Abstract:    The new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation is restructuring the world′s economic landscape. Cultivating a technological innovation system composed of innovators such as firms, universities, and intermediary organizations has become an important way for most countries to face global competition. The knowledge-based view highlights that knowledge is the core element of technological innovation, and promoting knowledge transfer among diversified innovators is not only the endogenous power to shape the firms′ competitive advantage but also a critical approach to enhance the efficiency of cooperative innovation. In many industries, cooperative innovation among firms, universities, and intermediary organizations has generated a knowledge chain that crosses organizational boundaries and realizes technological innovation and the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements by absorbing and using heterogeneous knowledge of each other. Therefore, analyzing the value co-creation mechanism and interactive behaviors of cooperative innovation among diversified innovators will arouse significant theoretical and practical value from the perspective of the knowledge chain.Inter-organizational power structure is an important factor affecting the efficiency of value co-creation and cooperation, but few studies have paid attention to the influence of power structure on technological innovation and the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements. This study investigates a knowledge chain consisting of a firm, a university, and an intermediary organization from the perspective of knowledge transfer. We employ dynamic game models to analyze the impact of the change of leadership on the efficiency of cooperative innovation in the knowledge chain by focusing on four power structure scenarios: centralized decision (C), firm-Stackelberg (FL), intermediary organization-Stackelberg (IL), and university-Stackelberg (UL). The results show that being a leader will help an organization enhance its knowledge creation, profit, and pricing advantage, but reduce the profitability of its partners. The innovativeness of knowledge chain members is positively related to the knowledge creation of their partners and the overall profit of the knowledge chain. We also find that knowledge creation and profit of the knowledge chain under the centralized decision scenario are higher than those under decentralized decision scenarios. In terms of market demand and total profit of the knowledge chain, the FL model is the optimal power structure of the knowledge chain under decentralized decision scenarios. This study makes three key contributions to the literature. First, we describe knowledge transfer between innovators as a knowledge chain that crosses the boundaries of diversified organizations (e.g., firm, university, and intermediary organization), and examine the impact of knowledge transfer and innovators′ behavior on innovation performance under different power structures, thus providing a novel research perspective for innovation management literature. Second, this study employs dynamic game models to analyze the impact of power structure on inter-organizational technological innovation and the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, which is conducive to a better understanding of the value co-creation mechanism of cooperative innovation. Third, our findings expand previous research on the knowledge-based view by revealing the optimal power structure and game equilibrium of the knowledge chain.Our study provides several strategic implications for managers on how to manage cooperative innovation practices. First, the firm-Stackelberg model can be the preferred power structure for the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements in cooperative innovation. To enhance the efficiency of cooperation, firms should timely grasp the market demand and technological change, improve the innovation ability and master the coordination and management skills of inter-organizational cooperation; to help firms exploit the commercial value of scientific and technological achievements, the government should build an institutional environment conducive to knowledge transfer and support the development of intermediary organizations such as technology assessment, technology consulting, and entrepreneurial services. Second, our results show that the cooperation efficiency of the knowledge chain depends on the innovation capabilities of its members. Therefore, knowledge chain members should not only improve each other's innovation ability but also pay attention to the cultivation of formal and informal governance mechanisms to establish closer cooperation. Third, we find that knowledge creation and profit of the knowledge chain under the centralized decision scenario are better than decentralized decision scenarios. Although the centralized decision is usually regarded as a special case of integration strategy by firms in theoretical research and industrial practice, when firms face crucial decisions (e.g., strategic transformation and radical innovation), the integration strategy will help them realize technological innovation and the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements.
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Key words: power structure, cooperative innovation, knowledge chain, knowledge transfer, knowledge creation