In the digital economy era, the traditional boundaries between enterprises and the market are gradually being dismantled. The deep integration of digital technology and production operations has become a crucial driver of innovation and development. By further stimulating group wisdom and deepening open innovation through this integration, manufacturing enterprises can gain a competitive edge. However, Chinese manufacturing enterprises currently face challenges in leveraging digital technology to promote open innovation. There is a lack of scientific and systematic theoretical methods to guide their efforts. Additionally, research on the composition of digital technology affordance and its mechanisms in promoting open innovation is still limited. This gap makes it difficult for enterprises to effectively implement open innovation strategies that are well-adapted to the complex and dynamic environment of the digital economy.
Drawing to technology affordance theory, this study delves into how the accumulative and variable affordances of digital technology drive open innovation in manufacturing enterprises. To ensure sample representativeness, the study selects four types of manufacturing enterprises undergoing digital transformation, namely "digital transport equipment manufacturing", "digital general and special-purpose equipment manufacturing", "digital electrical machinery,apparatus and instrument manufacturing", and "other smart manufacturing", based on the "Classification of Digital Economy and Its Core Industries (2021)" released by the National Bureau of Statistics. It also selects samples from enterprises in regions with different levels of digital development. The study employs a combination of paper-based and e-mail questionnaires to survey middle- and senior-level managers in relevant enterprises, using a multi-time-point data collection method to reduce common method bias and better capture the relationships between variables.
By empirically examining data from a sample of 312 manufacturing firms, the study finds that (1) both accumulation affordance and variation affordance have a significant positive impact on open innovation in manufacturing firms; (2) resource reorganization and resource relocation are key links connecting the affordance of digital technologies and open innovation in manufacturing firms, playing a partly mediating role; (3) managerial digital cognition is an important internal contextual factor in the process of enterprise digital transformation, which can enhance the effect of cumulative affordance on resource relocation, and at the same time improve the effect of variable affordance on resource reorganization; while it does not play a significant moderating role in the relationship between cumulative affordance and resource reorganization, and variable affordance and resource relocation.
This study makes both theoretical and methodological contributions as follows. First, it develops a novel theoretical analytical framework of 'digital technology affordance-resource reconfiguration-open innovation', which remedies the insufficient explanatory power of existing theories regarding the impact mechanism of digital transformation on open innovation in manufacturing enterprises. Second, it empirically verifies the role of managerial digital cognition in the transmission pathway through which digital technology affordance affects open innovation, thus further clarifying the key boundary conditions for effective open innovation in the context of manufacturing digital transformation.
From a practical perspective, the findings imply that manufacturing firms should take business needs as the guide and advance open innovation by integrating accumulative and variable affordances in a coordinated manner. Meanwhile, enterprises need to leverage the "multiplier effect" of digital resources and expand the scope of open innovation by utilizing market data to accurately capture customer demands and potential business opportunities, dynamically reshaping resource systems to enhance organizational agility, and adopting data analytics to explore new approaches to resource utilization and optimize targeted resource reallocation. In addition, organizations should actively upgrade managerial digital cognition to provide core strategic support for the formulation and implementation of innovation-driven development strategies in the digital era. This can be achieved by regularly conducting training programs on digital technology applications and data element utilization, as well as by strengthening managers' understanding and mastery of the underlying logical framework and architecture of digital operation systems.