| Recently,the improvement of independent innovation capability is considered to be a vital national strategy in China.Increasing firms’ product innovation capability and new product development(NPD)performance is crucial for firms to realize sustainable development,and for a country to grasp the opportunities of the new round of science and technological revolution.In high-tech industries,NPD is a highly complex innovation project,which is difficult for firms to accomplish it in isolation.They must engage with different partners to acquire external complementary resources to stay abreast of competition.As such,standard-setting alliance networks,created by inter-organization linkages,have become important channels for firms to sponsor formal industry standards and access external resources.Different network position provides differential opportunities for network resource acquisition,having important influence on firm product innovaton activities.Therefore,it is criucial to study how firms can improve their innovation capability and NPD performance in the processes of standardization collaborations from network structural embeddedness perspective.Previous studies of standard-setting alliance have highlighted firms’ incentives of joining standard-setting alliances and benefits of participation in such alliances,However,as for how the structural embeddedness features of standar d-setting alliance network affect high-tech firms’ NPD performance are still underexplored.Besides,because of the difficulty of obtaining standard-setting alliance and new product data,few studies have explored relationship between standard-setting alliance network and firm NPD performance empirically.Therefore,this paper combines the knowledge-based view and the economics of standard,using social network analysis and econometric models to explore the formation mechanism of standard-setting alliance network,and the influencing mechanism of network structural embeddedness on firm NPD performance.Specifically,this paper examines the mediating role of knowledge integration capabiltity and the moderating role of network resource endowment on the relationship between network structural embeddedness and NPD performance.Hypotheses are tested based on a panel data of vehicle manufacturers from the Chinese automotive industry.The main contents include:Firstly,analyzing the formation and structural embeddedness features of the standard-setting alliance network.At first this paper analyzes firms’ motives for standardization collaboration,and establishing a gambling model to analyze the conditions for the formation of standardization collaborative relations.Then this paper discusses the organizing patterns for the standard-setting alliance network,analyzes the network evolution process based on the life circle theory,and concludes the driving force mechanisms for network evolution.Besides,the key struct ural embeddedness features of the standard-setting alliance network and the resources attached are analyzed.In addition,the standard-setting alliance networks of Chinese automobile industry are established to show the real evolution process and the chang e of firms’ network position.Secondly,discussing the direct impact of standard-setting alliance network structural embeddedness on firm NPD performance.This paper points out that the structural embeddedness features of standard-setting alliance networks can affect embedded firms’ performance in at least two ways,through inter-organizational learning and social capital building.Based on the above analysis,this paper analyzes the influential mechanism of network centrality and structural holes on NPD performance.Based on the panel data of Chinese automobile industry,the empirical results indicate that firm’s centrality in standard-setting alliance network is positively related to firm’s number of new products,negatively related to firm’s time to bri ng the new product to market;structural holes spanned by a firm in standard-setting alliance network is negatively related to the company’s number of new products,positively related to the firm’s new product speed to market.Thirdly,analyzing the mediating role of firm knowledge integration capability in the relationship between standard-setting alliance network structural embeddedness and firm NPD performance.According to the resource-capability-performance path,this paper claims that knowledge integration capability can be divided into technology diversification capability and standardization capability.And then mainly analyzes the mediating roles of technology diversification capability and standardization capability.The empirical analysis results show that firm’s centrality and structural holes in standard-setting alliance network have effect on number of new products mainly through technology diversification capability,while affecting new product speed to market mainly through technology standardization capability.Fourthly,introducing network resource endowment factors to construct a more complete analysis framework,analyzing the contingent influence of network resource endowment on the relationship between network embeddedness and NPD performa nce.Base on a social network perspective,this paper claim that network resource endowment can be reflected by network resource influence which is related to the network actors’ status composition,and network resource heterogeneity which is related to network actor type composition.And then analyzing the moderating roles of network resource influence and network resource heterogeneity respectively,and putting forward corresponding research hypotheses.The study shows that network resource influence negative moderates the effect of centrality on firm NPD performance,while positively moderates the effect of structural holes on firm NPD performance;networke resource heterogeneity exhibits opposite moderating effects compared with network resource influence.Finally,based on the empirical research results and the theretical analyses,this paper discusses the practical implication for firm NPD practice,and proposes national and indusrial policy suggestions to promote positive development of industrial standard-setting alliance networks,and to improve whole industrial innovation level.This study goes beyond the focus of single standard-setting alliance analysis.By observing the effectiveness of the structural embeddedness features of firms’ standard-setting alliance networks,forming a framework of “network structural embeddedness——knowledge integration capability——NPD performance”,developing theoretical linkages between network structure and network content in the innovation process,this study extends the literature of standardization collaboration,network embeddedness,knowledge integration and recombinatory search,and opens the black box of “interorganizational network——innovation performance” further.Besides,the large sample data of automobile industry is valuable for further related research.The findings also have importance managerial implications on how to improve firm NPD performance by participating standard-setting alliances and how to make scientific policies to enhance the levels of indust rial standardization and innovation. |
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