Science Research Management ›› 2023, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (8): 162-172.

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Multidimensional proximity, innovation openness and cooperative innovation performance: A study from the perspective of network evolution

Liu Weiwei, Jin Yingzhe, Bi Kexin   

  1. School of Economics and Management, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150006, Heilongjiang, China
  • Received:2021-10-25 Revised:2022-04-26 Online:2023-08-20 Published:2023-08-09

Abstract:     With the improvement of industrial technology complexity, innovation is becoming more and more difficult. Organizations acquire complementary innovation resources and improve their innovation ability through cooperation with external innovation subjects. Cooperative innovation has become an important form of organizational innovation activities. The relationship between organizational characteristics is one of the most important factors which affect organization cooperative innovation performance. For example, geographical distance, technology composition and organization type can influence the cooperative innovation performance. Therefore, it can better guide the organization selection object of cooperative innovation and cooperative innovation activities to explore how multidimensional proximity affects collaborative innovation performance. Innovation openness index reflects the degree of organizational openness to the outside world, and is an important factor for organizations to search for cooperative partners and develop cooperative innovation. The analysis of the moderating effect of innovation openness can further improve the influence mechanism of multidimensional proximity on cooperative innovation performance.Based on the perspective of network evolution, this paper explored the dynamic impact of multidimensional proximity on cooperative innovation and revealed the moderating effect of innovation openness. Based on the data of joint application for patent of Chinese new energy vehicle industry from 2004 to 2018, this paper divided the evolution stage of Chinese new energy vehicle industry cooperation innovation network into breeding phase, germination phase and growth phase. The effect of multidimensional proximity on collaborative innovation performance and the moderating effect of innovation openness in three stages were investigated. The empirical results showed that geographic proximity and technological proximity have significant positive effects on cooperative innovation performance, while organizational proximity has significant negative effects on cooperative innovation performance. With the evolution of the cooperative innovation network of the new energy vehicle industry, the influence of geographical proximity decreases first and then increases, the influence of technological proximity increases gradually, and the influence of organizational proximity first increases and then decreases. In addition, innovation openness partially moderates the relationship between multidimensional proximity and cooperative innovation performance (innovation openness breadth positively moderates the relationship between technological proximity and cooperative innovation performance and innovation openness depth positively moderates the impact of geographic proximity and technological proximity on collaborative innovation performance).From the perspective of network evolution, this study analyzed the impact of multidimensional proximity between cooperative innovation organizations on cooperative innovation performance, and further discussed the moderating effect of innovation openness. It will provide scientific guidance and reference for innovation organizations to choose partners in different network evolution stages, improve their cooperative innovation performance by taking advantage of proximity, and give full play to proximity advantage by formulating appropriate innovation openness degree. According to the research results, first of all, organizations can improve the performance of cooperative innovation by improving logistics and transportation, strengthening communication, and cooperating with geographically close organizations. Secondly, innovation organizations should constantly increase innovation input, strengthen innovation personnel training, and choose organizations with similar technical structure for cooperation. Thirdly, innovation organizations should cooperate with innovation subjects of different organization types to realize resource exchange and advantage complementation so as to improve cooperative innovation performance. Finally, organizations should pay attention to the moderating effect of innovation openness. Extensive cooperation between innovation subjects and external organizations is conducive to enhancing the positive impact of technological proximity on cooperative innovation performance, while close cooperation with external organizations is conducive to strengthening the positive impact of geographic proximity and technological proximity on cooperative innovation performance. 

Key words: multidimensional proximity, innovation openness, cooperative innovation performance, network evolution