Inbound Innovation With Supply Chain Partners: Effects of Outbound Operation Information Sharing, IT Channel Diversity, and Internal R&D Capability
研究了中国企业如何通过外向运营信息共享和IT渠道多样性促进与供应链合作伙伴的向内创新，并发现这些因素与内部研发能力有互补效应。
As the locus of value creation increasingly occurs at the interfaces among various parties, firms stress inbound innovation with supply chain partners. Complementing studies that investigate inbound innovation with supply chain partners from network and relationship perspectives, this study concentrates on the focal firms' friendly actions. Employing social exchange theory and media richness theory, this study proposes that outbound operation information sharing and IT channel diversity contribute to the firms' inbound innovation with supply chain partners. Moreover, as outbound operation information sharing, IT channel diversity, and internal R&D capability are key factors at different stages of inbound innovation with supply chain partners, this study also examines their interactive effects on inbound innovation with supply chain partners. Employing the 2012 enterprise surveys data set of China and hierarchical multiple regression, the empirical results support our arguments. Moreover, the results remain consistent throughout robustness analyses and further mechanism analyses. Our findings highlight the importance of firms' friendly actions and their complementary effects with the internal capabilities in enhancing firms' inbound innovation with supply chain partners.