Author:
Duan Yunlong,Yang Meng,Liu Hanxiao,Chin Tachia
Abstract
Purpose
Firms are driven to ride on the digital wave in today’s open innovation ecosystem. This study aims to explore the effect of digital transformation (DT) on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) firms’ innovation ambidexterity, namely, radical versus incremental innovation, respectively. Meanwhile, the authors evaluated the moderating role of the complexity of R&D collaboration portfolio (i.e. organizational diversity and geographic diversity) in the above relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a panel data set of 171 Chinese listed firms in the information and communications technology services industry from 2010 to 2018, the proposed hypotheses were empirically attested.
Findings
It is found that DT has a positive relationship with radical innovation and an inverted U-shaped relationship with incremental innovation. In terms of the R&D collaboration portfolio, organizational diversity positively moderates the relationships between DT and innovation ambidexterity, respectively. The geographic diversity weakens the inverted U-shaped effect of DT on incremental innovation; however, its moderating role in the link between DT and radical innovation is not empirically verified.
Originality/value
Extant scholars mainly addressed the interplay between KIBS firms and their manufacturing clients, while this study reveals the different consequences of DT on KIBS firms’ innovation ambidexterity to highlight the role of KIBS firms is an independent and essential innovator in a knowledge-driven economy. Notably, the findings contribute to knowledge management (KM) and R&D literature by confirming the diversity of the R&D collaboration portfolio is a critical KM strategy for KIBS firms to develop and promote external knowledge resources.
Subject
Management of Technology and Innovation,Strategy and Management
Reference108 articles.
1. Entrepreneurship in the large corporation: a longitudinal study of how established firms create breakthrough inventions;Strategic Management Journal,2001
2. Transforming business using digital innovations: the application of AI, blockchain, cloud and data analytics;Annals of Operations Research,2022
3. Impacts of obstacles on innovation patterns in KIBS firms;Journal of Business Research,2016
4. Technology, innovation and knowledge: the importance of ideas and international connectivity;Journal of World Business,2016
5. Digital transformation and innovation management: a synthesis of existing research and an agenda for future studies;Journal of Product Innovation Management,2021
Cited by
4 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献