Alliance Capability, Innovative Activity and Evolution - Innovative Management in Information and Production - page 52

to stimulate enterprise's innovation intention and behaviour and then contribute to
the technological innovative activity. Second, enterprises with high communicating
capability can choose the best path and methods of communication. Entrepreneurs
can be constructed through a variety of networks, such as the establishment of
credit, access to market information, management consulting, and capital financing
to obtain a wealth of valuable heterogeneity resources. Third, enterprises with
high communicating capability can determine the appropriate alliance members as
partners. In the process of cooperative innovation, due to the understanding of each
other, they believe that the other party will participate in innovation initiative and
overcome the problems positively, which would stimulate the enterprise innovative
intention and promote to achieve more innovative activities with higher value and
quality.

3.3.2 Relation Optimizing Capability and Innovative Activity

Instability of relationship would significantly weaken the output of enterprise
innovation. Therefore, in the alliance network, as a capability of maintaining and
improving partnership, enterprise's relation optimizing capability in the process
of mutual cooperation to complete technical project can guide and standardize
the network members' innovative behaviour, avoid the opportunism to reduce the
innovation cost and risk, and stimulate their enthusiasm for innovation, which makes
both sides not to be overly self-protective due to fear of other's speculation and
be willing to strengthen their technical innovation input, and do more innovative
practice.

3.3.3 Coordinating and Controlling Capability and Innovative Activity

Relation coordinating and controlling capability mainly has two great mechanisms,
the mechanism of trust and the conflict resolution. From the perspective of trust
mechanism, it is known to all that trust is the most important antecedent variables
that has impact on inter-organizational knowledge communication ( Kale et al.
2000 ). Trust can promote the transfer of tacit knowledge across organizational
boundaries and the innovation of alliance members; on the contrary, through lack
of trust, enterprise might be too concerned about the loss of their core technology
and competitive advantage to overly protect themselves, which will finally inhibit
innovation from happening in the alliance. From the other perspective of conflict
resolution mechanism, we can predict that when the enterprise and its partner have
conflicts, enterprises can have a better understanding of their partners, respect for
them, and make corresponding adjustment and correction though the capability
of relation coordinating and controlling, and eventually establish a conduct and
norms with each other, which can be shared with each other and promote a joint
innovation. Proposition lc: Relation bonding capability has a positive effect on
innovative activity.