MANAGING KNOWLEDGE EMBEDDEDNESS FOR SYNERGETIC INNOVATION PERFORMANCE IN STRATEGIC ALLIANCES: IMPLICATIONS FROM KNOWLEDGE FLOW AND STRATEGIC REACTIVENESS

Abstract

Knowledge embeddedness may exert a crucial role in improving synergetic innovation performance in the knowledge economy era. However, theoretical deduction and empirical investigation on the effects of knowledge embeddedness have not yet reached a consensus. One primary reason caused this result is that the different levels of knowledge embeddedness for synergies have been neglected to examine. To provide evidence to develop strategies for improving synergetic innovation performance based on related knowledge by embedding knowledge, this paper used the 496-questionnaire data to investigate the impacts of knowledge embeddedness on synergetic innovation performance, the mediating effects of knowledge acquisition and knowledge leakage, and the moderating effect of strategic reactiveness. We found that knowledge embeddedness played an inverted U-shaped role in synergetic innovation performance in strategic alliances, whereas it had positive effects on knowledge acquisition and knowledge leakage. Two specific knowledge flow behaviours, knowledge acquisition and knowledge leakage exerted inverted U-shaped impacts on synergetic innovation performance. In addition, they had partial mediating effects between knowledge embeddedness and synergetic innovation performance. Moreover, strategic reactiveness positively moderated the relationship between knowledge embeddedness and synergetic innovation performance. Our results supplemented reliable empirical evidence to promote the development of embeddedness and knowledge management literature.