企业知识基础是企业创新的起点。探清知识基础在结构上的分散和依赖程度对企业突破性创新的作用机制,有助于揭示知识基础提升企业突破性创新的有效路径。本文基于知识基础观和企业知识理论,研究企业知识基础结构属性即知识基础多样性和知识基础复杂性对企业突破性创新绩效的影响,以及企业知识整合能力对其影响的调节作用,利用中国医药制造业上市公司2008—2020年专利数据和财务数据进行零膨胀负二项回归验证相关假设并进行稳健性分析。研究发现:企业知识基础多样性对突破性创新绩效有倒U型影响,知识整合能力使其倒U型关系变缓,当知识整合能力越强时,会削弱企业知识基础多样性对突破性创新绩效的影响;企业知识基础复杂性正向影响突破性创新绩效,且受到知识整合能力的正向调节,当知识整合能力越强时,会提升企业知识基础复杂性对突破性创新的正向影响。本研究从企业知识基础结构属性的角度为企业提升突破性创新绩效提供理论支撑。

Technology innovation is the primary subject of firms and it has a big part to play in China's efforts to build an innovative society. It is the main factor influencing social development. In addition, distinctive and ground-breaking breakthrough innovation, as opposed to progressive innovation, is crucial for businesses to achieve high-quality development in the context of the ongoing upheavals both domestically and internationally. For China to innovate and develop, firms must be clear about the procedures they follow before acquiring breakthrough innovation. Enterprise knowledge, as a substantial source of innovative activities, can be a crucial source of inspiration for firms striving to attain breakthrough innovation. Knowledge is the driving force behind innovation.

A firm's knowledge base is where its innovation starts. Exploring the mechanism of dispersion and dependence of knowledge base in structure on enterprises' breakthrough innovation is helpful to reveal the effective path of knowledge base to improve the enterprises' breakthrough innovation. The enterprise knowledge theory and the knowledge base idea are the foundations of the study. This study used the patent data and financial information from listed companies in China's pharmaceutical manufacturing sector to analyze the moderating effects of enterprise knowledge integration ability on the impact of enterprise knowledge infrastructure attributes, specifically knowledge base diversity and knowledge base complexity, on the breakthrough innovation performance of enterprises. The zero-inflated negative binomial regression method was used to verify the relevant hypothesis and perform robustness analysis.

The finding showed that : (1) A diverse enterprise knowledge base can aid in new knowledge exploration and boost the level of breakthrough innovation, but a diverse enterprise knowledge base in excess can have detrimental effects such as scale diseconomy and enterprise knowledge information overload, which hinder the promotion of breakthrough innovation. (2) The more existing portfolios there are, the fewer prospects there are for new portfolios, and organizations are more likely to look into fresh information in order to advance breakthrough innovation. (3) The efficacy of integrating existing knowledge pieces will raise the opportunity cost of seeking out new information and will lessen the beneficial effects of knowledge base diversity on breakthrough innovation when firms have strong knowledge integration skills. At the same time, knowledge integration skills may aid businesses in utilizing knowledge components, increasing the usage of knowledge components, and reducing the detrimental effects of knowledge base diversity on ground-breaking innovation. High knowledge integration skills can also lower coordination and integration costs for combining fresh and accumulated information, increasing the effectiveness of breakthrough innovation.

According to the research conclusions, the contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) By focusing on the knowledge infrastructure attributes and taking into account the significance of enterprise knowledge infrastructure, this study broadened the research perspective on breakthrough innovation by empirically demonstrating the influence of knowledge infrastructure attributes on breakthrough innovation as well as the moderating role of contextual factors. (2) This paper unified the diversity and complexity of knowledge bases into a single framework, which aids in a better understanding of how enterprise knowledge infrastructure attributes affect breakthrough innovation and advances the study of its causes.

The management insight from this study is also based on the research findings, and it is as follows: (1) Enterprise managers should carefully consider investigating the allocation of resources for new knowledge elements, maintain an appropriate level of knowledge base diversity, and avoid the negative effects of resource dispersion. (2) Businesses should consider how interdependent their knowledge bases are and look at any potential chances for innovation they may hold. (3) Organizations should take into account their own knowledge integration capabilities when deciding on their innovation strategy in order to better leverage the value of their knowledge management in innovation, create more logical innovation solutions, and increase the effectiveness of breakthrough innovation.