Research On Impact Of Knowledge Spillover On Firms’ R&D Strategies In Supply Chain

The firms’ R&D and innovation is very important to improve firms’competitive advantage. But, the knowledge which firms can obtain from R&D may overflow outside,which will decrease its own competitive advantage.However, in resent few years, an increasing number of scholars find that it is not necessary for the firms’ pay much attention to the control of knowledge spillovers, in contrast, they believe appropriate knowledge spillovers is good for the R&D firms. In this seemingly contradictory situation,whether the firms’ should Increase R&D investment? whether the firms’should control knowledge spillovers? How do knowledge spillovers influence the firms’R&D strategy in the end?Therefore, in order to further study these issues,we establish a supply chain model which include an integrated enterprise and a non-integrated enterprise. In our model,the upstream division of the integrated firm is a monopolist, and produces an input, which is essential for the production of the final goods. The integrated firm and the non-integrated enterprise compete in the product market. At the same time, both the integrated and nonintegrated firm engage in cost-reducing R&D, and there is a mutual knowledge spillovers between them. Through the analysis of the model, the main results obtained are as follows:Firstly, the increase of the knowledge spillovers from integrated firm to non-integrated firm don’t affect the enthusiasm of the integrated firm’s R&D. On the contrary, the knowledge spillovers promote the integrated firm’s R&D. Therefore, we consider that the firms will not entirely prevent the knowledge spillovers when they conduct R&D.Secondly, for the non-integrated firms, only when the coefficient of product differentiation and the rate of the integrated firm’s knowledge spillover within a certain range, do the knowledge spillovers of non-integrated firm not affect the enthusiasm of its own R&D. If not, the firm tend to overflow less knowledge. Thirdly, even if the presence of knowledge spillovers, the firms may not absorb the knowledge spillovers of other firms. Under certain conditions of product differentiation, with the improvement of knowledge spillovers from the non-integrated firm to integrated firm, the production of integrated firm will decrease with the improvement of the integrated firm’s knowledge spillovers. So, in this condition, the integrated firm reduce the absorption of knowledge.Finally, we cites the Samsung Electronics and Apple’s case and then explain the relationship between the two companies through the use of this paper’s results, and we further expect the two companies’operations.In this paper, it may be a new reference of theory for the research of firms’ R&D strategy, because the knowledge spillover, the degree of product differentiation and wholesale prices are its influencing factors. At the same time, it provides practical guidance role for firms of what R&D strategy should it take in the condition of knowledge spillovers.