The Role of Different Kinds of Outbound Open Innovation on Enterprise Innovation Performance with Mediating Role of Structural Hole

Abstract

With the improvement of enterprise innovation ability, enterprises have accumulated a large number of innovation achievements. The transformation and utilization of these innovation achievements have become a problem that enterprises have to face. Therefore, outbound open innovation has gradually become the focus of enterprise practice and academic research. Based on the social exchange theory, this paper regards two different forms of outbound OI (FR and SA) as a process of social exchange and illustrates how they affect the innovation performance of enterprises by influencing the structure of their innovation networks. Using data from 196 firms in the Chinese market, this study empirically examines the impact of FR and SA on innovation performance and further examines the mediating effect of structural holes. The study found that FR has a significant positive impact on enterprise innovation performance, and the number of structural holes occupied by enterprises plays a mediating role. While the impact of SA on enterprise innovation performance is not significant, this is because SA will reduce the number of structural holes occupied by enterprises, which is an important source of enterprise’s innovation.