Research On The Influence Of Institutional Distance On The Degree Of Cross-border Knowledge Transfer

With the development of economic globalization and network informatization,more and more innovators begin to realize knowledge innovation,appreciation and diffusion through crossborder knowledge transfer.Efficient cross-border knowledge transfer is not only conducive to the improvement of innovation capacity,optimal allocation of innovation resources and sustainable growth of economy,but also critical to the current COVID-19 control and economic recovery.However,not all cross-border knowledge transfer can be carried out efficiently.The institutional differences between countries make the knowledge transfer parties have different cognitive ways and behavior habits and be constrained by two institutional environments,which will hinder the effective implementation of cross-border knowledge transfer.Whether the constraints of domestic institutions can be overcome and the institutions of other countries can be accepted and adapted to is the key to the success of cross-border knowledge transfer.From the perspective of institutional distance,the academics have discussed the influence of formal institutional distance and informal institutional distance on cross-border knowledge transfer,but have not reached an explicit conclusion.Recent studies suggest that the effect of institutional distance on cross-border knowledge transfer may depend on the international experience,social capital,technological capability and integration mechanism of knowledge recipient,but seldom consider the moderating effect of external social environment.In addition,most studies focus on knowledge transfer between organizations,and those carried out at the national level also focus on the cross-border knowledge transfer based on patent citation,ignoring the cross-border transfer of tacit knowledge that emphasizes interpersonal communication.In view of the shortcomings of previous studies,the following questions will be focused:(1)what is the direct impact of institutional distance on the degree of cross-border knowledge transfer?(2)Does external social environment play a moderating role in the relationship between institutional distance and cross-border knowledge transfer?(3)What are the differences in the influence mechanisms of institutional distance on different forms of cross-border knowledge transfer?Specifically,according to the knowledge type,cross-border knowledge transfer can be divided into cross-border knowledge sharing,cross-border knowledge spillover.The influence of formal institutional distance and informal institutional distance on cross-border knowledge transfer in different ways is discussed respectively,and the moderating role of the external social environment factors which are cultural tightness and institutional quality is furtherly explored.Based on the data of patent citation and patent cooperation between 15 countries from 2007 to 2018,the empirical analysis shows that:(1)Both of the informal institutional distance and the formal institutional distance have a negative impact on the degree of cross-border knowledge spillover;(2)The moderating effect of the cultural tightness of knowledge sender is not significant in the influence of informal institutional distance on transnational knowledge spillover,which is significant in the influence of formal institutional distance on cross-border knowledge spillover.However,it can directly hinder cross-border knowledge spillover and intensify the negative impact of formal institutional distance on cross-border knowledge spillover;(3)The cultural tightness of knowledge recipient plays a moderating role of both in the influence of two types of institutional distance on crossborder knowledge spillover but in the opposite direction.The tighter of the culture of knowledge recipient is,the greater the negative influence of informal institutional distance is,and the smaller the negative influence of formal institutional distance is;(4)Relative institutional quality can weaken the negative influence of formal institutional distance on the degree of cross-border knowledge spillover;(5)Informal institutional distance has a negative impact on the degree of cross-border knowledge sharing,while the influence of formal institutional distance is not significant;(6)The cultural tightness of knowledge sharing member does not regulate the relationship between formal institutional distance and the degree of cross-border knowledge sharing,but has a directly negative impact on the degree of cross-border knowledge sharing;(7)The institutional quality has a direct positive impact on the degree of cross-border knowledge sharing,which is weakened by formal institutional distance.The innovation of this research includes the following three aspects:(1)A new theoretical model of institutional distance influencing cross-border knowledge transfer is constructed at the national level,and the influence relationship between institutional distance and cross-border knowledge transfer degree is clarified.Previous studies have focused on the influence of institutional distance in a single dimension on cross-border knowledge transfer between organizations,and the conclusions are controversial.As a consequence,a theoretical model of formal and informal institutional distance influencing cross-border knowledge spillover is built and empirically tested,which is based on the perspective of the patent citation and patent cooperation between countries,and fully considering the effect of external social environment.It is found that informal institutional distance always has a negative impact on two types of crossborder knowledge transfer,however,the influence of formal institutional distance on cross-border knowledge transfer is different in different knowledge transfer ways and external social environments.The former result provides empirical support for the prevailing view,while the latter result explains the reasons for the inconsistency of existing conclusions.The results clarify the relationship between institutional distance and the degree of cross-border knowledge transfer,and expand the research scope of institutional distance and cross-border knowledge transfer;(2)On the basis of distinguishing different ways of cross-border knowledge transfer,the differences between the influence mechanism of institutional distance on cross-border knowledge spillover and cross-border knowledge sharing are comparatively analyzed.Previous studies have focused on cross-border knowledge spillover based on patent citation,ignoring the cross-border transfer of tacit knowledge.Due to the difficulty of data acquisition,most scholars only used patent citation data before 1999.Actually,cross-border knowledge spillover and cross-border knowledge sharing should be respectively regarded as the ways of explicit knowledge transfer and tacit knowledge transfer.Based on senders-recipients model and social learning theory,the influence mechanism of institutional distance on two types of cross-border knowledge transfer is analyzed along the path of "institutional distance-willingness and ability of knowledge transfercross-border knowledge spillover" and "institutional distance-interpersonal interaction-crossborder knowledge sharing".Based on extracting and collecting the latest cross-border patent citation data from large-scale data by Python programming,empirical test and comparative analysis of the above two influence paths are conducted.It is found that formal institutional distance will hinder cross-border knowledge spillover,but has no significant influence on the degree of cross-border knowledge sharing.It shows that the barriers to knowledge sharing caused by formal institutions distance can be overcome through interpersonal interaction.This finding confirms the difference in the influence of institutional distance on different ways of cross-border knowledge transfer,and the update of cross-border patent citation data also greatly improves the timeliness of research and provide data support for subsequent empirical research on cross-border knowledge transfer.(3)The moderating effects of cultural tightness and institutional quality are explored,and the boundary conditions of institutional distance influencing the degree of cross-border knowledge transfer are revealed.Previous studies focused on the main effect analysis of institutional distance in the process of cross-border knowledge transfer without considering the moderating effect of external social environment.When culture tightness and relative institutional quality are introduced as the external social environment factors,it is found that the cultural tightness and relative institutional quality of knowledge transfer parties both play a moderating role in the influence of formal institutional distance on cross-border knowledge spillover,and the cultural tightness of recipient also intensifies the negative impact of informal institutional distance on cross-border knowledge spillover;In addition,institutional quality will directly hinder cross-border knowledge sharing,and cultural tightness has a direct negative impact on both types of knowledge transfer,which has an interaction effect with institutional distance.The results reflect the key role of external social environment factors in the process of cross-border knowledge transfer and deepen the understanding of the process of cross-border knowledge transfer under different external social environment.