中资企业研发国际化行为与创新绩效——基于2016—2018年中国国际工业博览会调研数据

随着中国对外开放的深入,越来越多的中资企业不满足于仅在国内研发,而是通过跨国并购、建立国际技术联盟以及设立海外研究机构等多种形式将研发活动扩展到海外。论文采用2016—2018年中国国际工业博览会问卷调研数据,运用有序多分类Logistic回归模型,分析了跨境合作研发、跨国并购、设立海外研发机构这3种研发国际化行为与企业创新的关系,并将企业的社会嵌入性和吸收能力作为调节变量研究其对研发国际化与企业创新绩效关系的影响。研究发现：相较于发展中国家与地区,中资企业更倾向于向拥有高密度研发能力、汇集全球创新资源与人才、语言沟通障碍较小的发达经济体进行研发投资。其次,跨国并购与设立海外研发机构与企业创新存在显著正相关;相较于单一研发国际化行为,多元化行为对企业产生创新均具有显著促进作用。最后,中资企业研发国际化行为对创新的影响力受到其在东道国本地的社会嵌入性以及自身吸收能力的正向调节。

R&D internationalization of Chinese enterprises and innovation performance:Based on the survey data of enterprises at the China International Industry Fair 2016-2018

With the deepening of the implementation of the open-door policy, increasing number of Chinese enterprises realizes that to remain technologically competitive, it is not enough to only rely on domestic R&D investment. They need to learn and to absorb advanced technological experiences by R&D internationalization via international strategic alliances, transnational mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and establishing offshoring R&D laboratories. However, it is debatable whether R&D internationalization can indeed promote firms' innovation performance. Some scholars argue that R&D internationalization can expand the range of available innovation resources, which bring positive influences on enterprise innovation performance; while others state that R&D internationalization also increases the difficulty and complexity of organization management greatly. The innovative effect of R&D internationalization should be studied further. In this article, we analyzed the impacts of international strategic alliances, transnational M&A, and offshoring R&D laboratories on firms' innovation performance. Meanwhile, we tested the moderating roles of social embeddedness and absorptive capacity in the relationship between R&D internationalization and innovation performance. We conducted questionnaire surveys of 676 Chinese enterprises at the China International Industry Fair from 2016 to 2018, and applied multi-classification ordered logistic regression models to explore the relationship. The results suggest that first, Chinese enterprises tend to carry out offshoring R&D in developed countries and regions with high-density R&D capability, pooling of global innovation resources, and less language and communication barriers. Second, R&D internationalization has positive effect on innovation performance, but there are significant differences across different types of R&D internationalization. A positive correlation exists between transnational M&A and innovation; establishing overseas R&D institutions has an important impact on the increase of innovation performance. The empirical study also reveals that diversification of offshoring R&D activities has a significant impact on the creation of patents and new products. Via diversified overseas R&D activities, Chinese enterprises broaden their access to knowledge spillovers in host countries and accelerate access to useful and innovative information. In addition, the influence of R&D internationalization on innovation activities is regulated by social embeddedness and absorptive capacity.