The Impact Of Collaborative R&D Network Structure On Dual Innovation

Due to the uncertainty of innovation and the limitation of internal resources,more and more enterprises choose to cooperate with others to improve technological innovation.For example,BYD cooperates with American Hybrid Electric Company to develop hydrogen fuel cell bus,Intel announces to cooperate with SAIC Group to develop automatic driving technology,Geely and Volvo cooperate again to set up Technical joint venture company.The overall structure formed by these enterprises through formal or informal collaborative relationships constitutes the collaborative network of technological innovation.However,the research finds that this kind of collaborative innovation is not always effective,and resources are not always allocated effectively and reasonably in the collaborative network of technological innovation.The network structure characteristics such as network relationship and network location in the collaborative network will affect the allocation of network resources,resulting in the difference of enterprises' acquisition of resources,knowledge and information,which will lead to the difference of enterprises' innovation performance.The structural characteristics of collaborative R& D network is one of the important factors affecting the technological collaborative innovation of enterprises.Many scholars begin with the characteristics of network structure to study the relationship between enterprise innovation.However,there is no unified conclusion about the relationship between collaborative R& D network structure and enterprise innovation.Therefore,this study divides the innovation into two kind and studies the relationship between them.Because enterprises depend on existing knowledge and technology differently,exploratory innovation focusing on pursuing independent achievements and utilizing innovation focusing on improving existing knowledge will inevitably be formed in the process of innovation.In the process of collaborative R&D,knowledge flow is accompanied by the whole process of collaborative innovation between industry,University and research institutes.It is through knowledge acquisition,transfer,application and feedback that all innovators promote knowledge sharing,flow and creation.Knowledge flow can exert the "externality" and "spillover effect",and its effect directly affects the success or failure of collaborative innovation of industry,University and research.In this context,based on social network theory and enterprise innovation theory,this paper attempts to integrate collaborative R&D network structure,knowledge flow and enterprise innovation into the same research framework,and analyze the moderating role of knowledge flow in collaborative R&D network structure and enterprise dualistic innovation.Based on network structure's quqantity and quality dimensions,this paper chooses two characteristic variables of network structure: network connection strength and network centrality to study the moderating effect of knowledge flow on the relationship between cooperative R&D network structure and enterprise dualistic innovation.This paper takes China's new energy automobile enterprises asthe research object,downloads the patent data of new energy automobile enterprises from 2010 to 2017 on the official website of the State Intellectual Property Office,identifies the cooperative relationship,constructs a cooperative R&D network based on joint patent application between enterprises,and tests the hypothesis with regression model.The results show that: the linking intensity of network has no significant impact on utilizing innovation,but it has a significant inverted U-shaped effect on exploratory innovation;the degree of network centrality has a significant positive effect on utilizing innovation,and has a significant inverted U-shaped effect on exploratory innovation.it shows that the utilizing innovation responses to the linking intensity insensitively,and the improvement of utilizing innovation mostly depends on the existing technology of the enterprise itself and are insensitive to the frequency of communication with the outside world.Being in a favorable position in the network can promote the improvement of exploitative innovation.For exploratory innovation of enterprises,the linking intensity and network centrality of enterprises in collaborative R& D network should be appropriate.It is not that the higher the level,the better.However,to some degree,the higher level will have a negative impact on enterprises' innovation and will limit The development of independent innovation of enterprises.Knowledge flow positively regulates the impact of network centrality on exploitative innovation.Knowledge flow can strengthen the inverted U-shaped relationship between linking intensity,network centrality and exploratory innovation.It shows that strengthening the flow of knowledge inside and outside the network,and in a moderate degree of connectivity and centrality of collaborative R& D network,rapid knowledge flow can positively affect the independent innovation of enterprises.Based on this,the paper gives practical suggestions,and points out the shortcomings of the research and future research directions.