| In modern times,the faster rate of technological progress,the shortened life cycle of product and pressure of competition from globalization makes the innovation become one of the key factors deciding the firms' survival and development.On the other hand,the era of knowledge economy and information all highlight the vital importance of knowledge to firms.But as the evolution of specialized division of labor,the firms have go step forward into a special knowledge area,so it is impossible that modern enterprises would have the all knowledge elements which will be used in the complex process of innovation.Because of that,the effect of external knowledge in the process of firms' innovation has become one of the popular topics in strategic management.To tackle the above problem,extant researches have explore the influence of external knowledge search on firms' innovation by introduce the concept of organization search.Because of the characteristics of different entities due to their different development path,external knowledge can provide the focal firm with heterogeneity knowledge,expend firm's knowledge storage,and let the focal firm not go into some capability trap and situation of exhaustion.Though,external knowledge search has to consume the time and cost,and individual has the bounded rationality,so it can bring some load to the focal firm.There are so many scholars that has done the empirical research on the relationship between external knowledge search and innovation performance.In these studies,the breadth of external knowledge search and depth of external knowledge search are the two dimensions that many scholars have used in their research,and search breadth means the scope of external knowledge search,while search depth is the extent to which the focal firm search externally.Further,the most outstanding feature in extant research is that the conclusions which resulted from different literatures has not come to agreement,and there are about linear type,curve type,and no significant type that the researches have referred to.In response to above phenomenon and some recent researches' calls,it needs to discuss the mechanism of the external knowledge search' effect on innovation performance,that is to sayexploring the possible mediation and moderation effect between external knowledge search and innovation performance.In order to resolve the above issues,this article will be devoted to further study on the mechanisms of external knowledge search's influence on innovation performance.In this paper,the author will introduce the knowledge integration mechanisms as the mediation variable from the angle of organization structure and mechanisms,and include the environmental dynamism and environmental munificence as the moderation variables in an attempt to clarify how external knowledge search can act on the focal firm's innovation performance.Specifically,this article will discuss the several aspects below.Firstly,whether the external knowledge search breadth and search depth would have a positive effect on focal firm's innovation performance.Secondly,whether the knowledge integration mechanism would be a mediation variable between external knowledge search and innovation performance,namely whether external knowledge search would influence the focal firm's innovation performance through the specific structures and processes that the firm sets.Thirdly,whether environmental dynamism and environmental munificence would moderates the relationship between external knowledge search breadth and knowledge integration mechanisms as well as the relationship between external knowledge search depth and knowledge integration mechanisms,and if they moderates the relationship between knowledge integration mechanisms and innovation performance.Besides that,another question is what direction is these moderation effects.Lastly,if environmental dynamism and environmental munificence would influence the mediation effect of knowledge integration mechanisms,namely these two aspects' influence on the effect pathway between external knowledge search and innovation performance.Around the issues focused in this paper,the author constructed a theoretical framework about the effect of external knowledge search on focal firm's innovation performance,and proposed the corresponding hypotheses,based on extant research and associated theoretical analysis.Accordingly,this article made the data collection by using questionnaire in accordance with the procedures and rules from management research methods.Then,after the descriptive statistics analysis and correlation analysis,this article implemented the empirical test of assumed hypotheses by using the regression analysis method.After that,there are some results worthy our attention.Firstly,external knowledge search breadth and search depth both have a positiveinfluence on the focal firm's innovation performance,and there is no any statistical significance on the quadratic relationship between them.Secondly,external knowledge search breadth and search depth both have a positive effect on knowledge integration mechanisms,and knowledge integration mechanisms have a positive effect on focal firm's innovation performance.By the mediation test,this article confirmed that knowledge integration mechanisms mediated the influence of external knowledge search breadth and search depth on focal firm's innovation performance.Thirdly,environmental dynamism positively moderated the relationship between external knowledge search breadth and knowledge integration mechanisms as well as the relationship knowledge integration mechanisms and innovation performance,while environmental munificence negatively moderated the relationship between external knowledge search depth and knowledge integration mechanisms as well as the relationship knowledge integration mechanisms and innovation performance.Except that,other moderation effects are not significant statistically.Finally,environmental dynamism's moderation effect on the mediation effect of knowledge integration mechanisms between external knowledge search breadth and innovation performance is supported,and environmental munificence's moderation effect on the mediation effect of knowledge integration mechanisms between external knowledge search depth and innovation performance is supported too.By looking at the above research results,this article contributed the research on the relationship between external knowledge search and firms' innovation performance.First of all,this paper certificated the positive effect of external knowledge search breadth and search depth on focal firm's innovation performance,but there is not a significant quadratic relationship between them based on the analysis results,and this told us that Chinese firms had a weak knowledge base and there is not over search phenomenon.Next,this paper expanded and deepened the research on the influence mechanisms of external knowledge search on innovation performance.In extant research,there is much less research discussing the mediation effect between external knowledge search and innovation performance,especially none research explored the mediation effect of organization mechanisms.So,this paper introduced the knowledge integration mechanisms into the theoretical framework and deeply analysis how external knowledge search influences innovation performance through knowledge integration mechanisms.Thirdly,according to the characteristics of external environment around Chinese firms,this paper started from theenvironmental dynamism and environmental munificence,and analyzed these two environmental properties' moderation effect on the influence mechanisms of external knowledge search.In brief,based on the organization mechanisms,this research explored the influence process of external knowledge search on focal firm's innovation performance,and discussed the moderation effect of environmental dynamism and environment munificence in this process.By doing this,it extended the scope of structural contingency theory,and helped the research area of knowledge search moving forward,thus provide us a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding about this firms' strategy and behavior.Despite all of this,this paper has some shortcomings.The research sample,the scale modes and methods,and the restrictions of time and energy all caused the deficiencies more or less,reminding me to notice these questions.At last,this paper provided some promising directions in future. |
PDF Full Text Request