Innovation drives productivity, economic growth, and social advancement. Amidst business pressures, how to improve the innovation performance of enterprises has become the most concerning issue for entrepreneurs. Digital technology, as a key driving force in the era of the digital economy, is leading industrial change, reshaping enterprise production methods, and promoting the emergence and development of new business forms and new models. Digital transformation accelerates innovation and provides a clear direction for growth and value creation. Enterprise digital transformation refers to the process of triggering significant changes in physical attributes with the help of a combination of digital technologies, such as information, computing, and communication, to facilitate the evolution of the business entity. Most scholars have a more consistent view of the relationship between digital transformation and enterprises' innovation performance and believe that it can positively affect enterprise innovation performance. However, scholars widely agree it positively impacts innovation performance, though research often overlooks the digitization of production factors within enterprises and their influence.
A major feature of the current economic environment is the knowledge economy, in which knowledge is the most important production factor and core asset of the enterprise, and a key resource for enterprises to maintain strong innovation vitality. Knowledge digitization, by changing the existing form of knowledge resources and giving them new characteristics, may open up the existing barriers and provide a boost to the enterprises innovative behavior and performance. Therefore, this study focuses on the impact of enterprise knowledge digitization on enterprise innovation performance, and deeply explores the process and mechanism of enterprise knowledge digitization on enterprise innovation performance.
This research first proposes the concept of knowledge digitization, and establishes a mediation model with moderation, aiming to investigate the impact of knowledge digitization of enterprises on innovation performance, as well as the mediating role of R&D exploration capability and the moderating role of entrepreneurial orientation. Using the research data of 243 enterprises in China, this research uses SPSS for multiple linear regression tests and AMOS for structural equation modeling tests, and the results show that (1)knowledge digitization and its codability, convergence, and generativity have significant positive impacts on enterprise innovation performance; (2)R&D exploration capability plays a mediating role in those processes; (3)entrepreneurial orientation positively moderates the relationship between R&D exploratory capability and enterprise innovation performance. These conclusions are in line with the current knowledge management theory and enterprise innovation practice in the context of digital transformation.
When knowledge becomes a digital resource, it can break the time and space limitations in the rapid dissemination speed of digital technology,and greatly shorten the cycle of knowledge flow, increase the opportunity for knowledge integration and reorganization, thus helping enterprises to promote the development of new products, the construction of new business models, and the improvement of the benefits brought by innovation.
The contribution of this research focuses on the following points. First, it proposes the concept of knowledge digitization. In the field of knowledge management, the possibility of using digital technology to change the form of knowledge existence and its impact has not been considered; in the field of digital transformation, the mechanism of the impact of digitized enterprise production factors on enterprise innovation performance has not been clarified. This research proposes the concept of knowledge digitization by combining the knowledge management theory with the digital empowerment theory, which complements and improves the existing research in the field of digital transformation and knowledge management. Second, this research verifies the mechanism of knowledge digitization's impact on enterprise innovation performance. Knowledge digitization as a brand new concept, needs to be further excavated for its impact mechanism on enterprise innovation performance. This study chooses R&D exploration capability as the mediator variable and entrepreneurial orientation as the moderator variable, constructs and validates a model of the impact of knowledge digitization on enterprise innovation performance, which opens this “black box”. Finally, this study offers management insights on how to promote knowledge digitization, enhance R&D exploration capability and improve entrepreneurial orientation, providing a reference for innovation strategies in the knowledge and digital economy contexts.
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