Supply Chain Relationship Quality and Corporate Technological Innovations: A Multimethod Study

Abstract

In practice, technological innovation has increasingly become an important means for enterprises to cope with global competition and obtain sustainable development. An increasing number of companies are relying on supply chain resources in the technology development process. Based on the framework of knowledge resource orchestration and the survey data of Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers in China’s automotive industry, this study comprehensively analyzed the influencing factors of technological innovations in supply chain enterprises. The analysis of the research by the Bootstrapping method found that supply chain relationship quality (SCRQ) positively impacts corporate technological innovations, in which knowledge sharing and knowledge integration play a dual mediating role. The investigation of the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) revealed that individual elements do not constitute a necessary condition for high-tech innovations in supply chain firms. Mutual commitment among supply chain members plays a more pervasive role in generating high-tech innovations. The two results corroborate each other and further illustrate the vital role of the intersection of SCRQ and knowledge management for corporate technological innovations.