution process of digital entrepreneurship.The main findings of this paper are as follows:First,digital entrepreneurship consists of four stages:opportunity identification,system construction,value realization,and mode improvement.It is an iterative evolution in which entrepreneurs perceive entrepreneurial opportunities,build digital technology systems,sell digital entrepreneurial achievements,and improve digital entrepreneurial models.Second,knowledge search and dynamic capabilities and their interactions are key factors driving digital entrepreneurship.Among them,knowledge search provides information sources and knowledge integration opportunities;dynamic capabilities facilitate firms’resource expansion and business model construction.Moreover,knowledge search and dynamic capabilities show some regularities in the evolution process of digital entrepreneurship.Specifically,the adaptive path of knowledge search shows the characteristics of“exploratory knowledge search→exploitative knowledge search→complementary between them→complementary and balanced between them”,while dynamic capabilities show an evolutionary trajectory as“perception capabilities→development capabilities→capture capabilities→conversion capabilities”.The theoretical contributions of this paper are as follows:First,this paper reveals the dynamic evolution rules of digital entrepreneurship through analyzing its influencing factors,behavioral characteristics,and growth mechanisms at different entrepreneurial stages.Second,this paper identifies the unique value of knowledge search and dynamic capabilities in the evolution process of digital entrepreneurship,providing new source of forces driving digital entrepreneurship.Third,this paper explains the interaction mechanism of knowledge search and dynamic capabilities on value creation at different entrepreneurial stages.In addition,the practical implications of this paper lie in:First,managers should be aware that digital entrepreneurship is a step⁃by⁃step process,and it is necessary to understand the main tasks,main features,and evolutionary mechanisms of digital entrepreneurship at different entrepreneurial stages.Second,managers also need to continually build the dynamic capabilities to grasp hard⁃won digital entrepreneurial opportunities,in addition to adopt knowledge search strategies for knowledge acquisition and integration.Third,managers should pay attention to the dynamic adaptation of knowledge search and dynamic capabilities at different entrepreneurial stages.