Technology Search and High-tech Firms’ Innovation Quality: Inhibiting or Promoting?——An Analysis on the Multiple Mediating Effect of Absorptive Capability

Abstract

Abstract: Under the unprecedented changes in a century, the outside global environment is full of turbulence and uncertainty, and high-tech firms have to improve their innovation quality to achieve high-quality development. This paper uses 387 Chinese high-tech firms that got A-share listed from 2013 to 2019 as research samples to explore the mechanism of how technology search and absorptive capability influence high-tech firms’ innovation quality. The results show that the breadth and depth of technology search both have a non-linear inverted U-shaped relationship with the innovation quality of high-tech firms, and the balanced technology search significantly promotes the innovation quality of high-tech firms. Further research shows that different absorptive capabilities have heterogeneous mediating effects on the relationship between technology search and innovation quality of high-tech firms. The research conclusions enrich and deepen the study on the mechanism of how technology search and absorptive capability influence innovation quality, and provide theoretical reference for high-tech firms’ managers to develop the strategy of knowledge management and innovation management.

Key words: technology search, innovation quality, absorptive capability, multiple mediating effect

Huang Lei, Duan Yunlong, Chin Tachia, Zhou Li. Technology Search and High-tech Firms’ Innovation Quality: Inhibiting or Promoting?——An Analysis on the Multiple Mediating Effect of Absorptive Capability[J]. Management Review, 2023, 35(4): 91-104.

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