关键词: 纵向关系, 买方势力, 技术创新, 研究视角

Abstract: Technological innovation is the first driving force to lead the development of enterprises, and it is also the main factor for enterprises to gain core technological advantages. The innovation decision-making of enterprises is not only affected by the horizontal market structure, but also by the relative market forces from the upstream and downstream of the industry chain. With the continuous evolution of the vertical relationship of the industrial chain, the one-stop shopping malls, the franchise model, and the large-scale specialized retail chain enterprises have appeared in large numbers, which has promoted the horizontal competition among enterprises in the industry to extend to the vertical distribution relationship in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. The market position of downstream retail organization has undergone a revolutionary transformation, and the economic effects generated by the buyer’s power have become an emerging field of research in recent years. As a complex dynamic process, innovation not only involves the innovation ability of the enterprises themselves, but also highly depends on external relationships. The buyer from the downstream of the industrial chain is a vital stakeholder of the company, and its bargaining power has an important influence on the strategic decision of the enterprise. Retailers in a dominant position often influence the interests of suppliers in various ways. Common economic regulation methods can be roughly divided into two categories: one is price regulation, such as non-linear pricing, slotting fees, discount points, deferred payments, resale price maintenance; the other is rights regulation, such as the signing of exclusive contracts(including exclusive areas and exclusive transactions), bundling sales and so on. Large retailers have changed the vertical equilibrium relationship of the original industrial chain with the increase of buyer power, and triggered a series of conflicts between retailers and suppliers. The problems caused by the contradiction between retailers and suppliers have become the focus of attention of social and the anti-monopoly department.This paper sorts out and summarizes the conceptual and connotation of buyer power from four research perspectives of purchasing intermediate goods price, transaction negotiation ability, long-term opportunity cost and external selection value. At the same time, this paper analyzes its generating motivation and formation mechanism from three dimensions, namely the change of market structure, the choice of external value and the degree of vertical dependence. On this basis, this paper summarizes and reviews the research on the relationship between buyer power and technological innovation from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The existing theoretical researches can be subdivided into two categories. The first kind of theoretical research mainly discusses the influence of buyer power on process innovation of upstream manufacturers. The second kind of theoretical research is mainly based on the horizontal differentiation model to explore the influence of buyer power on product innovation of upstream manufacturers. The existing empirical researches on the relationship between buyer power and technological innovation mainly focus on traditional industries with strong industry chain correlations, such as retail industry, pharmaceutical industry, steel industry, automobile manufacturing and so on, while the research based on micro-enterprise data is relatively less. From the empirical research results, the relationship between the two is uncertain, and the existing research conclusions can be summed up into tree types: promotion relationship, inhibition relationship or non-linear relationship. Different types of research results are mainly due to the difference of data selection and the different measurement methods of core variables.Finally, based on the limitations of existing research, the future research directions are proposed, which can provide reference for the establishment of enterprise innovation mechanism and the implementation of anti-monopoly regulation policy.Firstly, in the future research, factors such as R&D decision-making, service decision-making, and information sharing decision-making should be taken into account to further analyze the influence of buyer power on the technological innovation effect of upstream suppliers.Secondly, as a network-based organizational structure, the market forces between the horizontal and vertical dimensions have interaction and mutual influence. The enhancement of the horizontal market power of downstream enterprises will expand their vertical control ability, and then affect the profit distribution of the industrial chain and the innovation decision-making of the upstream enterprises. Therefore, market power in the horizontal dimension is a prerequisite for the formation of vertical market power. However, the existing relevant researches often separate the two. Therefore, in the future research, the interaction between the horizontal and vertical market forces on upstream technological innovation should be taken into account.Thirdly, in the future research, more attention should be paid to emerging industries with strong vertical correlations in the industry chain and close links between upstream and downstream technologies, such as emerging industries relying on Internet development.Fourthly, with the continuous strengthening of the technological innovation diffusion caused by the industrialinnovation strategic alliance, in order to achieve mutual benefit and win-win goal while sharing the cost of R&D and obtaining complementary resources, some retailers and suppliers have transformed the situation of competing from upstream to downstream into the situation of supply chain coordination, and established a vertical supply chain cooperation system centered on downstream retailers. Therefore, more attention should be paid to the impact of vertical technology spillover effects brought by buyer power and technological innovation in the future research, including vertical cooperative innovation forms such as R&D alliance characterized by benefit sharing.The theoretical significance of this paper mainly includes three aspects. Firstly, this paper reviews relevant literatures at home and abroad, and defines the connotation and characteristics of each concept, and builds a more comprehensive concept system to provide a clear overview for subsequent research. Secondly,it also deconstructs the motivation mechanism generated by the buyer’s power from different dimensions, refines its influencing factors and mechanism of action. Thirdly, from the perspective of different innovation modes, this paper systematically summarizes and organizes the representative theoretical and empirical research literatures in this field, which not only clarifies the main line of the existing research system, but also makes up for the gap of literature research in this field.From the practical point of view, the research in this paper can provide systematic guidance for the formulation of innovation strategies and the implementation of anti-monopoly regulation polices for upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain.

Key words: vertical relationship, buyer power, technological innovation, research perspectives