Study On The Effects Of Small And Micro Enterprises' Intellectual Capital On Innovation Performance

In the time of the "new normal economy",Enterprises‘ innovation has gradually become an important source of impetus to promote the sustainable development of the economy of China,improve the core of competitiveness and promote the transformation of the modern economic system.Since innovation was first proposed by the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter and emphasized its role in the development of economic,a lot of researchers were attracted by the theory of innovation and its application in practice.Among them,the impact of intellectual capital on innovation performance in the era of knowledge economy has always been the focus of continuous issues in related fields.Resource-based theory is currently the main theory about intellectual capital and innovation performance research.Based on the resource-based theory,scholars generally believe that intellectual capital which is the most important strategic resource of an enterprise is the source of the power of organizational innovation and the necessary condition for an enterprise to obtain a competitive advantage.However,there is still no theory or research to answer clearly how intellectual capital affects innovation performance.Existing research on the relationship between intellectual capital and innovation performance mostly explores the role of enterprise intellectual capital on innovation from a static and isolated perspective.The resource-based theory explains why intellectual capital is the power for enterprises to maintain competitiveness and the source of innovation.However,if only relying on the theory of resource-based view,it cannot explain how the intellectual capital of the enterprise completes the internal development,and then transforms into innovation performance.Due to the lack of a reasonable theoretical explanation,there is a lack of in-depth analysis of the impact of intellectual capital on enterprise innovation in the existing literature.With the deep understanding of heterogeneous resources of enterprises,static and time-limited research perspectives have begun to be more questioned.Therefore,the tentative exploration and answer to this question is of great theoretical and practical significance.With the increasing pressure of economic structure upgrading and the slowdown of economic growth rate,enterprises are facing unprecedented competitive pressure.At the same time,the organizational structure is gradually flattened and the organizational boundaries are increasingly blurred.The use of external resources by enterprises has become more and more common,and it is obvious that enterprises depend on foreign cooperation.With the rapid development of technology and the change of market,the innovation behavior relying solely on the enterprise itself is restricted;instead,open innovation becomes the focus of practice.Compared with large enterprises,although small and micro enterprises have stronger innovation demand and motivation,they cannot support the whole process of innovation due to their lack of endowment,so they rely more on the external environment for innovation activities.The open innovation environment also requires organization members to play a subjective initiative,take more responsibilities,actively search for potential opportunities in the external environment,and promote the synchronous updating of enterprises while realizing self-worth.Therefore,focusing on the basic problem of "how intellectual capital affects innovation performance",this study integrates resource-based theory,dynamic capability theory of enterprise,and knowledge-based theory.Through literature review,theoretical deduction and statistical analysis,it attempts to uncover the "black box" of intellectual capital affecting innovation performance.Based on the research and analysis framework of "resource — dynamic capability—performance",in the conceptual model of intellectual capital and innovation performance,two intermediary variables,external knowledge acquisition,and proactive behavior are introduced.At the same time,based on the theory of the social exchange relationship,the employment relationship model of enterprises is regarded as the regulating variable of the model.This paper holds that intellectual capital affects the innovation performance of enterprises through the multi-step intermediary effect through the subjective dynamic ability of proactive behavior and external knowledge acquisition.At the same time,the influence path is regulated by different employment relationship models.First of all,I sort out the relevant theory and research results by combing the existing research literature at home and abroad.Then,after discussion and summary,the possible internal and external conduction paths are determined,so as to clarify all the constructs needed in this study,and conduct corresponding induction and analysis for each construct.Finally,under the guidance of theory,an integrated model is constructed and the corresponding assumptions in the model are deduced.In the stage of data collection,the relevant data of corporate small and micro enterprises are obtained through questionnaire survey,and the samples cover 18 provinces and 4 municipalities directly under the central government.The interviewees were mainly senior managers and middle-level managers.According to the job characteristics of the respondents,questionnaire 1 and questionnaire 2 were filled out respectively.When the data obtained from the survey meet the requirements of statistical analysis in terms of reliability,validity and common method deviation,correlation analysis,regression analysis and bootstrap analysis are carried out on the data.The hypotheses in the model are proved and the following conclusions are summarized:(1)The level of the intellectual capital of Small and Micro Enterprises in China has a significant role in promoting innovation performance: Enterprises should increase the investment and accumulation of intellectual capital,change the business model and philosophy of enterprises,form the "people-oriented" development direction of enterprise intellectual capital,and become "knowledge-based Small and Micro Enterprises ".(2)Dynamic capabilities such as active behavior and external knowledge acquisition of organizational members are conducive to enterprise innovation performance.Intellectual capital acts as a mediator between active behavior and external knowledge acquisition : Intellectual capital stimulates "innovation stimulus response" to micro individuals of enterprises,thus affecting innovation performance.Small and Micro Enterprises should attach importance to cross-border knowledge acquisition strategy,maintain an open and inclusive innovation atmosphere,encourage organizational members to actively explore the environment and find problems,rationally allocate resources,and form an effective innovation driven mechanism.(3)With the improvement of the employment relationship model of enterprises,the members' subjective cognition of the organization and themselves have been enhanced.The positive effects of intellectual capital,active behavior and external knowledge acquisition on enterprise innovation have been strengthened: The mode of mutual investment employment relationship should be valued by enterprises.Meanwhile,it should try to avoid the adverse impact of quasi transaction contract employment relationship on enterprises,ensure high level of work contribution requirements,and strive for the unity of employees' enterprise values.The characteristics and innovations of this study are mainly reflected in the following aspects:Firstly,In terms of research content: the existing researches pay more attention to the direct promotion of intellectual capital on innovation,and regard intellectual capital(or different dimensions)as the direct antecedent variable that causes the innovation performance of enterprises,which leads to the lacks the discussion on the influence mechanism of intellectual capital.Through the theoretical analysis of the impact of intellectual capital on innovation performance,this paper introduces two ordered mediating variables,external knowledge acquisition and active behavior,into the theoretical framework,and constructs a new path of intellectual capital influencing innovation performance.The research shows that external knowledge acquisition and proactive behavior are effective ways to explain the influence mechanism.Secondly,in the framework of analysis: The existing researches regard intellectual capital as a "black box" and use a static resource-based perspective.By integrating the resource-based theory and the dynamic capability theory of enterprises,this study proposes a research and analysis framework of "resource — dynamic capability— performance",which enriches and expands the research perspective of resource-based view on performance.In today's rapidly changing external environment and fierce market competition,the static and heterogeneous nature of resource-based theory and the time limit of resource-based theory have been questioned by some scholars.Since the dynamic capability theory of enterprises explains the reasons for the differences in enterprise performance from a dynamic perspective,by integrating the resource-based theory with the dynamic capability theory,combined with the particularity of the research samples,this paper discusses how the enterprise resources are transformed into enterprise performance from the dynamic perspective,and a series of problems such as what specific capabilities play a role in different types of enterprises and enterprise performance.Thirdly,from the perspective of research: Based on the theory of social exchange,this paper discusses the moderating role of employment relationship model in the process of intellectual capital influencing innovation performance from the perspective of the organization — member relationship,which enriches the understanding of the influencing factors of enterprise innovation.In the past,the research on innovation performance mainly focused on the discussion of antecedent variables,emphasizing the influence of enterprise's "endowment" on innovation.The relevant research results lack of operational and practical suggestions to a certain extent.Based on social exchange theory and dynamic capability theory,this paper analyzes the possible differences in the internal development process of enterprises' intellectual capital under different employment relationship modes,expands the research on innovation performance from the perspective of enterprise micro and behavior,enriches the cognition of enterprise innovation theory on its influencing factors,and provides practical suggestions for enterprise managers.Fourth,on the research object: Due to the high risk and cost in the whole process of innovation,large and medium-sized enterprises have been regarded as the main body of innovation for a long time,becoming the main research object of scholars and the main object of national innovation attention.But,by 2017,more than 75%of Chinese technological innovations and more than 80% of new products have been completed by Small and Micro Enterprises in China,which are indispensable for innovation-driven development strategies.Due to the needs of enterprise survival and development,Small and Micro Enterprises have stronger innovation motivations.At the same time,in the practice of innovation,Small and Micro Enterprises also face many problems that are universal but difficult to solve because of being ignored.As the new force of national economic development,large-scale small and micro enterprises are the new driving force of economic development and innovation at present and in the future in China.Therefore,it is of great theoretical significance and practical value to apply the research and analysis framework of "resources—dynamic capability— performance" to analyze the innovation mechanism of small and micro enterprises.