Purpose

To adapt to the rapidly changing market environment, firms must constantly adjust and change their knowledge base to develop new technologies. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the improvement path of firms’ breakthrough innovation from the perspective of knowledge recombination in the context of dynamic change in the knowledge base. By analyzing the influencing mechanism of environmental dynamism on the relationship between the two, this paper provides a theoretical foundation for managers to make knowledge recombination decisions under a dynamic external environment while further enriching the firm’s innovation achievements.

Design/methodology/approach

Using data from 220 manufacturing firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share stock from 2010 to 2018, an extensive panel data set was constructed to investigate the effect of knowledge recombination, which was divided into recombination creation and recombination reuse, on firms’ breakthrough innovation. In addition, the authors differentiated environmental dynamism as market dynamism and technological dynamism and then examined its moderating role in the above relationships.

Findings

The research results show that various recombination behaviors of knowledge elements have a differentiated effect on firms’ breakthrough innovation presented as follows: Knowledge recombination creation is significantly positively correlated with firms’ breakthrough innovation, while knowledge recombination reuse is significantly negatively correlated with firms’ breakthrough innovation. In addition, environmental dynamism has a considerable moderating effect between knowledge recombination and firms’ breakthrough innovation further, emphasizing that the moderating effect on different types of knowledge recombination behaviors is significantly distinct.

Research limitations/implications

First, given that this study refers to several Chinese noted databases to collect second-hand data for empirical analysis, future research could use first-hand data by collecting questionnaire survey and interview to provide a more practical and detailed research conclusion. Second, the authors focused on the contextual variable to explore the moderating role of environmental dynamism on the relationship between knowledge recombination and breakthrough innovation. Nevertheless, the indirect effects of other internal factors were not discussed. The authors advocate future studies to involve other moderators from employee social and phycological perspectives, such as trust in colleagues in the proposed theoretical models in this study.

Practical implications

This study is conducive for managers to attach great attention to knowledge management practices in the firm and to understand the critical role of knowledge recombination in affecting innovation performance under dynamic environmental changes. Moreover, this study provides practical guidance and serves as a reference for firms to strengthen their knowledge recombination ability as full utilization of existing knowledge elements and exploration of new knowledge values.

Originality/value

Primarily, from the perspective of dynamic changes in the knowledge base, this paper explores how the knowledge recombination behaviors affect firms’ breakthrough innovation, thereby enriching and extending the relationship theory between knowledge recombination capabilities and breakthrough innovation, while new and valuable ideas are provided in the study of issues related to the firms’ breakthrough innovation; Moreover, this study analyzes the moderating effects of diverse types of environmental dynamism on the relationship between knowledge recombination and firms’ breakthrough innovation from a multi-dimensional perspective proposing that the moderating effects of environmental dynamism on different knowledge recombination behaviors are distinct.

中文翻译：

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探索知识重组对企业突破性创新的影响：环境活力的调节作用

目的

为了适应快速变化的市场环境，企业必须不断调整和改变其知识基础以开发新技术。本文的目的是从知识重组的角度分析知识库动态变化背景下企业突破性创新的改进路径。通过分析环境动态性对两者关系的影响机制，为管理者在动态的外部环境下做出知识重组决策提供理论基础，同时进一步丰富企业的创新成果。

设计/方法论/途径

利用2010年至2018年沪深A股220家制造业上市公司的数据，构建了广泛的面板数据集，研究了知识重组（分为重组创造和重组再利用）对企业突破的影响。创新。此外，作者将环境活力区分为市场活力和技术活力，然后考察了其在上述关系中的调节作用。

发现

研究结果表明，知识要素的各种重组行为对企业突破性创新具有差异化的影响，表现为：知识重组创造与企业突破性创新显着正相关，知识重组重用与企业突破性创新显着负相关。 。此外，环境活力在知识重组与企业突破性创新之间进一步具有相当大的调节作用，强调对不同类型的知识重组行为的调节作用显着不同。

研究局限性/影响

首先，鉴于本研究参考了国内多个知名数据库收集二手数据进行实证分析，未来的研究可以通过问卷调查和访谈等方式利用第一手数据，以提供更实用、更详细的研究结论。其次，作者重点关注情境变量，探讨环境动力对知识重组与突破性创新关系的调节作用。然而，其他内部因素的间接影响没有被讨论。作者主张未来的研究应从员工社会和心理角度考虑其他调节因素，例如对本研究中提出的理论模型中同事的信任。

实际影响

本研究有利于管理者高度关注企业知识管理实践，了解动态环境变化下知识重组对影响创新绩效的关键作用。此外，本研究还为企业强化知识重组能力，充分利用现有知识要素，探索新的知识价值提供了实践指导和参考。

原创性/价值

本文首先从知识库动态变化的角度探讨了知识重组行为如何影响企业突破性创新，从而丰富和拓展了知识重组能力与突破性创新的关系理论，同时为企业突破性创新的研究提供了新的有价值的思路。研究企业突破性创新相关问题；此外，本研究从多维度分析了不同类型的环境动力对知识重组与企业突破性创新关系的调节作用，提出环境动力对不同知识重组行为的调节作用是不同的。