The impact of external technology acquisition on enterprise innovation performance: the moderating effect of geographical distance

ABSTRACT

Enterprises often acquire technologies from external sources which are geographically dispersed. Although previous literatures have discussed the role of external technology acquisition (ETA) in enterprises’ innovation performance, how innovation is affected by the breadth and depth of ETA is less investigated, and little is known about how geographical distance (GD) is involved. Therefore, this paper first analyses the relationship between the breadth, depth of ETA and enterprises’ innovation performance with patent transaction data of listed manufacturing enterprises in China. Then we further investigate how GD moderates the relationship. Results show that both the breadth and depth of ETA positively affect enterprises’ innovation performance. GD has no moderating effect on the relationship between the breadth of ETA and enterprises’ innovation performance, but negatively moderates the relationship between the depth of ETA and enterprises’ innovation performance. Our results have implications for enterprises’ ETA strategy.

KEYWORDS:

• External technology acquisition
• innovation performance
• geographical distance
• patent transaction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China [grant number 19ZDA102].

Notes on contributors

Cheng Hu

Cheng Hu is a doctoral student at the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property, Tongji University. His research interests include intellectual property and technological innovation.

Xuezhong Zhu

Xuezhong Zhu is a professor at the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property, Tongji University. His research interests are intellectual property and science and technology policy.

Rui Liu

Rui Liu is a doctoral student at the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property, Tongji University. His research interest is intellectual property management.

Ziyou Teng

Ziyou Teng is a doctoral student at the Shanghai International College of Intellectual Property, Tongji University. His research interests are firm strategy and intellectual property.