• 中国科学学与科技政策研究会
  • 中国科学院科技战略咨询研究院
  • 清华大学科学技术与社会研究中心
ISSN 1003-2053 CN 11-1805/G3

科学学研究 ›› 2023, Vol. 41 ›› Issue (7): 1316-1326.

• 技术创新与制度创新 • 上一篇    下一篇

企业政治行为驱动突破性创新的权变影响研究

廉思秋,高山行,肖振鑫   

  1. 西安交通大学管理学院
  • 收稿日期:2022-02-14 修回日期:2022-12-08 出版日期:2023-07-15 发布日期:2023-07-15
  • 通讯作者: 廉思秋
  • 基金资助:
    我国高新技术产业突破性创新的触发机理与实现路径研究;大数据资源治理的产权界定及管理机制研究

The Contingent Influence of Corporate Political Activities on Driving Radical Innovation

  • Received:2022-02-14 Revised:2022-12-08 Online:2023-07-15 Published:2023-07-15

摘要: 基于制度基础观,论文结合我国经济转型时期的制度特点,理论探讨并实证检验了企业政治行为对突破性创新的影响,并进一步考量了不同类型的企业市场战略与制度环境对上述关系路径的权变影响。论文通过对我国227家生物医药企业问卷调查数据分析发现:首先,企业政治行为对突破性创新具有显著的促进作用;其次,这种促进作用在实施前瞻型战略的企业中得到显著增强,而在实施分析型战略的企业中被显著削弱;最后,政策变动程度和市场化程度均会显著地削弱企业政治行为与突破性创新之间的正向作用关系。该研究证实了企业政治行为在提升突破性创新上行之有效,更重要的是,为企业如何将政治行为匹配不同类型市场战略、适应不同制度环境以提升突破性创新效率提供了理论支撑与管理启示。

Abstract: Drawing upon the institution-based view, considering China’s institutional characteristics during economic transition period, the paper begins by discussing and empirically examining the impact of corporate political activities on radical innovation. Corporate political activities (CPAs), as one of the effective nonmarket strategies, provides firms with alternative strategic options to overcome resource constraints and weak protections arising from incomplete institutional framework. Although the relationship of CPAs and radical innovation has already been studied by some researchers, there still exists some research gaps. On one hand, extant studies have argued that firms usually simultaneously conduct market and nonmarket strategies, the performance of nonmarket can be easily influenced by market strategies. There is a lack of research on whether the effect of CPAs on radical innovation is influenced by market strategies and on how CPAs and firms’ market strategies jointly affect the achievement of radical innovation. On the other hand, the institution-based view demonstrates that although firms can rely on CPAs to improve radical innovation, this informal approach is subject to the impact of external formal institutional environment. The extant research is also lacking in examining the effects of different types of formal institutional environment on the relationship between CPAs and radical innovation. Using the survey data from 227 companies in biopharmaceutical industry, first, the empirical findings indicate that CPAs significantly facilitate radical innovation. Second, we decide to draw on Miles and Snow typology (prospector, analyzer and defender) in this study because we believe it can provide a comprehensive and robust logic framework that suits our research needs: (1) the Miles and Snow typology provides significant implications for both managers and scholars since it continuously to be the most employed, enduring, and robust typologies available. (2) Miles and Snow’s strategic core fits our study focus of radical innovation. They argue that technologies play the key role in formulating market strategies. When it regards to radial innovation, because relatively high level of strategic proactiveness is prerequisite for radical innovation, we decide to only focus on prospector and analyzer strategies while leaving out defender strategy in this study. Since defenders show more willingness in maintaining strategic stability, the external contexts they embedded are relatively steady. Under this circumstance, conducting radical innovation has not been one of their primary concerns. The results show that different types of market strategies exert asymmetric effects on the efficacy of CPAs on radical innovation. Prospector strategy significantly strengthens the relationship between corporate political activities and radical innovation, whereas analyzer strategy significantly weakens this relationship. Finally, in terms of formal institutional environment, we incorporate the degree of policy change and marketization as moderators, which represents the characteristics of economic transition. The results exhibit that both the degree of policy change and the degree of marketization exert negative effects on the relationship between CPAs and radical innovation. The paper not only provides some relevant theoretical and managerial implications for companies regarding the interaction with governments when engaging in radical innovation projects, but also benefits government for encouraging radical innovations with some policy implications.