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| Relationship Embedding,Knowledge Acquisition and BOP Market-oriented Product Innovation:Moderating Effects of Internal and External Uncertainties |
| Zhao Wu1,Wang Anqi2,Liu Wei3 |
| (1.School of Marxism, Xidian University; 2.School of Economics and Management, Xidian University,Xi'an 710126,China; 3.School of Management,Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049,China) |
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Abstract With the mainstream market increasingly saturated, more and more enterprises focus on the bottom of the pyramid market. By providing products and services to this market through product innovation, companies can not only foster new growth opportunities, but also create multiple social and environmental values by improving the living and production standards for people at the bottom of the pyramid. However, due to the market complexity and the uniqueness of people who are at the bottom of the pyramid, enterprises must be embedded in their social network and realize relationships coupling with them in order to realize product innovation gradually. In this case, there is a phenomenon of too much of a good thing in relationship embedding. In the market environment with increasing uncertainties, will the establishment of a closely coupled bilateral relationship between enterprises and people from the bottom of the pyramid be valuable or harmful to the relationship? How can companies get long-term value from the bilateral relationship and avoid the potential risks that come with it? #br#Based on the existing research on embedded relationships, knowledge acquisition, uncertainty and product innovation, this research regards product innovation as a result of value relationship between variables, and construct a theoretical framework of double loop collaborative knowledge acquisition-product innovation of the pyramid bottom. This paper explores how the double-loop synergy mechanism constructed by the interaction of bilateral relationship coupling and network embedded in the inter-departmental cooperation network of the bottom of pyramid affects the external knowledge acquisition of enterprises, and how it works on the product innovation market-orientedness of bottom pyramid. A nonlinear competitive mediation model is constructed, and independent variables (double-loop collaboration), intermediate variables (knowledge acquisition, cognitive bias) and dependent variables (product innovate) are included in the model. Through the distribution of 850 questionnaires to the electric bicycle industry, a total of 501 questionnaires were collected and 396 were valid. In order to verify the proposed hypothesis and model, SPSS 20.0 software was used for data analysis.The reliability and validity analysis, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis on the sample data were conducted by AMOS 21.0. The results show that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the two-loop collaboration mechanism and knowledge acquisition with cross-level embedding. High external uncertainty will enhance the inverted U-shaped relationship, but high internal uncertainty has no significant effect on the inverted U-shaped relationship. Through the partial mediating effect of knowledge acquisition, the final cross-level embedded double-loop synergy has an inverted U-shaped relationship with product innovation of the bottom of pyramid. #br#In theory, this study attempts to clarify the mechanism of relationship embedding, knowledge acquisition, internal and external uncertainty on product innovation of pyramid bottom market, make up for the defects of existing literature, and enrich the bottom of the pyramid theory, relationship embedding and other theories. This study has certain guiding significance for enterprises to control the degree of network embedding of bottom of pyramid, optimize network configuration and network governance. To be more specific, enterprises should continuously evaluate, predict and reflect on different BOP market environments in order to make discretionary choices. When the environment changes, especially the external uncertainty increases, enterprises should consciously adjust the open multiple relationship connection, trigger the collaborative innovation mechanism between organizations, and take the construction of external relations as a buffer of uncertainty. In the process of embedding BOP cross departmental network, enterprises should not only become the BOP output center, but also become the strategic coordination center for coordinating and integrating diversified cooperative relations.on the one hand, enterprises should use network resources to form complete business solutions based on trust and social capital, and create multiple values for society and BOP groups at the same time;on the other hand, it should weaken the short-sighted tendency in the binary relationship of partners and reduces the negative impact induced by the relationship mechanism.#br#This study is cross-sectional. In the future, we can add a longitudinal research design, take the time factor into account, and investigate the dynamic relationship between variables at different time nodes. At the same time, the questionnaire can be combined with experimental research, data simulation and other research methods.#br#
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Received: 04 November 2020
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