Research On The Relationship Between Knowledge Network,knowledge Combination And Breakthrough Innovation Performance

Under the background of globalization,innovation has become the key for firms to gain a foothold in the market.With the continuous research on innovation by scholars,the important role of breakthrough innovation for firms has emerged.Breakthrough innovation is the source of firms' long-term competitive advantage and the key to improve their innovation performance.Therefore,it is worth to study the driving factors of breakthrough innovation.Taking breakthrough innovation as the research focus,this thesis examines how structural holes in a researcher' knowledge network and knowledge combination(i.e.innovative recombinant and recombinant reuse)work on his breakthrough innovation performance.Using the patent data of Huawei,a leading,world-class ICT infrastructure and intelligent terminal provider in China,we examined and find out that both structural holes in the knowledge network and knowledge combination can work on researchers' breakthrough innovation directly;Structural holes in the knowledge network affect researchers' choice of knowledge combination,and further work on his/her breakthrough innovation: Researchers span more structural holes in the knowledge network,are more likely to adopt innovative recombinant,which can improve its breakthrough innovation performance.On the contrary,the lower the degree of spanning structural holes in the knowledge network,the more likely the researcher inclined to adopt knowledge recombinant reuse,which leads to lower breakthrough innovation performance.This thesis deepens the innovation theory based on network connection,brings the knowledge network,knowledge combination and breakthrough innovation into the same framework,explores the relationship among these,and clarifies the function mechanism between the structural characteristics of knowledge network and breakthrough innovation,thus filling the vacancy in the research on the relationship between knowledge network and breakthrough innovation.At the same time,the thesis focuses on the influence of knowledge combination on breakthrough innovation and explores the role of knowledge combination between knowledge network and breakthrough innovation.This thesis enriches the theory of network innovation,especially the relationship between network and breakthrough innovation.In practice,high-tech firms are taken as the object to explore the source of their breakthrough innovation,providing reference for the improvement of the performance of China's high-tech enterprises.