More is not always better: Reconciling the dilemma of R&D collaboration in high-tech industries in transition economies

Xuemei Xie, Yonghui Wu and José Manuel Guaita Martínez

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2023, vol. 190, issue C

Abstract: To cope with highly competitive business environments, firms in high-tech industries are increasingly opening up their organizational boundaries and tapping into external resources via research and development (R&D) collaboration. Drawing upon organizational boundary theories, our study indicates that the marginal benefits of R&D collaboration in driving firms' new product innovations decrease while its marginal costs increase. To investigate this subject, we develop a conceptual framework to account for the relationship between R&D collaboration and firms' new product innovations. Further, drawing on both the knowledge-based and institutional perspectives, we examine the moderating effects of absorptive capacity and political ties on the R&D collaboration-new product innovation relationship. Using data from 315 high-tech manufacturing firms in China, we find that R&D collaboration has an inverted U-shaped impact on new product innovation, meaning that the new product innovation of firms initially increases and then decreases as the level of R&D collaboration increases. Further, we find that absorptive capacity (as an internal factor) and political ties (as an external factor) moderate this inverted U-shaped effect such that firms with greater absorptive capacities show a higher peak of maximum innovation performance at higher levels of R&D collaboration than firms with lower absorptive capacities. We also reveal that for firms with stronger political ties, the benefits of R&D collaboration are enhanced while the risks and costs of R&D collaboration are mitigated. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the nonlinear relationship between firms' R&D collaborations and their new product innovation outcomes as well as the contingent conditions in this relationship.

Keywords: R&D collaboration; New product innovation; Political ties; Transition economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162523001075
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:190:y:2023:i:c:s0040162523001075

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122422

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().