Knowledge base renewal and the dynamic selection of R&D Partners: a perspective from innovation appropriation
摘要
Against the backdrop of continuous knowledge base renewal, why and how firms adjust their collaborative R&D partner relationships has become an important issue for understanding the dynamic evolution of open innovation strategies. Drawing on the theory of innovation appropriation, this study uses joint patent application data from Chinese A-share listed firms from 2003 to 2022 to systematically examine the impact of knowledge base renewal on the characteristics of collaborative R&D partner selection and its underlying mechanisms. The results show that knowledge base renewal significantly reduces the number of collaborative R&D partners, the diversity of partner types, and the geographic distance of collaboration, suggesting that firms actively contract their collaboration boundaries as their knowledge bases evolve. Further analysis indicates that knowledge base renewal strengthens firms’ attention to the protection of innovation returns and drives adjustments in collaborative relationships by reinforcing informal appropriability mechanisms and increasing the diversity of knowledge recombination. Moreover, the negative effects are more pronounced when CEOs have richer functional experience and when firms occupy more prominent structural-hole positions in innovation networks. These effects are also stronger in regions with higher levels of judicial protection for intellectual property rights and more developed socialized service systems. This study demonstrates that collaborative R&D partner relationships are not determined solely by the static characteristics of firms’ knowledge bases but are continuously reconfigured as knowledge bases evolve. By revealing the innovation appropriation logic underlying the dynamic adjustment of firms’ collaboration boundaries, this study offers a new theoretical explanation for the evolution of collaborative strategies in the context of open innovation.