| With the rapid development of emerging digital technologies such as big data,cloud computing,and artificial intelligence,the digital economy has become an important engine for driving business development,innovation,and entrepreneurship.Digital entrepreneurship is leading the development of new industries,social system changes,and economic growth.However,not all digital entrepreneurial firms are able to achieve entrepreneurial success and rapid growth.Due to the liability of “newness and smallness”,most digital entrepreneurial firms often lack overall cognition and macro-control ability in the process of entrepreneurship,and their digital capability and level are generally low.Eventually,they can only be short-lived in the competition.Faced with the historical opportunities and major challenges brought by digital transformation,it has become a common concern for academics and practitioners to explore what important factors facilitate digital entrepreneurial firms to achieve value creation.The digital era is an era of value symbiosis,which needs a real vehicle to support it.This vehicle is a coopetitive symbiosis network,and digital entrepreneurial firms that tend to use the coopetitive network are more likely to establish new connections,discover new market opportunities,expand into new areas,and create greater value.However,the role of coopetition strategy for value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms has not been fully explored,and how to open the“black box” of coopetition strategy and value creation in the background of digital entrepreneurship has become critical.Therefore,in order to understand the internal mechanism of digital entrepreneurial firms to achieve value creation,it is urgent to reveal the path mechanism between coopetition strategy and value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms.Although coopetition strategy can effectively facilitate digital entrepreneurial firms’ efforts to achieve value creation,the specific paths between the two need to be further explored.In the digital economy,digital transformation requires firms to adjust their resource allocation according to the digital technology paradigm,and digital entrepreneurial firms can only create value through effective resource integration,so how to integrate resources becomes the core challenge for digital entrepreneurial firms to realize value creation.In order to open the “black box” of coopetition strategy and value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms,this paper first starts from the perspective of the value network,deconstructs value creation into the common value of the network and the individual value of the firm,integrates the views of resource-based theory and resource dependency theory,draws on the perspective of open innovation,combined with an exploratory multi-case study,and classifies resource integration in digital entrepreneurial firms according to the direction of inter-organizational resource(traditional and digital)flow into outbound resource integration and inbound resource integration.Outbound resource integration is classified into outbound resource supplement and outbound resource complement according to different attributes of resources,and inbound resource integration is classified into inbound resource optimization and inbound resource bricolage according to different degrees of planning of resource integration.In addition,environmental munificence is a key contingency factor affecting the relationship between coopetition strategy and resource integration in digital entrepreneurial firms.Therefore,based on the context of digital entrepreneurship,this study investigates the relationship between coopetition strategy,resource integration,environmental munificence and value creation.Specifically,this paper focuses on the following five aspects:(1)How does coopetition strategy affect different types of value creation?(2)How does coopetition strategy affect different types of resource integration?(3)What are the roles of different types of resource integration in the impact of coopetition strategy on value creation?(4)How does the common value of the network affect the individual value of the firm?(5)What is the role of environmental munificence in the relationship between coopetition strategy and resource integration?To explore the above questions,this paper selects four digital entrepreneurial firms in Changchun,Chengdu,and Hangzhou for an exploratory multi-case study,defining the concepts of coopetition strategy,resource integration,and value creation,and initially exploring the relationships among the constructs.After theoretical analysis and case studies,it is found that the coopetition strategy achieves different types of value creation through different types of resource integration.Based on this,this paper introduces environmental munificence,proposes corresponding research hypotheses,and constructs our theoretical model.A questionnaire survey was adopted,and a large-scale questionnaire was distributed to Jilin province,Heilongjiang province,Beijing city,and Jiangsu province;finally,356 valid questionnaires were obtained.This paper uses SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 24.0 software to test the data for descriptive statistics and correlation tests,non-response bias analysis and common method bias test,reliability and validity test,and to test the research hypotheses using multiple linear regression and the PROCESS analysis program developed by Hayes.It draws the following research conclusions:(1)Coopetition strategy has a positive effect on both the common value of the network and the individual value of the firm.(2)Coopetition strategy has a positive effect on outbound resource integration,which includes both outbound resource supplement and outbound resource complement,and inbound resource integration,which includes both inbound resource bricolage and inbound resource optimization.(3)Outbound resource integration plays a mediating role in the relationship between coopetition strategy and the common value of the network.Inbound resource integration plays a mediating role in the relationship between coopetition strategy and the individual value of the firm.(4)The common value of the network has a positive impact on the individual value of the firm.(5)Environmental munificence negatively moderates the relationship between coopetition strategy and outbound resource integration and between coopetition strategy and inbound resource integration.This paper aims to explore the mechanism of coopetition strategy on value creation in the context of digital entrepreneurship,and the theoretical contributions and innovations of the study are mainly reflected in the following three aspects:First,this study clarifies the definitions of coopetition strategy and value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms,and enriches and expands the theoretical study of coopetition strategy and value creation.It explores the role of the common value of the network on the individual value of the firm,providing a new perspective for understanding value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms and expanding the application of value network theory in the context of the digital economy.It also examines the explanatory and predictive roles of coopetition strategy on value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms,reveals the influence mechanism of coopetition strategy on value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms,and enriches the study of value creation mechanisms in digital entrepreneurial firms.Previous studies have mostly explored the value creation in the coopetition process in traditional scenarios and have focused on single value chain analysis such as a vertical or horizontal value chain in the study of inter-organizational coopetition.However,in the digital era,digital entrepreneurial firms need a coopetitive symbiosis network to support them,but few scholars have explored the mechanism of coopetition strategy on value creation in the digital entrepreneurial context from the perspective of value networks.This study clarifies the definitions and dimensions of coopetition strategy and value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms based on value network theory and explores the mechanism of coopetition strategy on the common value of the network and the individual value of the firm in digital entrepreneurial firms based on the value network perspective,which enriches and expands the relevant theoretical research on coopetition strategy and value creation.Second,this study breaks through the existing resource integration research paradigm,constructs a conceptual system of resource integration in digital entrepreneurial firms,and explores the relationship between coopetition strategy and the common value of the network and the individual value of the firm in digital entrepreneurial firms based on the internal theoretical logic of different types of resource integration.It also explores the relationship between coopetition strategy and the common value of the network and the individual value of the firm,which opens the “black box” between coopetition strategy and value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms and fills the gap in related research.Although resource-related theories represented by resource-based theory and resource dependency theory have been abundantly researched in traditional contexts,there is a lack of attention to the ways and internal mechanisms of resource integration in digital entrepreneurship contexts.The digital characteristics of the digital economy,such as strong interaction,openness,and boundlessness,promote the opening,integration,sharing,and flow of digital and traditional resources by all parties,and digital entrepreneurial firms can not only expand the pool of various factors and resources through the inside-out path to promote a larger-scale rationalization of resource allocation;they can also use the outside-in path to acquire external knowledge and resources and form the firm’s own resources through internal absorption and mastery.Based on value network theory,resource-based theory,and resource dependency theory,this study explores the relationship between coopetition strategy,outbound resource integration,inbound resource integration,the common value of the network,and the individual value of the firm and explores the mediating role of outbound resource integration between coopetition strategy and the common value of the network and the mediating role of inbound resource integration between coopetition strategy and the individual value of the firm,respectively.On the one hand,it makes up for the inadequacy of existing resource-related theories to fully explain the resource integration problem in the digital entrepreneurship context,expands the application of resource-based theory and resource dependency theory in the digital context,and lays the foundation for the study of resource integration in the digital context.On the other hand,it opens the“black box” from coopetition strategy to value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms and reveals the mediating path of coopetition strategy on value creation in digital entrepreneurial firms.Third,this study enriches the study of the boundary of coopetition strategy in the context of digital entrepreneurship,examines the moderating role of environmental munificence,explores the boundary conditions of coopetition strategy and outbound resource integration and coopetition strategy and inbound resource integration,respectively,and complements the study of the contingency role of environmental munificence in the context of the digital economy.Previous studies have mostly explored the boundary conditions of the mechanism of coopetition strategy based on traditional scenarios,but few studies have investigated the boundary of coopetition strategy in the context of digital entrepreneurship,and there is a lack of attention to the role of environmental munificence.Faced with the complex and changing environment in the digital economy,digital entrepreneurial firms with the liability of“newness and smallness” lack sufficient resources to meet the challenges of the digital era and are often dependent on environmental resources.Digital entrepreneurial firms need to adopt coopetition strategies to reduce their dependence on resources in an uncertain digital environment.Environmental munificence reflects the abundance of resources and opportunities available in the measured environment of digital entrepreneurial firms.The abundance of resources in the environment has a significant impact on the actions and decisions of digital entrepreneurial firms.A munificent environment can provide the necessary conditions for the production and operation activities of digital entrepreneurial firms,while a relatively low level of environmental munificence may have a restrictive effect on the development of firms.Digital entrepreneurial firms need to adjust the direction of coopetition strategy implementation according to the changes in environmental munificence on time,and only by correctly matching the strategy with the environment can digital entrepreneurial firms develop.Based on resource dependence theory,this study introduces environmental munificence as a moderating variable and investigates the moderating effect of environmental munificence on coopetition strategy and outbound resource integration and coopetition strategy and inbound resource integration,respectively.This study helps to reveal the role of environmental munificence in the relationship between coopetition strategy and resource integration in digital entrepreneurial firms and provides a new perspective to explore the boundary conditions of coopetition strategy in the context of digital entrepreneurship. |
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