家族企业如何兼顾双元创新?——基于家族企业治理的经验性分析

How to Balance Exploratory Innovation and Exploitative Innovation in Family Business?Analysis based on Family Governance

开发式创新能够提升企业的短期绩效水平,而探索式创新则能够引导企业获取长期竞争优势。然而,在资源约束条件下,家族企业往往无法有效兼顾两类创新活动。在此背景下,短期生存和长期存续的双元平衡越来越成为家族企业技术创新过程中面临的重大挑战。已有学者考察了个体、家族和组织特征对两类创新活动的影响及其作用机制,但一定程度上忽视了家族治理的作用。对此,文章基于组织双元性的分析框架,利用2004年至2020年中国上市家族企业的样本数据,对上述问题进行分析,研究发现:第一,家族企业能够依靠正式治理推动探索式创新活动的开展,同时利用非正式治理来引导开发式创新活动的投入。第二,外部行业市场竞争的加剧强化了正式治理对探索式创新的积极作用,同时弱化了非正式治理对开发式创新的积极作用。第三,经营期望落差强化了正式治理对探索式创新的积极作用,而经营期望顺差强化了非正式治理对开发式创新的积极作用。第四,具有跨代传承意愿的家族企业更倾向于借助正式治理来推动探索式创新。上述研究结论经过稳健性检验后依然成立。

In recent years,technological innovation has increasingly become an important means for family businesses to gain competitive advantages.Generally,exploitative innovation can improve the short-term performance level of enterprises,while exploratory innovation can guide enterprises to obtain long-term competitive advantages.However,under the constraints of limited resources,family businesses often cannot effectively balance the two types of innovation activities.Even if they have the ability to do so,family businesses exhibit lower willingness to exploratory innovation due to their relatively conservative attitude.In this context,the balance between short-term survival and long-term survival has increasingly become a major challenge faced by family businesses in the process of technological innovation.The core issue of this research is whether and how family businesses can effectively allocate and balance exploitative innovation and exploratory innovation by changing and adjusting governing methods,in order to balance short-term and long-term survival goals.Specifically,based on the analysis framework of organizational ambidexterity,this research focuses on three pairs of"issues"in family business's organizational behavior,especially in innovation behavior,and further discusses the differences between family businesses and non family businesses,as well as within family businesses,in ambidextrous innovation.On this basis,this research systematically analyzes the possible impact and mechanism of different governance models(formal governance and informal governance)within family businesses on ambidextrous innovation from the perspective of"willingness&ability".Finally,this research further explores the situational factors that influence the relationship between family business governance and ambidextrous innovation from two aspects:external environmental factors(industry competitiveness)and internal organizational factors(business expectations and cross-generational inheritance).In response to the above problems,this research uses listed family businesses in Shanghai and Shenzhen as the research object,and constructs a panel data sample from 2004 to 2020.The empirical study shows that:(1)Family enterprises can promote exploratory innovation and guide exploitative innovation activities by using formal governance;(2)The intensified market competition in external industries strengthens the positive effect of formal governance on exploratory innovation,while weakening that of informal governance on exploitative innovation;(3)The gap between operation expectation and reality strengthens the positive effect of formal governance on exploratory innovation,while the surplus of operation expectation enhances the positive effect of informal governance on exploitative innovation;(4)Family businesses with a willingness to pass on to a skipped generation are more inclined to harness formal governance to promote exploratory innovation.The above research conclusions is still valid after three types of robustness tests:endogeneity problem handling,variable measurement method replacement,and regression analysis method replacement.Based on the above research conclusions,this research proposes that family businesses need to effectively utilize the advantages of formal and informal governance,and achieve the ambidextrous goals of short-term survival and long-term growth through the rational allocation of exploratory innovation and guide exploitative innovation activities.At the same time,when investing in ambidextrous innovation activities,family businesses also need to allocate different governance mechanisms reasonably based on external environmental characteristics and situational factors such as their own resources,goals,and legitimacy foundations.Firstly,when market competition is strong,family businesses can make more use of formal governance for exploratory innovation activities;When market competition is weak,exploitative innovation innovation with low risk and short-term returns is more feasible.And this time informal governance is an effective means to promote exploitative innovation.Secondly,when the actual performance does not meet the expected level,formal governance can be more utilized to promote exploratory innovation activities;On the contrary,when actual performance exceeds expected levels,informal governance can be used to promote exploitative innovation and consolidate existing performance levels.Thirdly,family businesses with a willingness to pass on to a skipped generation can promote exploratory innovation activities by strengthening formal governance;In contrast,for family businesses without a willingness to pass on to a skipped generation,they can rely more on informal governance to promote development innovation activities,so as to obtain short-term performance returns as the material guarantee of survival and development.