Study On The Relationship Between Relationship Investment, Knowledge Integration Capability And Supply Chain Alliance Knowledge Transfer Between Enterprises

In the current age of knowledge, knowledge has been the decisive factor which may keep enterprises competitive. Therefore more and more enterprises choose to join the strategic alliance with the expectation that they may rely on the alliance partnership and get the knowledge resources needed through knowledge transfer. However, the partnership is not spontaneously formed and needs much care and cultivation just like sowing a seed, which means the partnership also needs investment. Based on the relative theories about relationship investment, knowledge integration and supply chain knowledge transfer, knowledge integration capability as an intermediate variable links the relationship investment and the supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises, building the conceptual model of "relationship investment, knowledge integration capability and supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises". Through theoretical and empirical analysis, the paper performed the exploratory research for the interaction mechanism among relationship investement, knowledge integration capability and supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises.The paper consists of seven chapters. Firstly, the paper has reviewed relatively domestic and foreign research literatures about relationship investment, knowledge integration capability and supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises, which may help find out some defects existing in the present research and make the research contents and direction clear. Secondly, the paper has analyzed and elaborated some relative basic theories which include transaction cost theory, network embeddedness theory, social capital theory, the process theories of knowledge integration and supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises and so on, which may lay a foundation for subsequently forming the theoretical model and putting forward the corresponding research hypotheses, and then the paper has defined the concepts and connotations of relationship investment, knowledge integration capability and the supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises. Thirdly, after the theoretical interaction mechanism model of relationship investment, knowledge integration capability and supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises has been built and relevant research hypotheses have been put forward, the paper performs pre-interview, enterprise pre-survey and small sample test to design and purify measuring scale, and finally obtains the formal questionnaire for large sample survey. Then the paper performs large sample survey in 316 manufacturing enterprises which are from Liaoning, Peking, Tianjin, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and takes advantage of statistic software such as SPSS 19.0 and Amos22.0 analyzing the survey data by EFA, CFA and SEM, and testing the theoretical model and research hypotheses, and finally drawing the research conclusions and revelations. Lastly, the paper summarizes some research defects existed and puts forward some suggestions for the possible follow-up studies.The main innovative researches the paper has done are as follows:1. Relative core concepts and their sub-concepts in the research framework are clearly defined by the paper.In the paper, the concepts about relationship investment, knowledge integration capability and supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises are core concepts. However, the precondition for defining core concepts is to define their sub-concepts in advance. Over the course of study, some facts have been found that some sub-concepts were not clearly defined in previously relevant research literatures. For an example, knowledge integration capability consisits of cooperative ablity, social ablity and systematic ability, all of which have been defined by relevant domestic and foreign scholars. But as for exteranal/internal cooperative ability, external/internal social ability and external/internal systematic ability derived from the classification of double direction integration capability, it’s really difficult to find complete and accurate concept definitions or interpretations about them. So the paper performs the innovative and exploratory work of defining relevant sub-concepts’connotations which seem obscure previously through literature review, expert advice, enterprise interview, repeated refinement and inductiveness.2. The paper has made further study of the multidimensional measurement for relationship investment, knowledge integration capability and supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises.With the reference of current research results made by domestic and foreign scholars, economic benefit investment, structural rule investment and Chinese interpersonal relationship investement are used to measure relationship investment. Exteranal knowledge integration capability and internal knowledge integration capability are used to measure knowledge integration capablibity. Cooperative knowledge and innovative knowledge of supply chain are used to measure supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises. Moreover, the measuring scales of variables with good reliability and validity have been verified successfully by EFA and CFA respectively, which means the measuring scales have good adaptation to the SEM built by the paper. What’s more, the measuring scales designed may be the reference for subsequent study or relative research in other fields.3. The paper has made further study of the interaction mechanism between relationship investment, knowledge integration capability and supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises.The paper try to take knowledge integration capability as an intermediate variable and put relationship investment into the research framework of supply chain alliance knowledge transfer between enterprises, which may enrich the theories about knowledge transfer and supply chain management. Large sample survey has been performed among 316 manufacturing enterprises from domestic 6 provinces or municipal cities. As a consequence of aboved empirical research, some main research results full of the characteristics of localization have been achieved. The main conclusions obtained are as follows:(1 Relationship investment has significant positive-impact on exteranal knowledge integration capability;(2)Relationship investment has no impact on internal knowledge integration capability;(3)Relationship investment has significant positive-impact on cooperative knowledge transfer of supply chain;(4)Both economic benefit investment and structural rule investment have significant negative-impact on innovative knowledge transfer of supply chain;(5)Interpersonal relationship investment has no impact on innovative knowledge transfer of supply chain.(6)Knowledge integration capability has significant positive-impact on both cooperative knowledge and innovative knowledge transfer of supply chain;(7)External knowledge integration capability plays a part-intermediate role between relationship investment and cooperative knowledge transfer of supply chain;(8) External knowledge integration capability plays a part-intermediate role between economic benefit investment and innovative knowledge transfer of supply chain; External knowledge integration capability plays a part-intermediate role between structural rule investment and innovative knowledge transfer of supply chain; External knowledge integration capability plays a full-intermediate role between interpersonal relationship investment and innovative knowledge transfer of supply chain.