Asymmetry Of International R&D Alliance,Technology Knowledge Acquisition,and Innovation Catch-Up Of Latecomer Firms In An Emerging Economy

With the rapid change of technology and market environment,strategic alliances increasingly become an important means for enterprises to obtain external knowledge and resources.Faced with technology and market weaknesses,latecomer firms need to build international R&D alliances with leading multinational companies to obtain technical knowledge and achieve innovation catch-up,due to lack of internal resources and capacity.However,because of the large gap of technology and market ability between latecomer firms and multinational companies,the international R&D alliance formed by both sides usually has asymmetric characteristics.In fact,the effect of innovation catch-up in latecomer firms also has great difference.Therefore,from the perspective of latecomer firms,exploring in the context of emerging economic,latecomer firms how to benefit through the international asymmetric R&D alliance is of great significance.On the one hand,the asymmetric R&D alliance affects the technical knowledge acquisition of latecomer firms.In the asymmetric alliance,the difference types of dependencies between enterprises have difference effects on the technical knowledge acquisition of latecomer firms,thus affecting their benefits acquired from the alliance.On the other hand,the complex and unique institutional and market environment of emerging economics have spawned a number of unique innovative activities and catch-up patterns.Due to the dual dependence of technology and market,the latecomer firms often need to take into account the affordable value innovation and radical innovation in the field of product innovation,which makes these two innovative activities become extremely important in the emerging market.At the same time,the institutional environment of the emerging market has a profound impact on strategic choice of latecomer firms,which is a key factor that can not be neglected in the research of latecomer firms' innovation catch-up.This research focuses on the core issue of how latecomer firms benefit from the asymmetric international R&D alliance under the background of emerging economies,and puts forward the conceptual model of "dependency-technology knowledge acquisition-product innovation",and then tests the theoretical assumptions using 245 sample data.The results show that the dependence advantage of latecomer firms in asymmetric alliance has a positive effect on the acquisition of their mature technology knowledge,and the dependence disadvantage of latecomer firms has a negative effect on their emerging technology knowledge acquisition.Besides,the joint dependence of latecomer firms and multinational companies has a positive effect on both mature and emerging technology knowledge acquisition.At the same time,the mature technology knowledge acquisition of latecomer firms has a positive effect on their affordable value innovation,and the emerging technology knowledge acquisition has a positive effect on their radical product innovation as well.In addition,institutional support has no significance effect on the relationship between technology knowledge acquisition and product innovation,but has a significance impact on product innovation of latecomer firms.Through the study of research model and empirical tests,the thesis has contributed to the relevant management theory and practice.First,the contribution to the resource dependence theory and international R&D alliance research.Studying the influence of asymmetric dependence and joint dependence on latecomer firms' technology knowledge acquisition simultaneously,can expand and enrich the research of resource dependence theory and international R&D alliance.Second,the contribution to latecomer firms'innovation catch-up research.Considering the dual resource dependence dilemma of latecomer firms,this thesis explore the influence of technology knowledge acquisition on affordable value innovation and radical innovation,which can help to more fully depict the path of innovation catch-up in emerging economies.Third,the contribution to the innovation strategy research and institutional theory.To explore and test the effect of unique institutional environment on latecomer firms' innovation catch-up can enrich the study of institutional theory.In addition,this thesis can also provide some suggestions and inspiration for managers of latecomer firms and relevant government departments.