| This article studies the effect of the technology intermediaries in China’s industrial cluster for the performance of technological innovation in enterprises and its mechanism. Nowadays, individual businesses are unable to fully grasp the latest information of market and technical knowledge to complete the linked innovation, with global competition and network economy growing. Thus, open innovation is gradually replacing the traditional closed innovation, and becomes enterprises’ key technological innovation mode in seeking the competitive advantages. The researches of innovative network, strategic alliance, and organized study, focus on innovative network’s structure or the effect of networking relationship for improving enterprises’ technological innovation performance. This issue has aroused a heated discussion in management field. Among them, some scholars are concerned about an important kind of source of innovative resource in cluster-technology intermediaries, and have made a very deep theoretical study and empirical testing about its possible function and internal mechanism. However, the study on the effect of technology intermediaries for enterprises’ technological innovation performance, still have the following problems:Firstly, at the macro-level, have technology intermediaries in China’s industrial clusters made a contribution to facilitating the cluster’s innovation performance as a whole? Although there have been some theoretical discussions on this problem, they lack the appropriate empirical evidence. Secondly, at the middle-level, why the technology intermediaries such as laboratories or research platform in universities are selected innovation partners by Chinese enterprises? Thirdly, at the micro-level, what types of enterprises can maximize the use of technology intermediaries, in order to improve their innovation performance more?The problems above don’t only have practical significance, but also profound theoretical value. This article argues that the three levels of problems have a mutual articulation in logic. Therefore, based on the review of innovative network, the risks of strategic alliance and enterprises’dynamic capabilities, the article constructs a cross-level analytical framework, analyzing the effect of technology intermediaries for enterprises’innovation performance and related mechanisms systematically.Through a series of theoretical deduction and empirical research(regression analysis, multiple case studies, exploratory factor analysis, structural equation modeling), the article revolves around the technology intermediaries as an entry point, drawing the following four important conclusions:(1) In the context of industrial clusters, the article discusses the effect of the structural network characteristics of clusters (number of internal technology intermediaries and the degree of industrial concentration) for the clusters’ overall innovation performance. The number of technology intermediaries is treated as a signature of different industrial clusters’ network heterogeneity. This article summarizes the main mechanism of technical intermediary in the transmission of information within the cluster, cost reduction, resource integration, and proposes research hypotheses, combined with the existing research. By analyzing cross-sectional data of17industrial clusters in Hangzhou(in Zhejiang Province) in2012and making multiple regression analysis, I verify the underlying assumptions and find that there is a positive relationship between the number of technical intermediaries and the performance of technological innovation in clusters. This proves that technology intermediaries plays a very active and innovative " drive" role in alliance.(2) The present studies have shown that the existing technology intermediaries has a positive impact to on enterprises’ innovation, but not illustrated how technology intermediaries play its role in the innovation process, also failed to take the differences between enterprises on the impact of technology intermediaries into account (Hu Zhenya,2012; Klerkx&Leeuwis,2009; Smedlund,2005). This article will discuss the role of technology intermediaries with enterprises as an innovation main body, alliance as an external condition, considering the role of technology intermediaries to enhance the innovation performance of the core enterprises and improve the innovation performance of the alliance. To be specific, integration of strategic alliance (macro), innovative network (middle) and dynamic capacity (micro) has been made. And an analysis framework about the mutual relationship of technology intermediaries and performance of technological innovation in alliance has been constructed. This doesn’t only supply a new analysis framework for technological innovation or strategic alliance, but also deeper the study of technology intermediaries.(3) In the context of enterprises and technology intermediaries alliance, this article explores the relationship between the business alliance capabilities, networking relationship strength and enterprise’s technological innovation performance. We classify business alliance capabilities into network capacity and learning ability, and propose the related hypothesis according to the relationship between network strength and it, and between networking relationship strength and the enterprise’s technological innovation. In enterprise field research, we set5language questions items to measure enterprise’s networking relationship strength and learning capacity particularly. After exploring type factor analysis, we test corresponding assumptions, combining180samples of structure equation model. The results indicate that:network relationship capacity has a positive relationship with networking relationship strength between enterprises and technology intermediaries; learning ability has a positive relationship with networking relationship strength between enterprises and technology intermediaries; networking relationship strength has a positive relationship with the performance of enterprises’ exploitative innovation; the relationship between networking relationship strength and the performance of explorative innovation is not remarkable.(4) We discuss the networking relationship strength’s mediating influence between alliance capability and innovation performance in enterprises. Combined with structural equation modeling, we analyze the impact of networking relationship strength on alliance capability and innovation performance in enterprises. Results show that in the context of enterprises and technology intermediaries allying, alliance capability has few direct impacts on the performance of exploitative innovation and explorative innovation in enterprises. Indirect effects account for a high proportion of the total effect. Thus, we prove that the enterprise alliance works for enterprises’ technological innovation through relationship strength (technical intermediary) as a total intermediary role.Above all, this article conducts a comprehensive and careful investigation about different technological innovation in enterprises with different strategies around technology intermediaries. At the same time, these conclusions are innovative in the following aspects:(1)Innovations in analytical framework:This article combines the related theories of strategic alliance (macro), innovation network (middle) and dynamic capacities (micro). First, we make a deduction about the role of technology intermediaries in alliance innovation from the macro level; second, we analyze the evolution of core enterprises, choosing technology intermediaries and innovation network in the process of forming innovation alliance, using exploration analysis mode through multiple cases; third, we use dynamic capacity theory to analyze the inner process of core enterprise; thereby, systematic analysis on the mutual relationship of technology intermediaries and innovation performance of alliance is constructed. This doesn’t only reveal the mechanism of technology intermediaries’ impact on innovation performance of strategic alliance from multiple aspects, but also offers a new analytical framework for research for strategic alliance, etc.(2) Innovations in analytical perspective:Different from the past scholars’ static considerations on the impact of technology intermediaries on strategic alliance, this article studies the characteristics in different sections and inner forming mechanism of core enterprises, choosing technology intermediaries and their innovative network, based on three cases. It reveals around enterprises, particularly the core enterprises, and any networking changes of technology intermediaries will affect or propel the technological development of the alliance as a whole. Thus, we turn the middle perspective (overall alliance) into micro perspective (core enterprises drive the formation of innovative network), and explore the mechanism of the impact of technology intermediaries on the alliance’ innovation more extensively and effectively.(3) Innovations in research thinking:We highlight the idea of treating the network between enterprises and technology intermediaries as the outcome of enterprises’ capabilities and strategic resource of propelling innovations. Based on this, we explore and confirm the positive relationship between alliance capability and innovation performance, and the intermediary role of networking relationship between alliance capability and innovation performance in enterprises. We point out that with the effect of technology spillovers and Information Bridge in technology intermediaries, the networking relationship between enterprises and technology intermediaries may promote explorative innovation and incremental innovation in enterprises at the same time. |
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