餘裕資源、資源拼湊、產品多角化與創新之關係─吸收能力之調節效果分析

Abstract

The issue of innovation has been widely discussed in all fields. In the fast-changing industry environment, innovation is particularly related to firm's survival. The outcomes of pursuing innovations and firm growth strategy are both not realizable in a short term. Therefore, learning how to utilize resources effectively in order to pursue innovation becomes an increasingly important topic for firms. The organizational slack resources within the organizations not only provide the resource organization to develop high-risk innovations, but also enable organization to develop diversification strategy. Base on resource base view (RBV), we take organizational slack, the major source for firms to acquire and utilize their resources, as the antecedent of product diversification and innovation. We assume that organizational slack resources influence the related and unrelated product diversification and thus affect innovation. This study also integrates resource bricolage, the ability to recombine resources at hand for new purpose, into research framework as the antecedent of innovation. Additionally, absorptive capacity is included as a moderator in the research for the reason that it may promote innovation when organization with slack resources and resource bricolage. In short, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among organizational slack, product diversification and innovation, and also examine the moderating effect of absorptive capacity. The samples of this research are supervisors of product department or marketing department in Taiwanese manufacturing firms. A total of 1400 questionnaires are sent and 131 valid questionnaires were received. It represents a response rate of 9.36%. Empirical results indicate that absorbed slack negatively influences product diversification and related product diversification; while unabsorbed slack positively influences product diversification and related product diversification. Besides, results show that resource bricolage have positive effect on innovation but the overall slack have no significant impact on innovation. The study also examines two types of organizational slack on their effect to innovation. Results imply that absorbed slack has an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation; and unabsorbed slack exist a U-shaped relationship. It was found that the product diversification have a positive effect on innovation. However, the hypotheses are not supported under the categories of related/unrelated product diversification. Finally, the moderate effects of absorptive capacitive are insignificant in the relationships between product diversification and innovation, and he moderate effects of absorptive capacitive are insignificant between the relationships between resource bricolage and innovation.

近年各界對於創新的討論甚多，特別是產業環境變化如此快速，創新關乎企業的存活。然而企業發展成長策略以及對創新追求，二者的成效均非短期間可見，因此了解企業如何有效運用組織資源追求創新的議題日益重要。 組織內部的餘裕資源能支持企業發展高風險的創新，使企業有餘力發展多角化經營的成長目標。本研究根據資源基礎的觀點，認為企業內部的餘裕資源對組織而言是最容易取得、應用的資源來源，餘裕資源可能影響企業的產品多角化，並進而影響創新。本研究亦納入資源拼湊的概念，探討資源拼湊中，企業將可取得資源加以重組創造新用途的特質是否有助於創新。此外吸收能力為發展創新的重要能力之一，能夠促進資源拼湊與產品多角化對組織的創新能力，故本研究納入吸收能力作為調節變數加以探討。簡言之，本研究之研究目的乃在探討餘裕資源、資源拼湊、產品多角化與創新間之關係，以及吸收能力在其中扮演的調節效果。 本研究以台灣製造業廠商之產品部門與行銷部門主管為研究對象進行問卷調查。共寄出1400份問卷，回收141份問卷，扣除無效問卷11份，實際有效問卷為130份，有效回收率為9.36%。 研究結果發現，在餘裕資源與產品多角化的關係上，已吸收餘裕資源對產品多角化程度與相關產品多角化呈現負向顯著影響；而未吸收餘裕資源則對產品多角化與相關產品多角化呈現正向顯著影響。另外，在影響創新的因素中，研究結果發現資源拼湊對於創新存在顯著正向影響效果。而整體餘裕資源對創新雖不具顯著性影響，但若進一步將餘裕資源加以分類探討，發現其中已吸收餘裕資源與創新存在顯著倒U型影響效果，而未吸收餘裕資源卻對創新呈現顯著U型影響效果。產品多角化程度對於創新有正向顯著影響，但加以區分探討相關產品多角化與非相關產品多角化對創新的影響，則無顯著性的影響效果。本研究實證結果顯示，在產品多角化與創新關係中，吸收能力的調節效果並不顯著，而吸收能力在資源拼湊與創新間的調節效果亦不顯著。