Empirical Study on the Relationships between Innovation Networking and Knowledge Acquisition Based on Firm Resources

摘要

More and more high-technology new ventures have been taking part in the inter-firm cooperation innovation network aiming for smooth knowledge acquisition and high innovation performance. Empirical observations on the use of inter-firm network ties seem to guide managers in two directions. Firstly, external network ties are important and beneficial to innovations in the knowledge acquisition. Secondly, inter-firm relationships may constrain a firm's innovation knowledge acquisition and the following technology innovation being of undue embedded network ties. Much research effort has been expended to explain why inter-firm network ties or alliances engender different effects on different firms. However, it has not been fully uncovered about the paradox of how and when innovation network facilitate or constrain entrepreneurial activities, such as technology innovation. To address these issues, we study the relationship between inter-firm innovation network and knowledge acquisition, and go further into the question of the impact of firms' resources condition on this relationship in the context of China transitional economy. Specifically, this dissertation explores these issues by investigating the following framing questions: (1) What is the effect of innovation network on innovation knowledge acquisition; (2) What is the moderating effect of firm resources on the relationship of innovation network and innovation knowledge acquisition. Building on the literatures, this study proposes a model that suggests there is a significant relationship between innovation knowledge acquisition and the innovation network, and this relationship is moderated by the firm resources. Using survey approach, this study examined ventures from high-technology industries located in economic and technological development zone, and we gathered information about innovation networking and inter-firm knowledge acquisition via questionnaires. Statistic analysis methods are conducted on the valid data. These methods include Pearson correlation, factor analysis conducted to verify the measures validation, and multivariate regression used to test the hypotheses and modify the concept model. The results show that innovation network is related positively to the knowledge acquisition, and the relation is moderated by firm resources partially.