A Study About Mechanism Of Action Of The Innovation Champions In The Supply Chain Networks

With the advent of the Internet age, the competition among enterprises is becoming increasingly fierce, in this case, technology is upgrading faster and faster, innovation capacity has become an important factor in determining the survival and development of an enterprise. In response to the changes of the environment, many companies have chosen to join together to form innovation networks to enhance their innovation performance. In the innovation network, some enterprises that played key roles in the process can influence the innovation process and the innovation performance significantly, these enterprises in the network acts as innovation promoters.The content of this paper is how the innovation champions affect the supply chain network. More specifically, the technology champions, power champions and network champions affect the performance of the supply chain network through network learning and inter-organizational communication. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, this paper first summarized the existing literature, and then established a theoretical model on the basis of the literature review, and then put forward the corresponding hypothesis. Finally, the paper used empirical research methods to verify the hypothesis, we then got the following conclusions:1、The innovation champions in the supply chain network have a positive role in promoting the innovation performance of the entire network. Strengthening the technology management of an enterprise, and improving the technical capacity of technology champions will help the network to generate new technologies and to provide outstanding technical resources for mutual learning and communication between enterprises, so that technological innovation capability of the whole supply chain network is improved.2、The core company in the supply chain network generally plays the role of the power champion, therefore, to consolidate the core position of the power champion, and to enhance their core competencies are very important for improving the innovation ability of the entire supply chain network. In addition, power champions also undertakes the task of strategic leadership and strategic decision-making, therefore, strengthening the strategic capacity of power champions contribute to developing the competitive advantage of the entire network and improving the innovation performance.3、The innovation subjects in the supply chain network have big differences, and different companies have heterogeneous resources, therefore, enhancing the coordination capacity of the network champion in the supply chain network can make them play a greater role in maintaining relations and coordinating the network resources between members, so as to enhance the efficiency of the entire supply chain innovation network.4、The network learning and the effective inter-organizational communication have a positive effect on innovation performance. Establishing supply chain learning alliance and developing a good atmosphere of communication will help companies access to richer and more comprehensive knowledge, so that they can acquire what they need according to the demand of themselves and the market, and also help them properly handle the relationship between members of the network in the complex interactions, which can more efficiently and quickly to respond to the demand of the innovation.