The Impact of International Knowledge Search on Innovation Performance: Moderated by Search Intensity

Abstract

In the era of knowledge economy, firms need to search outside to obtain strategic and complementary resources to innovate. However, existing research on open innovation mainly focuses on local knowledge search and ignores to answer the question that how firms search outside firm boundary. Based on the attention theory, we divide external knowledge search process into two parts, namely search selection and search intensity. This paper examines how international knowledge search and search intensity help enhance innovation performance in China's emerging economy. The result shows that international knowledge search and search intensity both are positively related to innovation performance, and search intensity positively moderates the relationship between international knowledge search and innovation performance. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.