The Research On The Effects Of Linking Capability On Performance Growth And Variability

In the past decade,with the development of digital technology,new business models of multi-organization and inter-chain are emerging,such as Sharing Economy,Open Innovation platform,and the Internet of Things.The changes in the digital economy era pose great challenges to the expansion and advancement of corporate value creation.Specifically,the value creation method relying solely on the company's own resources is increasingly unsustainable.Then,the ability to cross-channel,cross-industry,and even inter-chaining has been significant for enterprise to break internal resource limitations,and achieve the coordination of internal and external resource.It is also the key for companies to grasp the new round of digital transformation and upgrading opportunities.In other words,a firm's ability to expand external value chains around consumer needs,and to integrate and utilize internal and external resources has become the core of a firm's occupation in the digital economy era.This capability is different from enterprise supply chain management ability and network capability.It is a dynamic ability to link external elements around consumer demand,realize the flow of enterprise information and knowledge,and integrate,build and reshape internal and external resources,that is,enterprise linking capability.The level of the enterprise's linking capability is related to the difference in information flow and resource acquisition within and outside the organization have a non-negligible impact on the performance of the enterprise.Therefore,firms try to accelerate the flow of internal and external resources through cultivating the linking capabilities,in order to realize value creation,and maintain the competitive advantage in the digital economy era.Unfortunately,not all companies can obtain the expected economic benefits from linking capability.For a long time,many scholars have explored the mechanism and impact of a single relationship connection and its effect on innovation performance from the perspective of internal and external resource utilization and management.Other studies have also analyzed the ability of the network relationship management from the perspective of external network embedding.Although many scholars believe that open organization and external links can help companies obtain more external heterogeneous resources,which is conducive to the improvement of corporate innovation performance.However,in recent years,some studies have proposed that based on the paradox of openness,organizational openness and external chains will inevitably expose enterprises to the external environment,resulting in the leakage of resources and knowledge,or the potential for excessive dependence on external resources.Then,the question of how an enterprise's ability to link external factors has an impact on its performance outcomes has not been consistently answered.This article follows the logical main line of “linking capability--corporate performance”,based on dynamic capability theory,using text semantic association analysis,exploratory case studies,scale development,questionnaire survey,econometric model and other methods,combined with first-hand research data and public indicators,to carry out the empirical testing to explore the direct effects of the company's linking capability on performance growth and variability.And This study aim to discuss the matching effect of the enterprise's marketing capability,technology-related capability and linking capability and how the configuration of capabilities impact on a firm's performance growth and variability.The main contents are as follows:First,the concept,dimensional structure and micro foundation of the linking capability are clarified.Linking capability emphasizes that the enterprise integrates various stakeholders into the value chain,and takes consumer needs as the core to reintegrate the dispersed information and resources into its value creation.It shows a strong decentralization feature and opening.The opening of boundaries,on the other hand,the node management of the external value chain extends to the inside and outside of the industry.And the link nodes are not only involved in upstream and downstream organizations in the supply chain,but also the relationship with external organization in terms of the ecological chain of cooperation,no longer limited to the supply relationship.This emphasizes the importance of a firm's capability of external value chain management.The core and essence of linking capability lies in emphasizing the symbiotic and collaborative relationship and promoting the flow of information and resources between organizations.Second,the measurement of linking capability is developed.Based on the case study and literature review,the measurement items of linking capability are developed,considered and purified.Finally,linking capability measurement scale with good reliability and validity is obtained.The scale includes two dimensions of broad linking capability and deep linking capability,with a total of eight items.Third,the study examined the direct effect of linking capability on performance growth and performance variability.Our results show that enterprise depth linking capability has a significant positive effect on performance growth,but does not have a significant impact on performance variability;extensive linking capability on performance variability is positive,but no significant impact on performance growth.Fourth,from the perspective of enterprise capability matching,the matching effect of market capability and technical capability in the relationship between link capability and performance growth and variability is examined.The results suggest that the combination of enterprise technical capability and deep linking capability is conducive to performance growth,and is conducive to reducing performance volatility.However,the combination of market-related capability and breadth linking capability does not have a significant effect on performance growth,but is conducive to reducing performance variability.Finally,from the perspective of external environment matching,the effect boundary of broad link ability and deep link ability on performance growth and fluctuation is examined.Industry digitization increases the positive effect of deep linking capabilities on performance growth;meanwhile,industry digitization also increases the positive effect of broad linking capabilities on performance variability.In general,this study rooted in the management practice of Chinese enterprises,and has innovatively explored the connotation,dimensional structure,microscopic foundation and measurement tools of enterprise's linking capability,which has enriched the research on dynamic capability theory.On this basis,this research further innovatively explores the mechanism of corporate linking capability on corporate performance growth and variability,building a theoretical relationship between corporate linking capability and performance growth and variability in the digital age,and emphasizing the linking capability as one of the important dynamic capabilities.This study opens the black box of link capability's effect on corporate performance outcomes,and enriches the dynamic capability theory and openness paradox.Enterprise linking capability does not necessarily bring about performance growth,and there are complementary effects and substitution effects with the enterprise's technology-related capability and market-related capability,revealing the“double-edged sword” mechanism of enterprise linking capability.In addition,the research answers key questions about how companies in different industries should build linking capabilities,and it has a guiding significance for enterprise linking management practices.The conclusion of this study provides managers with an important guideline for re-examining linking capabilities to seize transformation and development opportunities in the digital economy era.