Distributed innovation, digital entrepreneurial opportunity, IT-enabled capabilities, and enterprises' digital innovation performance: a moderated mediating model

Abstract

Purpose As an important driving factor of digital innovation, distributed innovation has received extensive attention from academia and business circles in recent years. However, extant works lack a discussion on the influence of distributed innovation on digital innovation performance. Drawing on the opportunity perspective, the study constructs a moderated mediating model to address how distributed innovation directly affects enterprises' digital innovation performance. Particularly, it investigates the moderating and mediating effects of IT-enabled capabilities and digital entrepreneurial opportunities on the above correlation. Design/methodology/approach With a survey data set of 399 Chinese science and technology enterprises, the study conducts hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and bootstrap to test the study’s hypotheses. Findings Results demonstrate that (1) distributed innovation positively enhances enterprises' digital innovation performance; (2) digital entrepreneurial opportunities partially mediate the positive relationship between distributed innovation and digital innovation performance; (3) IT-enabled capabilities positively moderate the relationship between distributed innovation and digital entrepreneurial opportunities; (4) IT-enabled capabilities positively moderate the mediating role of digital entrepreneurial opportunities in the relationship between distributed innovation and digital innovation performance. Originality/value This is an empirical study on the impact mechanism of IT-enabled capabilities and digital entrepreneurial opportunities on the relationship between distributed innovation and digital innovation performance in China. It advances theories related to distributed innovation, digital innovation and digital entrepreneurial opportunities, and provides decision-making references for the enhancement of digital innovation capabilities of science and technology enterprises.