The Impact Of Two-level Collaboration Network Construction On Enterprises' Exploratory Innovation Performance

Exploratory innovation is an important activity for enterprises to obtain sustainable competitive advantage.However,due to the limitations of technology inertia and resource constraints,cooperative innovation has become the basic organizational form for enterprises to improve their exploratory innovation capability.Previous research has investigated the relationship between innovation network structure and innovation performance from the perspective of inter-organizational collaboration network,intra-organizational collaboration network or multi-level network.However,enterprise is a multi-level system,and few studies are conducted from two-level network perspective by combining network structures of inter-organizational collaboration network level with those of intra-organizational collaboration network level.By integrating multi-level network theory,four-stage process model of absorptive capacity,and the relevant research on exploratory innovation,this study first constructs "two level-four phases" comprehensive model,combining two-level collaboration network and the four-stage process framework of absorptive capacity.Then,the process in which the intra-organizational and inter-organizational collaboration network influences the exploratory innovation performance corresponds to the four stages of the absorptive capacity process model(knowledge acquisition and identification,knowledge assimilation,knowledge transformation and knowledge creation),and the corresponding network variables are selected to investigate the impact of central position,brokerage position,knowledge similarity,tie strength,network clustering and network distance on enterprises' exploratory innovation performance,and the moderate effect of tie strength,network clustering and network distance.Finally,taking global enterprises in the field of Electric Vehicle technology from 2005 to 2015 as research samples,panel data poisson regression model and quasi-maximum likelihood poisson regression model were used to empirically test the above research hypothesis.Based on the empirical results,the conclusion and suggestions are put forward that enterprises can improve exploratory innovation performance by optimizing intra-organizational inventor cooperation network and constructing inter-organizational cooperation network.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)The increase of central position is conducive to enterprises' acquisition of external heterogeneous knowledge.However,when central position exceeds a certain critical value,enterprises tend to form "path dependence",reduce their willingness to create new knowledge,and thus have a negative effect on exploratory innovation performance.Enterprises occupying brokerage position have advantages in information acquisition and control,and they can acquire heterogeneous knowledge,which can positively promote the exploratory innovation performance.The increase of knowledge similarity between enterprises and partners is conducive to enterprises' effective identification and acquisition of external heterogeneous knowledge.When the knowledge similarity exceeds a certain critical value,enterprises are less likely to acquire new knowledge from partners,thus their exploratory innovation performance is reduced.(2)There is a negative relationship between tie strength of inter-organizational collaboration network and enterprises' exploratory innovation performance.Further research shows that with the increase of the tie strength,the inverted U-shaped curve between central position and enterprises' exploratory innovation performance becomes steeper.The positive relationship between brokerage position and enterprises' exploratory innovation performance is strengthened.The inverted U-shaped curve between knowledge similarity and exploratory innovation performance becomes steeper.It can be seen that tie strength is unfavorable to enterprises' exploratory innovation performance,whereas it can ensure the effective transfer and absorption of heterogeneous knowledge acquired by enterprises.Therefore,enterprises should strengthen the communication with existing partners and establish a trust relationship,so as to further promote the improvement of enterprises' exploratory innovation performance.(3)The intra-organizational collaboration network distance has a significant positive impact on enterprises' exploratory innovation performance.The intra-organizational collaboration network clustering has no direct effect on enterprises' exploratory inmovation performance,but it plays an important moderating role.The role of network clustering and network distance of intra-organizational collaboration network are mainly reflected in the transformation of external knowledge,thus affecting the absorption effect of heterogeneous knowledge of external partners.Since the intra-organizational collaboration network structure with lower network clustering and longer network distance can enhance the positive influence of central position(brokerage position)on enterprises' exploratory innovation performance,the "project type" organizational collaboration structure is more beneficial to the improvement of exploratory innovation performance of enterprises.At the same time,low level of network clustering can effectively promote the positive relationship between knowledge similarity and enterprises' exploratory innovation performance.Therefore loose intra-organizational collaboration structure can promote the effective knowledge transformation and absorption among enterprises with similar knowledge.