The mediating roles of governance mechanisms and knowledge transfer on the relationship between specific investments and cooperative innovation performance

This study seeks to understand the influence of specific investments (SIs) to cooperative innovation performance (CIP) by examining the mediating roles of knowledge transfer (KT) and governance mechanisms (GMs), including formal contracts (FCs) and relational trust (RT). A sample of 238 projects is used to test the proposed model through structural equation modelling. The results show SIs act indirectly through RT to influence CIP. KT plays a mediating role between the two GMs and CIP. Moreover, the results suggest that the mediating effect of KT between FCs and performance is full; however its effect between RT and performance is only partial, and the mediating effect of RT between SIs and performance is also partial.