Gang Fang, Chen Chouyong and Qing Zhou, Hangzhou Dianzi University, China

Firms situated within innovation networks require specific abilities to acquire, from their network partners, the knowledge and the complementary assets that facilitate their innovation performance. Drawing on the resource-based view and social network theory, this study identifies two types of network capabilities: network structural capability and network relational capability. The purpose of this study is to deepen our understanding of the precise manner in which these network capabilities affect the networked firm’s innovation performance. Based on the data obtained from Chinese high-tech firms, this study’s findings suggest that network structural capability has a greater positive impact on innovation performance than network relational capability does within an exploration-orientated network. However, network relational capability is more positively associated with innovation performance within an exploitation-orientated network.

Innovation Network; Network Capabilities; Innovation; Resource-based View