知識來源異質性、知識流動與創新

Abstract

本研究使用次級資料法，觀察知識來源異質性、知識流動、創新和財務績效之間的關係。研究中對於知識來源異質性主要著重在三項構面：地域差異性、技術差異性以及語言差異性。我們認為因為知識來源端與接收端之間的差異程度會增加彼此之間的障礙而使得知識難以流動，所以知識來源異質性會阻礙知識流動。另一方面，知識來源異質性能為企業帶來更廣泛且非冗餘的想法和專業知識，藉以促進創新表現，所以我們認為知識來源異質性能正向調節知識流動與創新之間的關係。另外，由於企業能藉由創新獲得更好的產品發展或服務流程而有助於其成長或獲利，所以我們認為創新能提高企業的財務績效。 透過408家半導體企業在1987-2007年期間來自於USPTO的專利引用資料對假設進行驗證。我們使用負二項回歸模型檢視知識來源異質性對於知識流動的效應，研究結果發現技術差異性與語言差異性會降低企業之間的知識流動，而地域差異性對於企業之間的知識流動則是沒有顯著的影響。另外，透過負二項回歸模型檢視知識來源異質性對於知識流動與創新之間正向關係的調節效應，結果顯示技術差異性能正向調節知識流動與創新之間的關係，而地域差異性與語言差異性則是沒有顯著的正向調節作用。本研究的結論是，知識來源異質性雖然會降低企業之間的知識流動，但是卻能正向調節知識流動與創新之間的關係，使知識流動為創新帶來更高的效應。

This study used secondary data analysis to observe the relationship among knowledge source heterogeneity, knowledge flow, innovation and financial performance. We focused on three dimensions of knowledge source heterogeneity: geographical dissimilarity, technological dissimilarity, and language difference and hypothesized that knowledge source heterogeneity decrease knowledge flow because the extent of differences between the knowledge source and the recipient might increase barriers and hence make knowledge hardly to flow. On the other hand, the knowledge source heterogeneity might bring broader and nonredundant ideas or expertise for firms to facilitate innovation performance and thus we hypothesized that knowledge source heterogeneity has positive moderation effects on the relationship between knowledge flow and innovation. Furthermore, we also hypothesized that innovation increases financial performance because firms could have better development of products or service processes to benefit its growth or profitability. Hypotheses were tested by using patent citation data from USPTO of 408 firms in semiconductor industry in the period from 1987 to 2007. We used negative binomial regression model to examine the effect of knowledge source heterogeneity on the knowledge flow. The results indicated that technological dissimilarity and language difference have negative impact on the knowledge flow, while geographical dissimilarity has no significantly effects on the knowledge flow. Besides, we examined moderation effects of knowledge source heterogeneity on the relationship between knowledge flow and innovation by using negative binomial regression model. The results showed that technological dissimilarity positively moderates the effect of knowledge flow on innovation, while geographical dissimilarity and language difference have no positive and significant moderation effects on the relationship between knowledge flow and innovation. In this study, we found that although knowledge source heterogeneity increases barriers between firms and influenced the ease of knowledge flow, it has positive moderation effects that makes knowledge flow lead to higher innovation performance.