The Influential Mechanisms Of Relational Embeddedness And Knowledge Acquisition On Innovation Performance

With the acceleration of globalization process and the development of communication technology, as well as the revolution of high-tech industry, the formation of enterprises competitive advantage not only depends on their internal resources but also on the external network. Knowledge resources have become the key factor of innovation. Finding the knowledge resources in the external network and promoting the innovation performance become a hot spot of theory research. This paper discusses the influential mechanism of relational embeddedness on innovation performance by studying small and medium high-tech enterprises in Zhejiang Province.Based on the relevant research of firm network embeddedness and knowledge acquisition, we analysis the growth model and the innovation path of small and medium high-tech enterprises in Zhejiang. Then we put forward the conceptual framework of relational embeddedness positively influencing the explicit and implicit knowledge acquisition and further the innovation performance. In order to have a deeper research, we introduce the absorptive capacity. The potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity moderate this mechanism in different stage. Then we apply the factor analysis and multiple regression analysis of the dates collected from 178 small and medium high-tech enterprises in Zhejiang to test and analyze the conceptual framework. In the end, we come to the following conclusions:(1) The level of trust, information sharing and joint problem solving of the relational embeddedness positively and significantly influence the innovation performance. This conclusion strengthens the study of embeddedness and proves that embeddedness is also effect for small and medium high-tech enterprises.(2) The level of trust, information sharing and joint problem solving positively influencing the knowledge acquisition and further the innovation perfomance. The explicit and implicit knowledge acquisition has mediating effect on the relationship between relational embeddedness and enterprise performance.(3) Absorptive capacity moderates the relationship between relational embeddedness and innovation performance. To be specific, potential absorptive capacity has moderating effect on relational embeddedness influencing the knowledge acquisition, but the effect is not very significant. The interaction between information sharing and potential absorptive capacity has significant effect on the explicit and implicit knowledge acquisition, while the interactions between trust, joint problem solving and potential absorptive capacity do not have significant effect. Realized absorptive capacity doesn’t moderates the relationship between knowledge acquisition and innovation performance. But realized absorptive capacity positively and significantly influence the innovation performance. The mechanism of action of relized absorptive capacity on innovation performance need further study.