国有企业创新动力何在——“合法”与“效率”的整合性研究

What Is the Motivation for Innovation in State-Owned Enterprises?An Integrated Study Based on"Legality"and"Efficiency"

国有企业创新是应对经济发展新格局和建设全球领先创新型国家的必由之路。由此,如何有效促进国有企业创新成为亟待解决的关键问题。基于企业创新行为与制度环境、市场环境及关系环境逻辑,以追求“合法”还是“效率”为视角,构建合法性机制、效率机制和政企关系整合性研究框架,并以国有石油企业为样本进行回归分析与结构方程模型检验,结果发现:(1)国有企业创新行为受合法性机制驱动,规范合法性、认知合法性的作用显著;(2)国有企业创新行为受效率机制驱动,绩效水平的作用显著;(3)国有企业创新行为受合法性机制与效率机制交互作用的驱动;(4)政企关系构成国有企业创新的情境条件,能够影响国有企业创新策略选择。结论可为发挥国有企业核心技术创新先锋职能提供微观层面的经验证据,对于我国依靠国有企业实现创新驱动发展具有重要意义。

The state-owned enterprises(SOEs)are the key subjects of innovation and development activities in China and are the power source for driving technological innovation and industrial transformation and upgrading.Given the pioneering position of SOEs in the national innovation system,how to effectively promote innovation in SOEs has been an important topic of theoretical research and business management practice,necessitating an answer to what their motivation for innovation is in the first place.Considering the logical relationship between the innovation behavior of state-owned enterprises and the institutional environment,market environment and relationship environment,this paper constructs an integrated research framework including the legitimacy mechanism and efficiency mechanism from the perspective of pursuing"legitimacy"or"efficiency",and introduces the relationship between government and enterprise as a moderating variable to explore the motivation mechanism of SOE innovation.The specific research hypotheses are presented as follows:(1)legitimacy mechanism has a positive driving effect on SOEs'innovation behavior;(2)performance level has a positive driving effect on SOEs'innovation behavior;(3)the interaction between legitimacy mechanism and efficiency mechanism has a positive driving effect on SOEs'innovation behavior;(4)government-enterprise relationship has a positive moderating effect on the driving effect of legitimacy mechanism and efficiency mechanism on SOEs'innovation behavior.State-owned oil enterprises are important subjects supporting national economic development and typical representatives of SOEs.Due to path dependence and incomplete market transformation,SOEs also face the complex environment of planned directives and market competition.This paper chooses to take state-owned oil enterprises as the research object,for they can typically reflect the organizational behavior pattern of state-owned enterprises in the face of institutional pressure and market competition.A total of 680 questionnaires are distributed to SOEs in the formal questionnaire survey,with 552 valid questionnaires retrieved.The results of regression analysis and structural equation modeling show that(1)SOEs'innovation behavior is legitimacy mechanism-driven,and the external forces of the institutional environment,especially the normative and cognitive environment,play a significant role in influencing firms'innovation behavior.When firms believe that they should actively engage in innovative practices or that their new technologies/businesses are welcomed by customers,this favorable normative and cognitive environment is able to gain the internal recognition and commitment of organizational managers through setting organizational goals for innovation development,and designing organizational structures that meet innovation needs.(2)The innovation behavior of SOEs is an efficiency mechanism-driven behavior.In a specific competitive environment,the internal resources of the organization,especially the level of performance,form the driving force of enterprise innovation.As a representative of the efficiency mechanism,the level of performance directly determines the resources available for innovation,i.e.,the better the performance level,the easier it is for firms to implement innovative behavior,and the driving effect is greater than that of the legitimacy mechanism.(3)SOEs'innovative behavior is the result of the interaction between the legitimacy mechanism and the efficiency mechanism.In the context of this study,the interaction between legitimacy and efficiency mechanisms can also be understood as a symbiotic relationship that is characterized by"strong legitimacy—strong efficiency","strong legitimacy—weak efficiency","weak legitimacy—weak efficiency"and"weak legitimacy—weak efficiency"as the environmental system changes.(4)SOEs are embedded in a specific government-enterprise relationship network,and the specific government-enterprise relationship constitutes the contextual basis for the innovative behavior of enterprises.This paper integrates the research results of institutional theory,resource-based theory and relationship theory,and to some extent,extends the application of the three theories in the study of organizational behavior and strategic management.It is found that corporate innovation behavior results from the interaction between the legitimacy and efficiency mechanisms,and the moderating role of government-enterprise relationship between the two is confirmed,which can provide new ideas for research on the origin of corporate innovative behavior.In addition,it makes a useful attempt to contextualize the analysis of firms'innovative behavior and enriches the research perspective of studying organizational behavior in the Chinese context from institutional theory.