THE IMPACT OF BOUNDARY-SPANNING SEARCH ON THE INNOVATION CAPABILITY OF HIGH-TECH ENTERPRISES
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Abstract
Innovation capability is key to gaining core competitiveness for enterprises and is also one of the decisive factors for their survival and success. As the competitive environment becomes increasingly fierce, market demands become progressively complex, and technological innovation becomes ever more rapid, more and more enterprises have begun to break boundaries and seek external knowledge to resolve the contradiction between innovation needs and limited internal capabilities, making up for their own deficiencies in innovation resources. This study focused on the practical question: “How can high-tech enterprises use boundary-spanning search to enhance innovation capability?” Based on existing theories and literature, it proposed theoretical hypotheses and constructed a theoretical model. Well-established measurement scales from both domestic and international literature were adopted to assess each variable. The questionnaire was designed to cover the following aspects: Basic information of the enterprise and the respondent, the actual practices of the enterprise’s technological and market knowledge boundary-spanning search behaviors, the enterprise’s absorptive capacity, its perceived business environment, and its innovation capability. A total of 422 valid questionnaires were collected for statistical analysis. Empirical research results showed that boundary-spanning search behavior significantly promotes the improvement of innovation capability. Different knowledge boundary-spanning behaviors have varying effects on enhancing innovation capability, and absorptive capacity plays a mediating role between boundary-spanning search and innovation capability. The impact of boundary-spanning search on absorptive capacity is moderated by the perception of the business environment. The above research conclusions not only enrich the research findings in the field of knowledge search and open innovation but also provide certain theoretical guidance and practical reference for how high-tech enterprises can formulate search strategies and enhance innovation capability paths in the context of open innovation in China.
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