Knowledge search modes and innovation performance: The moderating role of strategic R&D orientation

ABSTRACT

Prior studies implicitly assume that knowledge search modes are homogeneous, and little is known about the impacts of specific search modes on innovation. Drawing upon the knowledge search literature, we differentiate among four types of search modes and analyze their impacts on innovation performance. Moreover, we enrich the theoretical framework by recognising the moderating role of strategic R&D orientation in affecting the relationship between specific types of search modes and innovation performance. Using a unique dataset of 418 Chinese firms, we find that, except for inward licensing, value chain search, capital search, and industry-university-research institute collaboration (IUR collaboration) exert positive effects on innovation performance. Moreover, the empirical results indicate that a strategic R&D orientation amplifies the positive effects of value chain search and IUR collaboration while it mitigates the negative effect of inward licensing on innovation performance.

KEYWORDS:

• External knowledge
• knowledge search modes
• strategic R&D orientation
• innovation performance

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Editor James Fleck and the two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this manuscript. This research is funded by the National Science Foundation of China (grant no. 71502056, 71673082).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ms. Yue Yu is a PhD candidate at the College of Business Administration, Hunan University. Her research interests focus on organisational behaviours and innovation in Chinese business sectors. Her work has been published in Chinese Management Studies and top-tier Chinese management-related journals.

Dr. Ling Yuan (PhD, China) is a Professor at the College of Business Administration, Hunan University. His research interests focus on organisational behaviour and knowledge management. His work has been published in the Journal of Knowledge Management, Systems Research and Behavioural Science, Chinese Management Studies and top-tier Chinese management-related journals.

Dr. Jian Li (PhD, London UK) is an Associate Professor at the College of Business Administration, Hunan University. His research interests focus on innovation networks, knowledge management, and FDI spillovers. His work has been published in the Research Policy, R&D Management, International Business Review, Regional Studies, the Journal of Technology Transfer, the Journal of Knowledge Management, Scientometrics, and Technological Analysis & Strategic Management.

Notes

1 Hereafter referred to simply as value chain search.

2 Hereafter referred to simply as IUR collaboration.

3 Hereafter referred to simply as inward licensing.

4 Hereafter referred to simply as capital search.

5 The six regions are Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hubei and Hunan. The former four regions are the most innovative areas in China, while Hubei and Hunan are developing regions with great innovation potential.

6 A pilot study was initially conducted to assess the validity of the questionnaire before formal distribution.

7 The State Intellectual Property office of the P.R. China (http://www.sipo.gov.cn) is a reliable source of patent data and has been used by many of the prior studies (e.g. Choi, Lee, and Williams 2011).

8 For instance, some inventions may not lead to patents, and patents typically represent only explicit and codified technological knowledge.

9 We conducted several interviews with eight R&D managers who were highly knowledgeable about R&D strategy in the pilot study to ensure the validity and reliability of this scale.

10 The distribution of patent count of sample firms is presented in the Appendix B.

11 Although we do not present the coefficients of the industrial-sector dummies, the specialised supplier, large-scale producer and science-based firm show pronounced positive effects on innovation performance.

12 The value of strategic R&D orientation is centralised.

Additional information

Funding

We are grateful to Editor James Fleck and the two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this manuscript. This research is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 71502056, 71673082]; Hunan Provincial Science and Technology Department [grant number 2018JJ3083].