Research On The Influence Of Firm's Supplier Networking Behaviors On Integrating Of Supplier Innovativeness

Facinig the increasingly fierce competitive environment at home and abroad,the firm's innovation demands have been greatly intensified and integration of supplier innovations has been attached increasingy importance.To succssfuly integrate supplier innovations.firms should not only exploit suppliers technological capability and propensity to innovate,but also integrae suppliers willingness to make contribuition to buyer innovation.i.e.,realizes the effective integration of supplier innovativeness(SI).In the open innoation enironment,how to integrate SI has become the focus of firm to realize the inmoation of product,pr,ocess and service accordingly.Recent studies have tried to explore how to take advantage of SI baed on the relational view.know ledge-based view.and organizational learning theory from the perspective of dyadic relationship,but the fac that supplier is embedded in supplier network raher than existing in isolation is laragly ignoreed.Meanwhile.the most schholars consider supplier network as an exogenous ariable,the explanation of internal driving force of behavior of network actors,especidally focal firm's individual behaior is lackinf.The buyer who occupied the key ptosition possesser network construction and management function,is equipped to guide the intraction among suppliers and lea the evolution direction of oerall network and plas an importan role in mobilizing supplier rcesources and promoting network collaboration.In order to effectiely make use of the supplier resources and capabilities,how should the firm build and manage the supplier network?And how these firm's behaviors play a role in the process of SI integration?These problems remain unsolved.Taking Chinese manufacturers as research objects.this thesis focuses on how to realie the effective integration of SI through frm's supplier networking beha iors(FSNB).Firstlxy,on the basis of analvsis on the relevant literature.this thesis initially defines the concept of FSNB,builds and tests the construct moddel of FSNB.and develops the FSNB Scale through the grounded theory and a large-sample survey.Secondly,this thesis makes a deep analysis in the integrating process of SI,and then the integrating effect of SI is expisited.Social capital theory is referred to explain how fims mobilize the resource through network.The model of the influence of FSNB on integrating SI,is in accordance with the analytical framework'Embeddedness ?Accessibility ?Mobilization',and the corresponding hypotheses are proposed.Large sample questionnaire is designed and conducted on Chinese manufacturers;the hypotheses were tested by hierarchical regression analysis.This study examines the influence of FSNB on the integrating effect of SI through designing supplier embeddedness,improvingfirm network power,and enhancing supplier resource allocation preference.Finally,the practical implications about how to manage suppliers and to integrate SI effectively in supplier context are discussed.This study also provides some useful reference of carrying out supplier networking behaviors and improving the integrating effect of SI.The research innovation and related conclusions are as follows:First of all,this thesis puts forward the concept of FSNB from the perspective of focal firm's individual initiative and refines its dimensions.The results show that the FSNB is composed of supply base optimization,network relationship development,relationship optimization,structure optimization,coordination mechanism,information processing,business collaboration and resource integration,The above networking behaviors mainly represent three lines of content:development,adjustment and integration of supplier network.The findings lay the foundation for studying the influence of FSNB on integrating SI.Next,this thesis breaks through the previous research approach that focuses on firm-supplier relationship and puts forward an analytical framework of integrating SI from the perspective of supplier network.The essence of integrating SI is the effective transformation of SIinto supplier's contribution to firm innovation.Based on social capital theory,the social network research framework 'Embeddedness ? Accessibility ? Mobilization' is introduced to build the analysis framework of the causal relationship among FSNB,supplier embeddedness,firm network power,supplier resource allocation preference,and the integration of SI.The study provides a new theoretical perspective for managing and exploiting SI from the supplier network perspective.Then,this thesis explores and verifies the influence path of FSNB on integrating SIfrom the point of view of enhancing SI.The research results show that supplier embeddedness is an important antecedent variable to enhance SI.FSNB can strengthen SI and indirectly promote supplier's contribution to firm innovation through moderatedesign of supplierembeddedness.Theresearchprovides an important insight to explain the internal mechanism of the relationship between FSNB and SI;it is an important supplement to the research on promotion of integrating SI from the perspective of enhancing SI.Finally,this thesis reveals the mechanism of the influence of FSNB on integrating SI from the angle of promoting the transformation from Slinto supplier's contribution to firm innovation.The results indicate that FSNB not only have a direct effect on supplier's contribution to firm innovation,but also play amoderated role in the integration of SI through firm network power and supplier resources allocation preferences.These conclusions provide a theoretical explanation of the situation in which SI is transformed into supplier contribution to firm innovation;it also provides a strong support for FSNB in promoting the integration of SI.At the same time,the results also show that FSNB can achieve supplier's preferential treatment by improving the supplier embeddedness and firm network power.The findings enhance the understanding of the relationship between FSNB and supplier resource allocation preference,whichimproves the overall understanding of internal mechanism of influence of FSNB on integrating SI.