企业创新倾向、吸收能力与跨界技术并购创新绩效—— 一项模糊集定性比较分析

在吸收理论的基础上,结合行业技术环境和企业双元创新倾向,提出跨界技术并购企业创新绩效实现机制的整合性分析框架,并使用fsQCA对107个上市公司跨界技术并购案例进行构型研究。结果发现,在高创新绩效构型中,主并企业创新倾向与吸收能力不同维度间存在差异化匹配关系;企业潜在吸收能力与现实吸收能力间具有一定的替代关系,技术基础广度和吸收转化投入强度对于创新绩效提高相对重要;丰富的外部技术资源更有助于创新绩效提升。研究结论拓展了吸收能力理论,丰富了跨界技术并购领域实证证据,可为不同特征企业制定跨界技术并购决策提供参考依据。

Firms' Innovation Tendency,Absorptive Capacity and Innovation Performance in Boundary-spanning Technological Mergers& Acquisitions:a Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

In recent years, it has become increasingly common for enterprises to seek value breakthroughs by industrial integration or cross-border development in economy transformation and upgrading. Boundary-spanning technology M&A are effective means for enterprises to cross borders, and they have become a new feature of M&A. In boundary-spanning technology M&A, technology is usually an important focus for the host enterprise. Therefore, this study centers on the boundary-spanning technology M&A which is defined as a M&A of the principal merging party targeting a firm that spans its own technology or product area.The most important concern of boundary-spanning technology M&A is whether a company can promote innovation performance through M&A, and the key to innovation performance improvement lies in the integration of the resources acquired through M&A. Due to the cross-domain nature of outsourced technical knowledge, the integration of resources after boundary-spanning technology M&A is more uncontrollable than that in technology M&A, and the absorptive capacity of the host firm is also more demanding. In boundary-spanning technology M&A, the absorptive capacity of the host company plays a role in the interaction with the company's ambidextrous innovation tendency, the external technological environment and many other factors. The only way for an enterprise to effectively absorb and integrate knowledge from outside the "realm" and achieve leapfrogging of innovation activities is to consider the match between its context and its own absorptive capacity.This paper applies the absorption theory and proposes an integrated analytical framework for realizing the innovation performance of boundary-spanning technology M&A firms based on the external technological environment and the ambidextrous innovation tendency of the firms. It adopts the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and takes the boundary-spanning technology mergers and acquisitions of listed companies in stock markets of Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2007 to 2015 as a sample to investigate what kind of absorptive capacity needs to be built to match a firm's innovation tendency in order to achieve high innovation performance in a complex external technological environment. Three high innovation performance constructs are found. First, in a situation with abundant external technological resources and a tendency to exploit innovation, if a firm has a high potential absorptive capacity, it can achieve high innovation performance without emphasizing real absorptive transformation capacity; if there is a shortage of potential absorptive capacity, it can compensate for the shortage of potential absorptive capacity by increasing real absorptive capacity to achieve high innovation performance. Second, under the circumstances of abundant external technological resources and exploratory innovation tendency, it is very important for boundary-spanning technology M&A firms to have a diversified technological base, and high innovation performance can be achieved even without high realistic absorption and conversion investment intensity. Third, under the situation where external technological resources are not abundant, the chances of achieving technological breakthroughs are small, and high innovation performance can only be achieved by strengthening the realistic absorptive capacity to digest external technologies under the exploitative innovation tendency. The results further confirm that in boundary-spanning technology M&A, there is a differential matching relationship between the external technological environment of the merging firms, the ambidextrous innovation tendency and the different dimensions of their absorptive capacity; there is a certain substitution between the potential absorptive capacity and the actual absorptive capacity; the breadth of technological base and the intensity of absorption investment are relatively important for improving innovation performance. In addition, in terms of the external environment, rich external technological resources are one of the important conditions for boundary-spanning technology M&A firms to produce high innovation performance; in terms of internal strategies, boundary-spanning technology M&A firms are more likely to adopt an exploitative innovation tendency to achieve high innovation performance.This study extends the absorptive capacity theory and provides an integrated verification of the absorptive capacity theory. The results further develop the research content related to the value realization of boundary-spanning technology M&A and enrich the empirical evidence in the field of boundary-spanning technology M&A. This study provides empirical evidence for enterprises to comprehensively examine the environment, formulate a reasonable innovation strategy and focus on developing absorptive capacity before boundary-spanning technology M&A to ensure the improvement of innovation performance. It also provides ideas for enterprises to fill in the gaps and provides a reference for enterprises with different characteristics to make boundary-spanning technology M&A decisions.