Research On Manufacturing Firms-KIBS Interaction, Resource Reconfiguration And Performance

With the pricking up of competition of firms, shortening of the product life cycle, and refinement of industry specialization, a number of interdisciplinary and cross-enterprise collaborations, alliances, and networking innovation organizations have been established. The manufacturing firms gradually convert the internal production mode to external one, to absorb needed resources by the way of interaction with knowledge intensive business services(KIBS). The major problem firms confront is which KIBS to choose and how to interact with them to improve performance. Previous researches have evidenced that the manufacturing firms KIBS interaction played positive effects to improve the performance of manufacturing firms. However, they only pay attentation to the straight relationship between them, but not exploring mechanism, and little work has been conducted on the empirical study on it.This dissertation focuses on the basic topic of manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction improving the performance of manufacturing firms, and analyzes the different paths in which manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction influences manufacturing firms’ performance under different interaction mode. The basic topic is divided into three sub-research questions:(1) How and through which mechanism the manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction can benefit manufacturing firms’ performance?(2) How to distinguish the interaction mode?(3) What is the path of manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction influencing performance of manufacturing firms under different interaction modes? And which roles of the prior interaction experiences of manufacturing firms play to moderate the relationship between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction and resource reconfiguration under the complementary interaction mode?In this study, above questions are analyzed according to the integration of theory with practice, and the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Firstly, the interaction modes are identified by the method of confirmative multiple case study, and a scale of resource reconfiguration is established based on exploratory factor analysis, confirmative factor analysis and chi-square difference tests. Secondly, a conceptual model is constructed to analyze the manufacturing firms’performance influenced by manufacturing firms-KIBS interactions, and a series of propositions and hypotheses are also put forward by the way of exploratory multiple case study and literature review. Thirdly, the intermediary role of resource reconfiguration (including resource recombination and resource reallocation) is validated between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction and manufacturing firms’ performance based on the multiple linear regression model, and the path of performance of manufacturing firms influenced by the manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction under different interaction modes based on the structural model equation. Finally, the moderating role of prior interaction experiences of manufacturing firms is analyzed between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction and resource reconfiguration under the complementary interaction mode.According to above researches, some conclusions were drawn as follows.(1) Interaction mode of manufacturing firms-KIBS could be identified through the following four aspects during interaction process:aim, resource characteristics, communication behavior, and adaptative behavior. For the complementary interaction mode, the aim of interactions is to make up for the deficiency of internal resource, and the resource characteristic is manifested as existing outside the area of experience, and the communication behavior is presented as a high degree of "learn by doing", and "learn by using", and the adaptative behavior is shown as a large-scope adjustment of staffs, equipments, and the organization structure. While for the supplementary interaction mode, the aim of interactions is to reduce internal development cost, and its resource characteristic, communication behavior, and adaptative behavior are just opposite with the former.(2) Resource reconfiguration consisted of resource recombination and resource reallocation. Resource recombination focuses on the interactive relationship between internal and external resources, while resource reallocation pays attention to the internal and external resource allocation.(3) Resource reconfiguration is serviced as a mediator between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction and manufacturing firms’ performance. Both resource recombination and resource reallocation play an intermediary function between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction (including interaction intensity and interaction depth) and manufacturing firms’operational performance. However, only resource recombination can mediate the relationship between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction intensity and innovative performance of manufacturing firms, while no intermediary function is detected in the interaction depth.(4) Under different interaction mode, both resource recombination and resource reallocation exert different intermediary effect in the relationship between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction (including interaction intensity and interaction depth) and manufacturing firms’performance (including innovative performance and operational performance). For the complementary interaction mode, the mediating effect of resource recombination is stronger than that by resource reallocation. However, an opposite conclusion is obtained for the supplementary interaction mode.(5) For the complementary interaction mode, prior interaction experiences of manufacturing firms play a positive role in the relationship between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction and resource reconfiguration. The more prior interaction experiences, the greater impact of resource recombination would be influenced by the complementary interaction strength, and vice versa..Generally speaking, this dissertation adds strength to the following theoretical aspects.(1) Providing a supplementary and developmentary explanation for the mechanism of manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction acting on manufacturing firms’ performance based on resource-based view and resource dependency theory. Although both resource-based view and resource dependency theory offer powerful theoretical support for the above explanation, they could not explain the mechanism. This study identifies the intermediary effect of resource reconfiguration in the relationship between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction and manufacturing firms’performance, and analyzes the extent of the intermediary effect of resource recombination and resource reallocation on different mode, and reveals their path.(2) Providing a basis for some relevant conceptual constructs on the perspective of resource-based view. From the angle of reconfiguration, this study analyzes the connotation and constitution dimension of resource reconfiguration, and identifies that it consists of resource recombination and resource reallocation. and then establishes a scale of resource reconfiguration.(3) Providing a deepening research on interactive development between manufacturing industries and services. This study constructs an framework of manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction modes from aspects of aim, resource characteristics, communication behavior, and adaptative behavior. Moreover, the study find prior interaction experiences of manufacturing firms plays a positive role in the relationship between manufacturing firms-KIBS interaction and resource reconfiguration, which enriches the research about the interactive development between manufacturing industries and services.