A Research On The Impacts Of Alliance-Portfolio Capability On Enterprise Innovation Performance In The Multi-Dimensional Perspective

Under the impetus of innovation-driven development strategy,the social economy evolves to the new period of the entrepreneurship and innovation by the masses of the country,and the shortenning of technology life cycle,the iterations and updates of knowledges are dramatically accelerated.That tendency leads to the dramatic rise of the dynamics,complexities,rivalries in the external environments,and makes the resource-endowment limitations of firms much more salient.That compels firms to simultaneously establish and maintain strategic cooperation relationships with others,that is,alliance portfolios,in order to capture resources meeting their own innovation strategy demands.Unfortunately,synergy-and conflict-creating interdependencies between members make alliance portfolios not be the simple sum of the amount of single alliances.As a consequence,how to appropriately construct,effectively govern,comprehensively coordinate alliance portfolios,that is,alliance-portfolio capability(APC),plays a crucial role in firms' achieving their own innovation objectives.However,the academic researches on APC start relatively late,which makes many theoretical gaps lie in the elucidations for the mechanism how APC can be nurtured and how APC influences firms' innovation performance(IP).In the realistic and theoretical contexts mentioned above,the theoretical questions as follow would be interpreted in this paper:(1)The formation mechanisms of APC.Given that alliance experiences(AE)is the main source of knowledges,approaches,skills about how to manage alliance portfolios,while learning routines(LR)are the systematic tools for conceptualizing experiences,and then,how do AE and LR influence APC jointly?(2)The influencing mechanisms of APC on IP.Taking the dynamic-capability nature of APC into consideration,could APC affect IP through fundamental capabilities(absorptive capacity,AC)that enable the focal firms to efficiently,effectively deploy their resources?Besides,as alliance portfolios can be reckoned as local networks(alliance-portfolio configuration networks)structurally,should APC impact IP by the way of changing the focal firms' structural embeddedness(structural holes,SH)and relational embeddedness(relationship quality,RQ)in the alliance-portfolio configuration networks?Futhermore,taking into account that alliance portfolios provide channels to the focal firms to connect to the whole networks(alliance networks),would APC impact IP by the way of influencing the focal firms' position(network centrality,NC)and boundary-spanning technology search(BTS)in the alliance networks?(3)The theoretical disagreements on the relationship characteristics between SH,NC,BTS and IP.Given that RQ is able to mitigate distrust and opportunism caused by SH,how does RQ influence the relationship characteristics between SH and IP?Given that APC may help maintain openness of network and reduce risk and cost of BTS,how does APC influence the relationship characteristics between NC,BTS and IP?Built on organizational learning theory,dynamic capabilities theory,social network theory,the aforementioned questions were illustrated by means of literature analysis,theoretical deduction,questionnaire survey,et al.,from the perspectives of knowledge management,capability level,network embeddedness,organizational search,and then,the main results are concluded undermentioned.Firstly,by applying hierarchical multiple regression models to analyze the 239 questionnaires collected from firms in the strategic emerging industries of China,the empirical evidences show that AE,AED and AEB can significantly enhance APC,and the differentially positive moderations LR imposes on the relationships between AE,AED,AEB and APC are also remarkable.More precisely,the moderation on the relationships between AEB and APC is strongest,while the moderation on the relationships between AED and APC is weakest.Secondly,by applying hierarchical multiple regression models to analyze the 205 questionnaires collected from firms in the strategic emerging industries of China,the empirical evidences show that AC plays a partial mediating role between APC and IP,and EU imposes significantly positive moderations on the relationship between APC and AC,and the relationship between AC and IP.Thirdly,by applying hierarchical multiple regression models to analyze the 236 questionnaires collected from firms in the strategic emerging industries of China,the empirical evidences show that SH,RQ respectively plays a partial mediating role between APC and IP,and RQ imposes a significantly positive moderation on the relationship between SH and IP.Fourthly,by applying PLS structural equation models to analyze the 239 questionnaires collected from firms in the strategic emerging industries of China,the empirical evidences show that NC,BTS respectively plays a partial mediating role between APC and IP,and the sequential mediation by the two mediators is also statistically significant.Fifthly,by applying hierarchical multiple regression models to analyze the 236 questionnaires collected from firms in the strategic emerging industries of China,the empirical evidences show that the SH has the significantly linear positive correlation with IP under the impact of the significantly positive moderation of RQ.Lastly,by applying PLS structural equation models and hierarchical multiple regression models to analyze the 239 questionnaires collected from firms in the strategic emerging industries of China,the empirical evidences show that NC and BTS have the linear positive correlation with IP respectively,under the impact of the precondition and significantly positive moderation of APC.In drawing these conclusions,we may make some empirical and theoretical contributions.Above all,the formation mechanisms of APC are revealed,and that would fill up the theoretical gap about how APC could be cultivated in the view of knowledge management.Next,a multi-level mechanism model portraying how APC influences IP is built up by integrating the perspectives of capability level,network embeddedness and organizational search,and then,the theoretical frameworks of APC and enterprise innovation are enriched.Not only that,the relationship characteristics between SH and IP are examined under the moderation of RQ,and the relationship characteristics between NC,BTS and IP are also examined in the precondition and moderation of APC,which,to a certain extent,clarifies the theoretical disagreements on the ‘structural holes paradox',the ‘network lock-in effects',and the ‘boundary-spanning search traps' in the available literatures,and expands the theoretical boundary of network embeddedness and organizational search.