Science Research Management ›› 2024, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (6): 136-145.DOI: 10.19571/j.cnki.1000-2995.2024.06.014

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Research on the impact of digital interaction on business model innovation

Wang Bingcheng, Zhang Yuxiang, Cui Mengjie   

  1. College of Economics and Management, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao 266590, Shandong, China
  • Received:2023-04-14 Revised:2024-04-08 Online:2024-06-20 Published:2024-05-29
  • Contact: WANG Bing-cheng

Abstract:     In the process of using products or enterprise services, users often generate new ideas or innovative inspiration, but in the past, these new ideas or innovative inspirations were difficult to transmit to the enterprise. With the development of digital technology, enterprises and consumers have crossed the traditional barriers of face-to-face communication, and it has become a new development trend for enterprises to build Internet platforms to interact with users digitally, which provides convenience for enterprises to obtain information such as user needs or market changes, and also provides more knowledge resources and innovation inspiration for enterprises to innovate business models. In practice, Xiaomi digitally interacts with users through the digital interactive platform, which effectively promotes the innovation of Xiaomi′s business model. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct an indepth discussion on the relationship between digital interaction and business model innovation.At present, the research of domestic and foreign scholars on the digital interaction between enterprises and users mainly focuses on its impact on product innovation, and relatively ignores the impact of digital interaction on enterprise business model innovation. Digital interaction can provide important external information and innovation knowledge for business model innovation of enterprises, so we believe that it should promote business model innovation of enterprises. However, it is not enough for enterprises to acquire knowledge, because knowledge is tacit and complex, so this requires enterprises to have certain knowledge absorption capabilities to fully digest and absorb the knowledge resources obtained through digital interaction. In addition, enterprises will inevitably be affected by organizational context in the process of business model innovation. Dynamic capability theory points out that if enterprises want to establish their own competitive advantage, they must have the ability to quickly adapt to changes in the external environment, so strategic flexibility has become an important factor restricting enterprises to adapt to changes in time. Therefore, this study takes knowledge absorption capacity as the mediating variable and strategic flexibility as the regulating variable into the path of digital interaction affecting business model innovation, and deeply discusses the role path of digital interaction on business model innovation.According to the dynamic capability theory, we constructed a moderated mediation effect model and deeply analyzed the effect path of digital interaction on business model innovation. Through a questionnaire survey of 360 employees, we finally collected 301 valid questionnaires and tested the models with the help of SPSS, structural equation model, bootstrap and other methods. The results showed that digital interaction has a significant positive impact on the business model innovation of enterprises. Knowledge absorption capacity plays a partial mediating role between digital interaction and business model innovation. Strategic flexibility will not only strengthen the relationship between knowledge absorption capacity and business model innovation, but also strengthen the mediating effect of digital interaction on business model innovation through knowledge absorption ability.The theoretical contributions of this study are as follows: First, based on the dynamic capability theory, the knowledge absorption capacity and strategic flexibility are included as mediating and regulating variables, and the role path model of digital interaction on business model innovation is constructed, which breaks through the limitation of most previous studies that only focus on the impact of digital interaction on enterprise product innovation, and also provides a new analytical perspective for the research on business model innovation. Second, it deepens the understanding of the relationship between digital interaction and business model innovation, and provides corresponding theoretical guidance for enterprises to carry out business model innovation in the context of digital interaction.The management implications of this study include: First, enterprises should improve their digital level, establish a digital platform that can interact with users online in real time, and actively seek valuable information from the outside world, so as to achieve business model innovation. Second, if enterprises want to innovate business models in a complex and changeable external environment to continuously gain competitive advantage, they should improve their knowledge absorption capabilities. Third, in the rapidly changing market environment, enterprises should enhance their strategic flexibility, timely attention to external information, and rapid adjustment of enterprise development strategy.

Key words: digital interaction, knowledge absorption capacity, strategic flexibility, business model innovation