A Comparative Study On Affecting Factors Of Innovation Performance Of SMEs In Eastern And Western Regions Of China Based On Embeddedness Theory

Difference in innovation performance of SMEs is one important reason of unbalanced economic development in eastern and western regions of China. For a long time, existing studies on affecting factors of innovation performance of SMEs have taken more emphasis on innovation investment and transformation efficiency, innovation capability, innovation network and human capital. In fact, human behaviors are always under the background of certain social relations. Innovation behaviors are always embedded in many of social relations but not only occurred in the enclosed area and then affected by these social relations. Many complex social relations act on the innovation behaviors of enterprises and then affect the innovation performance.Aiming at this phenomenon, the core proposition that this paper attempts to systematically explore and study is what kinds of factors contribute to the huge difference in innovation performance of SMEs in Eastern and Western Regions of China and what effect of these factors on innovation performance of SMEs.In this study, on the basis of studying the relevant literature review, comprehensively using the basic theory and research methods of management science, new economic sociology and behavioral science and combining with the actual situation of SMEs, the embeddedness hierarchy of innovation behaviors of SMEs is divided into environmental embeddedness, inter-organizational embeddedness and dyadic embeddedness and the model of affecting factors of innovation performance of SMEs is constructed. According to the research object and after screening the relevant scale and measurement items that domestic and foreign scholars having used, measurement items are revised and adjusted by using measurement data classification to collect data. In this paper. SPSS19.0and AMOS17.0are used to do empirical analysis. First, by using structural equation modeling, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, model fitting test and multi-group analysis of innovation environment, innovation network and inter-organizational trust are run to identify those factors which have significant effect on innovation performance of SMEs from these three levels of factors. Then, by using independent samples t-test method, these affecting factors of innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China are compared to verify whether there are differences. Finally, by using linear mixed modeling, multi-level data analysis is run to further comprehensively study the direct effect and regulatory effect of innovation environment, innovation network and inter-organizational trust on innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China.This study has concluded as follows:(Ⅰ) social culture environment, government service environment, market environment and educational technology environment of innovation environment are macro factors that causes differences in innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China;(2) relationship duration of innovation network is meso factor that causes differences in innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China;(3) staff communication of inter-organizational trust is micro factor that causes differences in innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China;(4) innovation environment has different degree effect on innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China;(5) innovation network has different degree effect on innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China;(6) inter-organizational trust has different degree effect on innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China;(7) the interaction effect of innovation environment on innovation network and inter-organizational trust is significant.The innovation of this study can be summarized as follows:(1) constructing the model of affecting factors of three levels of embeddedness of innovation performance of SMEs;(2) using linear mixed modeling to analyze the direct effect and regulatory effect of affecting factors at different levels on innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China;(3) systematicly comparing the factors of innovation environment, innovation network and inter-organizational trust affecting the innovation performance of SMEs in eastern and western regions of China and the effect of these factors on innovation performance.