How Imitating Sources’ R&D Practices Influences the Recipients’ Innovation Consequences of Technology Transfer: The Moderating Effect of Source–Recipient Interactions

Abstract

This study investigates whether managing the relationship between the imitation of sources’ R&D practices and source–recipient interactions is critical for the recipients’ innovation of technology transfer because the choice of source–recipient interactions dominates the efficacy of recipients’ imitation. This study tests its hypotheses by using a sample of technology transfer experiences from among 86 electronics firms from 2003 to 2012 in Taiwan, with data collected from the responses to a mailed survey. For a focal firm acting as a recipient during technology transfer, results show that the imitation of a source’s R&D practices has a significant and positive influence on a recipient’s innovation. Relational embeddedness is the only appropriate source–recipient interaction that complements the imitation of a source’s R&D practices and then effectively promotes a recipient’s innovation. However, the source–recipient interactions of both the technology source lead and the technology recipient lead cannot moderate the positive relationship between the imitation of the source’s R&D practices and the recipient’s innovation. Identifying these three source–recipient interactions can harness a recipient’s innovation benefits from technology transfer.