Jizhen Li

Information technology and open innovation

Advances in information technology (IT) have enabled firms to increasingly rely on open innovation. Although researchers and practitioners are interested in this phenomenon, there is a lack of theoretically driven research on how IT impacts organizational open innovation performance. Drawing on the strategic IT alignment perspective and related literature, we proposed a model to explain the performance of organizational open innovation; i.e., the alignment between IT strategies and the openness of open innovation strategies results in different outcomes for open innovation. Through the analysis of data from 225 firms in China, we found that the alignment between IT flexibility and breadth enhances innovation radicalness and innovation volume, whereas the alignment between IT integration and depth positively affects innovation volume only. Innovation volume and radicalness were found to enhance organizational performance in terms of sales growth. Our study contributes to the literature on open innovation and strategic alignment. Its findings also have important managerial implications for practitioners.

How Entrepreneurs Leverage Institutional Intermediaries in Emerging Economies to Acquire Public Resources

Research Summary: Governments in emerging economies often use institutional intermediaries to promote entrepreneurship, and bridge the void between ventures and public funding. While prior literature describes what institutional intermediaries do, it leaves open how intermediaries support different types of entrepreneurs. By comparing science park and non-science park firms in Beijing and across China, we distinguish which entrepreneurs benefit from certification v. capability-building through the introduction of two new constructs: skill adequacy and context relevance. Broadly, our study adds insights at the nexus of emerging economies and entrepreneurship research, and to the tie formation and institutional intermediaries literatures.Managerial Summary: A key dilemma facing entrepreneurs is how to finance their ventures. While entrepreneurs in developed economies can seek VC or angel investment, entrepreneurs in emerging economies often need to pursue potential government funding opportunities. Our study highlights three strategies for acquiring government funding. Well-connected entrepreneurs can leverage their political ties to acquire such funding. Less-connected entrepreneurs can leverage science parks that in emerging markets are designed to help governments to identify promising ventures. For returnees whose ample experience abroad may not fit with local ways of doing business, gaining science park admission can certify quality and so ease the path to government funding. For technically skilled local entrepreneurs who lack business skills, science parks can help build such skills which then ease the path to government funding.

Firm Performance and State Innovation Funding: Evidence from China's Innofund Program

Can firms leverage public entrepreneurship investments to improve innovation and financial performance? Analysis of this question is frustrated by the difficulty of distinguishing treatment from selection effects. We take advantage of internal administrative data on applications to China’s Innofund program in order (a) to identify which application features are associated with higher chances of obtaining grants and (b) to evaluate the causal impact of receiving a grant on firm performance using a regression discontinuity (RD) design. With regards to grant receipt, we find that firms possessing observable merits and political connections are more likely to receive Innofund grants. We also find evidence of bureaucratic intervention, as applicants’ evaluation scores are non-randomly missing and that some firms whose scores did not meet funding standards nonetheless received grants. With regards to post-grant performance, we find that firms receiving high project evaluation scores and Innofund grants perform better than those that do not receive grants and have lower scores. These do not appear to be causal effects, however. Applying Fuzzy RD methods, we find no evidence that receiving an Innofund grant boosts survival, patenting, or venture funding. Our analysis demonstrates the value of administrative data for causal analysis and for uncovering evidence regarding the possibility that bureaucratic intervention affects firm and program outcomes.

Chinese Entrepreneurs Human and Social Capital Benefiting Innovation: In China and in the Chinese Diaspora

An entrepreneurs innovative work tends to benefit from the entrepreneurs human and social capital. The entrepreneurs human and social capital depend on the social context, specifically whether the entrepreneur is residing in the home country or in the diaspora. The dual embeddedness of migrants may have a reinforcing or a countervailing impact on the benefits of human and social capital for innovation. Using a sample of 3,593 Chinese entrepreneurs in China and 177 Chinese entrepreneurs residing abroad, we examine the benefits of human and social capital for innovation, comparing Chinese entrepreneurs in China with Chinese entrepreneurs in diaspora. We find that the level of education, entrepreneurial competencies and social capital varied between entrepreneurs in home country and diaspora. Of the social and human capitals considered in this study, we found that only the more specific entrepreneurial competencies showed different dynamics for innovation in the diaspora compared to the home country.

Building national innovation platform in China: theoretical exploration and empirical study

Purpose – China has been putting into effect a program of “national innovation platforms (NIPs)” since 2008. Because it is still at an experimental stage, some key issues remain ambiguous. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a theoretical exploration and empirical study on the NIP program to present the theoretical foundation and draw out implications for its future practice.Design/methodology/approach – Based on the literature review of national innovation system (NIS) approach, this paper develops an analytical framework for analyzing the mechanism of NIP. Then an in‐depth case study further validates the framework.Findings – NIP is a practice under the guidance of NIS approach. It effectively accomplishes interaction and cooperation between different actors and encourages flow of innovation resources. Based on NIP of textile industry, managerial and operational implications are drawn out.Research limitations/implications – Investigation of this paper is limited to a single industry. The result of t...

Gaining Relational Competitive Advantages: A Conceptual Framework on Rent Generation and Appropriation

Establishing Strategic Technological Partnerships (STPs) with foreign partners is an increasingly studied topic within the innovation management literature. Partnering firms can jointly create sources of relational competitive advantage. Chinese firms often lack Research and Development (R&D) capabilities but are increasingly becoming preferred technological partners for transnational corporations. We investigate an STP between a Scandinavian and a Chinese firm and try to explore how to gain relational competitive advantage by focusing on its two essential stages: relational rent generation and appropriation. Based on an exploratory case study, we develop a conceptual framework that consists of process, organisational alliance factors and coordination modes that we propose lead to relational competitive advantage.

Co‐authorship patterns in East Asia in the light of regional scientific collaboration

Purpose – Various forms of regional cooperation in East Asia have greatly increased in the past two decades. Scientific collaboration is beneficial for both scientifically lagging countries (SLCs) and scientifically advanced countries (SACs) with respect to their S&T capacity and thus economic prosperity. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive description of intra‐regional scientific collaboration in East Asia from 1985 to 2008 with the 10+3 (ASEAN ten plus China, Japan and South Korea) framework.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses co‐authored articles embodied by Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI‐Expanded) to indicate cross‐border scientific collaboration.Findings – Data show that heterogeneity in the publication output across East Asian countries is decreasing. Intra‐ASEAN, intra‐ Northeast Asia, as well as ASEAN and Northeast Asia scientific collaboration greatly improved since 1997.Originality/value – This paper discusses factors influencing international scientific collaboration and f...

Internal and external sources of tacit knowledge: evidence from the Chinese optical fibre and cable industry

This paper provides an analysis of the relative significance of various methods of acquiring tacit knowledge within the Chinese optical fibre and cable industry. The paper contributes to the definition, understanding and investigation of tacit knowledge using firm-level data in a developing country context, helping to complete a gap in the existing broader literature on technological learning. The research suggests that in industries where tacit knowledge is a more important component of technological learning than codified knowledge, internal R&D activities and domestic peers are important knowledge sources. Additionally, universities are shown to be an important asset in creating learning organisations and provide effective knowledge sources of both tacit and codified knowledge. However, imports of equipment and licensing are a less effective learning channel in the acquisition of tacit foreign technology.

A Study of the Beijing Science and Technology Resource Platform

The distribution of science and technology resources in China has encountered a series of problems including, for example, scattered resources, unnecessary duplication and ineffective management. To facilitate access to these valuable resources, the Beijing Science and Technology Committee, a local government agency, established the Beijing Science and Technology Resource Platform (BSTRP) in 2009. BSTRP introduced market-oriented professional service companies as third parties acting in cooperation with suppliers and end users of science and technology resources. The aim of BSTRP was to create a win–win mechanism without dramatically changing the existing institutional framework or disturbing the basic interests of the participants. In this paper the authors report on the development of BSTRP and its progress to date. They also discuss the theoretical implications of the BSTRP model.

Disruptive innovation for the base of the pyramid market – a case study on China’s Shanzhai cell phone industry

This paper explores how firms can initiate disruptive innovation in the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) market. Based on the extant literatures on BoP and disruptive innovation, this paper adopts case study methodology and analyses the process of disruptive innovation of Shanzhai cell phone industry. Combining qualitative data with grounded theory, this paper finds that the structural disruption and the functional disruption of technology influence different factors of the business model of companies and the integration of disruptive technology with business model innovation is necessary for firms to initiate disruptive innovation. The companies with disruptive innovation can leverage the BoP-oriented small- and medium-sized enterprises and the existing industry system to fulfil the disruption process in the BoP market. The findings of this paper contribute to the research both on disruptive innovation and on BoP markets.