How external partnering enhances innovation: evidence from Chinese technology-based SMEs

If China is to make the leap from being a manufacturer of goods, often for others, to being a world-class innovator, then Chinese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have an important role to play in achieving this future goal. Much recent debate has focused on innovation activities of multinational corporations in China, with little attention paid to the role of indigenous SMEs and how they attempt to become more innovation oriented. This paper presents findings from 10 case studies of SME firms based in the Zhejiang Province of China to try and establish to what extent external partnerships have helped them become more innovative and competitive. The most common forms of partnering used by these firms is collaboration with universities, with customers and key suppliers, which has implications for how learning and absorptive capacity affects the firm's innovation strategy.     

Linking technology innovation strategy,intellectual capital and technology innovation performance in manufacturing SMEs

The research interest on Intellectual Capital (IC) has been increasing, adopting different definitions and developing diverse measurement tools. Nonetheless, little research focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the relation between IC and innovation management. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of technology innovation strategy on the IC development and then on innovation performance in manufacturing SMEs. After conducting a survey, measures of IC for SMEs have been performed and an integrated structural equation model has been created. Results demonstrate that technology innovation strategy affects all IC components, the internal structural capital supports the relational and human capital, and the latter two influence firm technology innovation performance. This study contributes to developing an IC measurement system in SMEs and to emphasise the importance of single IC components in improving technology innovation performance.     

产业互联网下企业创新“竞合”网络与创新绩效

利用国家知识产权局2013—2019年上市公司之间的专利合作数据,构建企业间创新"竞合"网络,提取了367家企业作为样本,将企业创新绩效分为企业内部创新绩效和对所在区域的创新贡献度两部分,从内到外探讨了企业在创新"竞合"网络中的位置对创新绩效的影响;同时分析了产业互联网对该影响的调节作用.研究结果表明,企业创新"竞合"网络的接近中心度与企业内部创新绩效和区域创新贡献度均呈正U型分布,企业创新"竞合"网络的结构洞与企业内部创新绩效和区域创新贡献度也均呈正U型分布,企业的产业互联网战略实施对以上关系的影响均呈显著的正向调节作用.     

How do prolific inventors impact firm innovation in ICT: implications from patent co-inventing network

Prolific inventors not only own higher innovation productivity, but also impact other inventors through innovation networks. This paper contributes to existing literatures by differentiating prolific inventors from non-prolific inventors in the network context, and making an empirical analysis of the effect of prolific inventors. We use the patent filing data from the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) in investigating the effect of prolific inventors on firm innovation. We use the patents filed by 10 largest Information & Communication Technology firms during 1995–2010 and establish the innovation network with patent co-inventing data. The empirical result shows that prolific inventors positively impact their partners who used to co-invent at least one patent with them. Furthermore, prolific inventors positively impact inventors who do not have a close contact with them. The closer the inventors are to prolific inventors, the more patents they produce. Members are thereby more likely to gather around prolific inventors and formulate intensive clusters. In networks centered by prolific inventors, useful knowledge outweighs redundant knowledge, and high clustering that facilitates knowledge flow is proved to be beneficial; while in networks without prolific inventors, high clustering may not be beneficial as there are less inventors holding advanced knowledge. Policy implications are discussed at the end of this study.     

Management innovation and core competitive advantages of SMEs

The paper first introduces the concept of core competence. Based on that, it proposes that small and medium enterprises （SMEs） should actively implement management innovation and describes the contents of management innovation. The conclusion is that SMEs should build the core competitive advantages through management innovation, in order to achieve better performance in the fierce market competition.     

Dynamics of firm's network community associations and firm's innovation performance

ABSTRACT

R&D network structures have crucial impacts on firm's innovation performance. However, most previous studies have been based on the whole or ego network perspective, few studies have investigated the influence of community structure that a firm is engaged in on its innovation performance, and it is still unclear how a firm's relation to network community affect its innovation performance. This research aims to address this gap by focusing on the dynamics of firm's network community associations, empirically investigate the relationship between dynamics of firm's network community associations and its innovation performance. Based on the unbalanced panel data of smartphone R&D network during year 2004–2017, the results demonstrate that change in community member associations and movement across communities both have inverted-U-shaped effects on firm's innovation performance. Moreover, innovation openness depth has moderating effects on the relationships between dynamics of firm's network community associations and its innovation performance.     

The impact of dual network structure on firm performance: the moderating effect of innovation strategy

ABSTRACT

Firm innovation is embedded in a collaboration network among researchers and a knowledge network composed of knowledge elements; the two networks are decoupled. Guided by social network theory, this study puts forward the definition and the classification of firm dual network structure, probes into the influence of dual network structure on firm performance, and explores the alignment between innovation strategy and firm dual network structure. We conduct an empirical study of 183 listed companies in China from 2004 to 2018. It is found that the four types of dual network structure all have positive impacts on firm performance, and the impact of a collaboration network is slightly higher than that of a knowledge network. Besides, innovation strategy plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between dual network structure and firm performance. Our findings provide new ideas for firms to identify and optimise knowledge and collaboration network structures and match them with innovation strategy to improve performance.     

An investigation over inbound open innovation in SMEs: insights from an Italian manufacturing sample

ABSTRACT

Building on the Open Innovation (OI) framework, the purpose of this paper is to examine the R&D inbound model of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, we focus on the impact of different horizontal R&D collaborations on product innovation and innovation performance. Hypotheses are tested using a Probit/Tobit regression on an Italian sample of 2591 manufacturing SMEs. Our analysis shows that collaborating with different horizontal R&D partners brings to different innovation outcomes. In particular, R&D collaboration with universities has a positive impact on product innovation, but not on innovation performance. Whereas, R&D collaboration with research centres and other private companies has a positive impact on both product innovation and innovation performance. Our findings provide implications for SMEs managers and entrepreneurs who have to decide between R&D partners for their innovation strategy. Avenues for future research are discussed.     

外部合作与中小企业创新绩效—基于企业家导向及合作经验的调节效应检验

基于外部合作伙伴的差异,将外部合作划分为企业间合作和产学研合作两类,分别探究它们对中小企业创新绩效的影响,并考察企业家导向和合作经验在该过程中的权变机制.采用层次回归分析法对214家中小型制造业企业的问卷调查数据进行实证分析,研究发现:企业间合作和产学研合作对中小企业创新绩效均有显著的正向影响,且相对于产学研合作,企业间合作对中小企业创新绩效的影响更大;企业家导向在企业间合作和产学研合作与中小企业创新绩效间均起到正向调节作用;合作经验仅在企业间合作与中小企业创新绩效间起到正向调节作用.     

政府资助对中小企业创新研发的影响

现阶段我国仍属于新兴市场经济国家,市场机制并不完善,中小企业的生存环境不容乐观.为提升中小企业市场竞争力,各级政府加大对其创新研发的资金和政策扶持力度对帮助其持续稳定发展有着十分重要的意义.本文从深市中小板上市企业中筛选出了471家企业在2014—2018年间的面板数据,利用回归模型进行实证检验,以探究政府资助政策对中小企业创新研发的影响.结果显示:政府的资助政策在整体上对科技研发投入产生了积极的作用,但对创新研发的产出没有直接影响;只有对科技研发人员进行投入才能给创新产出带来积极影响.因而,政府资助应该着重加强对科技人员的投入.     

Types of cooperation partners as determinants of innovation failures

In this paper we analyse if specific R&D cooperation partners are related to an increase in the probability of innovation failures in terms discontinuing innovation projects. We distinguish between seven different R&D cooperation partner types, and we discriminate between product innovation failures and process innovation failures. Using German Community Innovation Survey data we find that, firstly, each type of R&D cooperation partner has a different effect on innovation failures. Secondly, we show that product innovation failures and process innovation failures are not affected in equal measure by the same type of R&D cooperation partner. Our results suggest that while R&D cooperation with public research institutes is significantly and negatively related to the probability to cancel a process innovation project, the coefficient is positive but insignificant for product innovation failures. Firms conducting partnerships with suppliers, however, run the risk of both product and process innovation failures. In turn, cooperation with competitors is positively correlated only to process innovation failures.     

External heterogeneity and its impact on open innovation performance

While current research commonly finds there may be an optimum overall level of search depth commitment at the apex of an inverted U relationship, it says comparatively little about the optimal allocation of search depth between competing search channels. Neither does it explore in depth the qualitative differences in the breadth of different external search channels. Here we conceptually and empirically explore the idea of the intra-search channel allocation problem using the concept of heterogeneity in search depth and breadth. We explore how variations in the distribution of open innovation search depth and breadth influnence innovation performance and in doing so contribute to a more fine grained conceptual understanding of external innovation. We do so an emerging market context, namely China. Our contributions are therefore twofold, involving both conceptual and empirical elements.     

How knowledge flow affects Korean ICT manufacturing firm performance: a focus on open innovation strategy

The paper presents an integrated viewpoint of technological innovation strategy by considering both the firm and industry levels. Further, we provide a new open innovation framework by adopting a knowledge flow perspective using patent citation information. Finally, we consider a firm’s outbound open innovation performance using cites per patent information together with financial performance to look at both the practical and the potential effects of technological innovation strategy. Through these analyses, this study examines determinants of open technology innovation activity in the information and communication technology manufacturing industry in Korea and draws managerial and policy implications for effective industry promotion and improvement of technology innovation capability.     

基于Meta分析的供应链网络嵌入性与协同创新绩效关系研究

供应链企业在合作中相互产生嵌入行为对高效整合链上资源以提高协同创新绩效至关重要,然而,两者之间的关系至今尚未形成一致性研究结论。本文利用Meta分析方法,以60篇相关文献、118个效应值、17911个独立样本作为研究对象,探究了网络嵌入性及各维度与协同创新绩效的整体效应,并运用亚组分析明晰了调节变量在两者关系中的调节作用。研究表明：网络嵌入性及其子维与协同创新绩效具有显著的正相关关系。另外,行业类型、区位因素、绩效类型及实证研究方法的不同均会导致研究结果不一致。本研究结论在一定程度上为网络嵌入性与协同创新绩效的关系研究提供了理论依据,同时也为供应链企业通过网络嵌入性提高创新能力提供了可资借鉴的参考思路。     

Inventor cooperation network effects on technology diversification: the moderating role of intellectual property protection

ABSTRACT

Technological diversification can overcome the limitations imposed by an enterprise’s single technological capability and enables enterprises to recombine resources, thereby enhancing their competitive advantage. In-house inventor cooperation can improve the efficiency of the production factor combination and expand the scope of the enterprise’s technology base. This study empirically explores the effect of in-house inventor cooperation network on technology diversification. In addition, this study further investigates the moderating effect of intellectual property protection on the inventor cooperation network and on corporate technology diversification. An enterprise inventor cooperation network is embodied by its network location characteristics. Empirical results show that the difference in the location of the inventor cooperative network exhibits different effects on the diversification of enterprise technology. Moreover, intellectual property protection significantly weakens the incentive effect of the intermediary location of inventor cooperative network on corporate technology diversification.     

Knowledge resources and innovation performance: the mediation of innovation capability moderated by management commitment

This paper examines the process that links knowledge resources to innovation performance. We propose that this relationship is mediated by innovation capability and that management commitment moderates this mediation effect. To measure innovation performance, we create an indicator that summarises the impact of innovation activities on products, processes and sustainability. The sample comprises 9432 firms in different sectors included in the Community Innovation Survey (CIS). The results confirm that knowledge resources not only have a direct positive effect on innovation performance but also an indirect effect by improving the firm's innovation capability. We also confirm the moderating role of management commitment, but with limitations. This research, therefore, throws light on how firms can leverage their knowledge resources to gain a competitive advantage based on innovation.     

产品创新对组织绩效关系之研究

越来越多的企业利用不断推出新产品获得市场与消费者的青睐,以建立长期竞争优势。企业若能成功推出新产品,除能以独一无二的新产品提高产品与市场的价值之外,更能提升企业整体竞争力。然而,在现今竞争激烈导致产品生命周期急遽缩短的趋势下,使得产品创新在企业日常营运角色中的重要性日渐增加,企业若能掌握产品推出时机,并且藉由创新延长产品生命周期,就有机会维持企业在座业中的领导地位。本研究以3M作为个案研究之对象,探讨渐进式创新、技术突破、市场突破以及激追式创新等四种不同的产品创新类型对组织绩效的影响,期能藉由实际个案与相关数据显示产品创新与组织绩效间之关联性。研究结果显示,无论属于何种产品创新类型,对组织绩效都有正向的影响。若能激发激进式产品创新的产生,更能透过新产品或新技术创造新的产品践,亦能强化组织的竞争优势,成为组织竞争优势的根源。3M超过百年的发展历史以及不断创新的历程与经验,使它成为商业历史发展的裹程碑外,更成为现今各企业的典范与楷模。     

基于DEA模型的区域技术创新绩效评价研究

区域创新系统是国家经济发展的重要基础,客观评价区域技术创新的绩效是制定区域创新政策的前提。选取3个输入和4个输出指标,运用DEA中的C2R模型对我国各地区技术创新绩效进行实证研究,从区域技术创新绩效、投入要素影子价格和规模报酬展开分析。结果表明,区域技术创新绩效和经济发展水平无必然联系,各地的相对稀缺资源不尽相同。根据各地技术创新绩效值对不同区域分类,有针对性地提出促进区域技术创新的对策建议。     

Impact of organizational innovation on product and process innovation

The purpose of this paper was to test the effect of organizational innovation on product and process innovation (while controlling for endogeneity). Our hypothesis was that organizational innovation should have a significant and positive impact on technical (product or process) innovation. We control for endogeneity by using a Poisson estimator that accommodates a binary endogenous regressor. We test 10 potential instruments using a battery of test criteria and settle on five. All results are presented using the five instruments to avoid expectation bias. In general we find that organizational innovation does impact technical innovation positively. With the 2009 data we find that the mean of the average treatment effect for product innovation is roughly 1.7 times that of process innovation. For the 2009–2012 data we find that the impact on product innovation is roughly 1.5 times that of process innovation. For the 2012 data, we had anomalous results for process innovation, such that organizational innovation reduced the number of process innovations by 2.3 per year. In terms of Canadian government policy, the results lend support to the view that technical innovation is not the only innovation that matters. The right policy mix may encourage firms to experiment with and adopt more organizational innovations to enhance technical innovation.     

CEPA背景下深港旅游合作的创新策略

区域旅游合作是旅游经济的自身发展规律所决定的，区域整合体已经成为当今旅游业竞争的基本单位。作为粤港澳区域旅游合作的子系统，深港旅游合作在CEPA背景下无疑更加具有先导和典范意义。以CEPA为切入点，从操作主体、合作原则与合作方式的角度探讨了深港旅游合作的创新策略，试图构建出两地合作策略创新的开放型系统，从而为两地的旅游合作战略初步建立了实施的概念框架。