The impact of innovation evolution and interaction control on interfirm network performance

ABSTRACT

Most existing studies have focused on the innovation capabilities of organisations within interfirm networks while neglecting to consider the impact of the choice of innovation evolution mechanisms and the degree of internal interaction control on this system. This study addresses this research gap based on the NK model framework to investigate how different innovation evolution mechanisms and the degree of internal interaction control affect interfirm network performance. In addition, we investigate the moderating role played by the frequency of technological change between the innovation evolution mechanism and the degree of internal interaction control of the interfirm network. The results show that to achieve higher performance levels, the interfirm network should be assigned a self-organisational model in the early stage of innovation evolution, while in the later stage of innovation evolution, it should undergo organisational changes and be assigned a federated alliance model to establish an alliance coordination committee with a certain degree of interactive control over the supporting firms. When the frequency of technological change is low, the alliance coordinating committee takes relatively strong control over the supporting firms as the best, and when the frequency is high, the degree of control over the supporting firms should be appropriately weakened.

KEYWORDS:

• Interfirm networks
• interaction control
• innovation evolution
• technological change
• NK model

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

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

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Jie Mi, Chuanpeng Yao and Fei Li. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jie Mi and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (71902130 and 71772096).

Notes on contributors

Jie Mi

Jie Mi an associate professor in the School of Economics and Management of Taiyuan University of Science and Technology. I have led the research project on Research on the mechanism of organizational learning and organizational practice evolution based on the theory of complex adaptive system, the project on Research on the promotion mechanism of external technology introduction to the development of high-tech industry in Shanxi Province, and the project on Organizational practice evolution under the process of organizational learning: a study on the phenomenon, path and micro mechanism of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Chuanpeng Yao

Chuanpeng Yao an academic from Taiyuan University of Technology in Shanxi, China, focusing on the study of inter-firm network interaction, innovation evolution and diffusion mechanisms.

Xiaoyang Zhao

Xiaoyang Zhao, a researcher in the Business School of Hohai University, and my research areas are strategic management, innovation and entrepreneurship research and econometrics. I have participated in 4 projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), among which 1 is a key project of NSFC. I have published 3 papers in Foreign Economics and Management and other journals, including 2 papers in CSSCI and 1 paper in ABS Business/Management 2-star journal in UK.

Fei Li

Dr. Fei Li, PhD in management and a lecturer at Zhengzhou University Business School. Research interests: multinational governance, corporate governance and innovation. She has led the research on "The interaction mechanism of knowledge network and social network and its influence on the innovation performance of enterprises", National Natural Science Foundation of China (71772096), 2018-2021.