Research On The Influence Of Technological Group Coupling On The Invulnerability Of Industrial Innovation Networks

With the implementation of open innovation and the acceleration of globalization,the industrial innovation network that breaks the geographical boundary has attracted more and more attention.However,the industrial innovation network is extremely vulnerable to multiple factors,such as the emergence of disruptive technologies,the changes in the market environment and industrial policy and other exogenous shocks,as well as the endogenous failures such as network structural attributes,thus facing the crisis of fragility,failure,and even destruction.How to build an invulnerable industrial innovation network,aiming at building a stable innovation platform for innovation subjects,and realizing the technological progress and economic growth of the industry,has become a major issue faced by academic circles and the industry.The phenomenon of the technological grouping is a general trend in the evolution of industrial innovation networks recently.It involves a wide range of technological subjects and complex interactive contents.How to effectively understand and govern the coupling of technological groups has become a new breakthrough to improve the invulnerability of industrial innovation networks.Previous studies have explored the antecedents of the invulnerability of innovation networks from different levels,including structural factors at the global network level,structural attributes and dynamic behavior at the meso-community level,individual interaction,and core enterprise governance at the micro-organization level.Technological group is the middle layer between micro-level and macro-level,which plays an important role in dynamic connection between the micro-organizations and the macro-networks.However,the existing literature from the level of technological group is insufficient,and the related research has the following shortcomings,which need to be filled and improved urgently.First,there is the absence of exploring the antecedent mechanism of technological group coupling from the perspective of the dynamic behavior of micro-organizations because of ignoring the dynamic attributes of network members.Second,previous studies only explored the influence of technological groups" interaction on the invulnerability of the innovation network structure or function from the perspective of the relationship,and the internal mechanism is still unclear.Third,it does not explain the influence of knowledge coupling between technological groups on structural invulnerability and functional invulnerability from the perspective of network connectivism.The importance of bridging these gaps lies in three ways.First,industrial innovation network is a multilevel,dynamic,and coupled system,in which the dynamic behavior of microorganizations is the most basic motivation that affects the implementation of coupling among technological groups.Second,it needs to comprehensively explore the effects of the relationship coupling and the knowledge coupling between technological groups on the invulnerability of innovation networks in view of the duality of the relationship and knowledge.Third,it is more complete to explore the invulnerability of innovation networks from the dimension of structure and function jointly,given that the structural perspective and functional perspective reflected the full spectrum of the network outcome.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore the driving mechanism of the dynamic community behavior of the micro-organization affecting the coupling of technological groups,and then to explore the influence of technological group coupling and the structural and functional invulnerability of innovation networks respectively from the dimension of relationship and knowledge.Taking the intergroup relationship coupling and knowledge coupling as the starting points,this study attempts to address the following three questions by constructing the research framework of "the motivation of technological group coupling and its influence on the invulnerability of industrial innovation networks".First,what are the dynamic behaviors displayed by the members of the technological group,and how do they drive the technological group to implement relationship coupling and knowledge coupling?Second,what is the influence between the relationship coupling of technological groups and the network structural and functional invulnerability by investigating the mediating effect of the centralized structure,as well as the moderating effect of the in-outbound innovation breadth and depth asymmetry?Third,what is the influence between the knowledge coupling of technological groups and the network structural and functional invulnerability by investigating the mediating effect of the structural homogeneity,as well as the moderating effect of the industry technological turbulence and the network technological diversity?This study constructed 138 patent citation networks as the analysis units based on the samples in field of the new energy industry.CONCOR was used to divide technological groups,and network topology analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were conducted.The main research conclusions were as follows.First,the group membership turnover and group membership movement had a significant and positive impacts on the relationship coupling and knowledge coupling of technological groups respectively.Both the intergroup technological heterogeneity and the intergroup position asymmetry significantly and positively moderated the relationship between the group membership turnover,group membership movement and the relationship coupling of technological groups,but did not affect the knowledge coupling of technological groups.This showed that the dynamic attributes of the group members play a promoting role in the implementation of coupling activities of the technological groups.Moreover,the greater difference in technology similarity and network position of the technological groups,the more likely it was to stimulate group members to implement relationship coupling rather than knowledge coupling.Second,the relationship coupling of technological groups positively promoted the structural and functional invulnerability of the innovation networks,and the centralized structure presented a partial mediating effect.Moreover,the in-outbound innovation breadth and depth asymmetry played negative moderating roles.It was found that the relationship coupling between technological groups can alleviate the tendency of the innovation network gathering toward some core members to avoid the network being dominated or manipulated,therefore the innovation network could maintain the structural robustness and functional operation even after the failure of core members.It was helpful to consolidate the effect of the relationship coupling on the invulnerability of the innovation network by regulating and controlling the more balanced in-outbound open innovation breadth and depth of the network actors.Third,the knowledge coupling of technological groups positively promoted the structural and functional invulnerability of the innovation networks.These relationships not only partly mediated by the structural homogeneity,but also positively moderated by the network technological diversity,and negatively moderated by the industry technological turbulence.The research showed that with the enhancement of knowledge coupling between technological groups,the utility of disassortative connections appeared and then promoted the knowledge flow between the core and the peripheral organizations.In this way,the structural homogeneity can be alleviated,and the dilemma of self-restraint and knowledge lock-in can be reduced,thus enhancing the invulnerability of the innovation network.Moreover,the richer the technological diversity and the gentler the changes of the technological environment were,the more the knowledge coupling of technological groups strongly promoted the structural and functional invulnerability of the innovation network.