Venture Enterprise Network Dynamic Capabilities And Innovative Social Network Fertile Degrees

Social network of innovation(hereafter SNI) is a special kind of social network built with the purpose of acquiring the knowledge that is indispensable for innovation. A review of the literature indicates that SNI is an important pathway both to the identification of innovation opportunity and to the improvement of innovation performance.However,research on entrepreneurial firms in this field is still far from sufficient and the majority of previous researches focused on either the structural or the relational side of SNI,neglecting its substantial nature.For this reason,extant researches are inconclusive on the exact effects of SNI structure and relationships,let alone offering a persuasive explanation of the mechanism behind its effects.This paper considers SNI the meso-environment for innovation,and adopts the term "innovation network munificence"(hereafter INM) to describe the degree that such environment promotes innovation.Based on the theoretical researches in the field of entrepreneurship,organizational learning and social network,we set out to explore the dimensionality of INM construct and the process mechanism behind its obvious effects on entrepreneurial firms' innovation performance.Meanwhile,under the guidance of actor-structure interactionism,we explored the dimensionality of dynamic network capability(hereafter DNC) construct and their effects on INM.In the first study,semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 entrepreneurs and CTOs from entrepreneurial firms of different stage,size and industry.The interviews informed us of the firms' networking activities and the key events that spurred their innovations.Subsequent content analysis and coding of the original narration revealed four key components for DNC and three key components for INM.DNC consists of relational skill,knowledge of partner,coordination arrangement and internal communication while INM includes network configuration, mutual trust and knowledge storage.The second study made further efforts to verify the conceptual characteristics and structural dimensions of DNC and INM.Based on the literatures and interviews, questionnaires of DNC and INM were first developed and delivered to qualified entrepreneurial firms.The first and the second round of sampling resulted in 138 and 183 valid responses respectively.Explorative and confirmative factor analysis indicate that the four-dimension structural model of DNC and three-dimension structural model of INM are most stable,and both constructs demonstrate acceptable convergent and discriminant validity.Meanwhile,the results of SEM analysis of the relationship between INM and innovation performance indicate that INM has reasonable criteria-related validity.A conceptual model of DNC on INM was proposed and verified in the third study. With the measurement tools validated in the second study,we collected 183 valid questionnaires.Results of statistical analysis demonstrate strong support for the perspectives of actor-structure interactionists.An entrepreneurial firm's INM improves steadily as it evolves from startup to maturity,and its DNC plays a crucial role in this process.To be specific,relational skills and knowledge of partners have significant effect on all three dimensions of INM while internal communication and coordination arrangements have significant effect on network configuration and mutual trust respectively.The fourth study proposed and verified the mechanism behind INM's effect on innovation performance.Using data collected from 183 entrepreneurial firms,we tested both the mediating effect of knowledge acquisition and the moderating effect of innovation orientation on the relationship between INM and innovation performance. Besides that,we,also tested the mediating effect of absorptive capacity on the relationship between INM and knowledge acquisition.Results indicate that besides its direct impact,INM also has an indirect effect on innovation performance,in which knowledge acquisition functions as either a partial or a full mediator.And in this sense, the absorptive capacity of the firm strengthens the positive relationship between its INM and knowledge acquisition.Furthermore,its innovation orientation interacts with the mutual trust and knowledge storage dimension of INM,leading to a more significant positive relationship between INM on one side,and product innovativeness and innovation speed on the other side.These results indicate that entrepreneurial firms shall be concerned with not only the maintenance of SNI,but also the cultivation of capability and the nurture of a culture of innovation.The major conclusions were summarized in the last chapter.The Theoretical progresses and practical implications of this study were discussed,as well as its limitations and the directions for future research.