Abstract:    The key common technology research in the industry-university-research alliance has become an important organizational form for the overall technological transition of China′s manufacturing industry and radical innovation realization. However, few studies have focused on the relationship between alliance knowledge governance and radical innovation in the context of key common technological breakthroughs. Most of the studies focused on the context of industry-university organizations dominated by bilateral relations, and there are still insufficient discussions on knowledge governance of industry-university-research alliances that are policy-driven, task-oriented, and key common technologies with complex multilateral relationships. In addition, these studies on knowledge governance performance focused on the output of collaborative projects or the innovation output of participating enterprises. Based on the relevant literature on knowledge governance and radical innovation, this study explored the unique knowledge governance mechanism of industry-university-research alliances for key common technology research and how the alliance can better achieve radical innovation through these knowledge governance mechanisms. This paper adopted the multi-case study method and selected five typical key common technologies such as advanced packaging and testing, key machinery and equipment (agriculture), intelligent medical equipment, clean coal combustion, and graphite refining as research objects for exploring the knowledge governance mechanism and its mechanism of action on radical innovation. This paper mainly has three sources of data: first, sorted-out information from the alliance website and interviews with project leaders; second, first-hand information obtained from the research projects of typical alliances and from annual meeting activities hosted by the alliances; third, information from interviews with the management personnel of the alliance so as to provide a comprehensive understanding of the development status of the alliance.Through the intra-case and inter-case analysis of five alliances, this paper summarized the relationship between alliance knowledge governance, knowledge sharing, and radical innovation, and proposes propositions. This study showed that: (1) the knowledge governance mechanism of alliance includes collective interest binding and collaborative structure control; (2) collective interest binding and collaborative structure control both have positive impacts on radical innovation; and (3) knowledge sharing breadth and depth play the intermediary role between alliance knowledge governance and radical innovation. This study had two main theoretical contributions. On the one hand, it advanced the research on alliance knowledge governance mechanisms. The collective interest bundling mechanism breaks through the knowledge governance mechanism centered on individual incentives and value realization. In the context of key common technological breakthroughs, technological complexity and externalities of technological breakthroughs require resource integration and continuous interaction of various types of participants. Through joint investment in innovation resources, joint construction of R&D platforms, and sharing of collective research benefits, etc., strategic goals and value requirements are ensured. The collaborative architecture control mechanism responds to the alliance structure governance strategy. Unlike alliances that solve deterministic technical problems through bureaucratic or authoritative organizational control structures, key common technical problems are highly complex, risky, and uncertain. Therefore, the structural governance of alliances needs to meet dynamic adjustments and efficient collaboration across organizational boundaries. On the other hand, this paper depicted the relationship between alliance knowledge governance mechanism and radical innovation in the context of key common technology research, and explored the intermediary mechanism of knowledge sharing between heterogeneous organizations between knowledge governance and radical innovation, and deconstructed the two dimensions of knowledge sharing depth and knowledge sharing breadth to construct the relationship among knowledge governance, knowledge sharing, and radical innovation. The results will provide a reference to tackle key common technologies of industry-university-research alliances.

Key words: key common technology, industry-university-research alliance, knowledge governance, radical innovation