The Relationship Between Network Location And Innovation Performance In The Evolution Of Global Innovation Networks

As high-tech industries require a diverse and complex knowledge and technology,it is difficult for enterprises to maintain their capacity for innovation.Therefore,enterprises need to make full use of external knowledge to maintain continuous competitive advantage,and the mode of innovation activities has already transformed from linear to network.The new paradigm of network innovation can effectively share information and complementary technologies to improve the innovation efficiency.Therefore,it is necessary to have a preliminary understanding of the structure and evolution characteristics of the innovation network,which is helpful to reveal the relationship between the technological subjects.Network locations which described as network resources are widely used now.Different enterprises connect network in different ways,which lead to the acquired resources and information also have different function on promoting innovation.Therefore,it has been the focus of how effectively use different network locations to obtain the required external knowledge to promote innovation activities for companies.At the same time,we can also use a certain degree of knowledge search ability to obtain external knowledge and breathe new life into new products and new technologies for enterprises.Therefore,it is necessary to further study the relationship between different network locations and innovation performance as well as the role of knowledge search ability in it,so as to help technological subjects to make use of collaborative innovation resources properly.Based on the patent data of the flat panel display field from 1999 to 2013,this paper analyzes the evolution and characteristics of the cooperative network every 5 years by combining patent analysis and social network analysis.Although the trend of cooperation scope among technical subjects in this industry increased first and then decreased,but the stability of alliance gradually enhanced and formed a stable cooperative innovation network.It is conducive for enterprises to identifying regions,technical fields,individual technical capabilities and changing trends in the network,so that they can have an in-depth understanding of the industry situation and find that innovation partners which located in different positions play different roles on innovation.This paper is based on this point,so as to systematically understand the impact of different network locations on innovation performance under the innovation network.Based on the two independent variables of the cooperative network such as network centrality and structure hole,this paper studies another two independent variables of core-periphery and intermediary on innovation performance.At the same time,this paper takes knowledge search ability as regulating variable to investigate whether effective external knowledge search ability can adjust the relationship between network location and innovation performance,which is helpful for enterprises to establish cooperative relations with others in the network,so as to obtain and integrate external knowledge resources for innovation.Furthermore,this paper uses the patent cooperation data of the flat panel display industry from 1999 to 2013 to build a cooperative network and carries on empirical analysis with SPSS multivariable regression analysis and social network method.The empirical result shows that :(1)the network location of network centrality(degree centrality,proximity centrality),core-periphery and middleman(representative,gatekeeper)are positively correlated with the innovation performance,while the structural hole negatively affects the innovation performance.(2)Knowledge search ability plays a positive regulating role in the influence of centrality,coreperiphery and representative on innovation performance,while a negative regulating role in the structure hole and gatekeeper on innovation performance.Based on the above analysis,the conclusion of this paper is helpful to further improve the research on the influence of different network locations on the innovation performance of enterprises,and to have a more comprehensive understanding of the importance of innovative network location and knowledge search ability on innovation performance.