How user-driven innovation and employee intrapreneurship promote platform enterprise performance

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of user-driven innovation (UDI) and employee intrapreneurship (EI) on the innovation performance of platform enterprises through the mediating role of market intelligence responsiveness (MIR) and the moderating role of knowledge and information resource acquisition (KRA and IRA, respectively) between MIR and innovation performance.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 167 platform enterprises in northern, eastern and southern China with survey questionnaires. Participants were mainly middle and senior managers with a comprehensive grasp of the enterprises' information.FindingsThe results indicated that both UDI and EI, particularly synergy, positively influenced the innovation performance of platform enterprises. Furthermore, higher innovation performance resulted from high congruence between UDI and EI, and the innovation performance of enterprises increased when UDI and EI shifted from being incongruent to congruent. Lastly, MIR played a mediating role in this relationship, and both KRA and IRA played a positive moderating role between MIR and innovation performance.Practical implicationsPlatform enterprises should pay attention to external users and internal employees to achieve their development goals and establish tripartite cooperative relationships involving firms, employees and users. Enabling platform enterprises to develop continually and in a healthy way requires the integration and utilization of all types of resources.Originality/valueThis was an empirical study on the impact mechanism of employees and users on the innovation performance of platform enterprises in China.