The impact of smart city Internet firms network embeddedness on product innovation: a moderated mediating model

Abstract

While networking integration has been regarded as a significant driver in technology development, it remains unknown which and how situations influence the online business innovation process. This study used survey data from 466 smart city Internet firms in China to examine how three network embeddedness dimensions—structural embeddedness, relational embeddedness, and cognitive embeddedness—affect product innovation from the perspective of value network embeddedness, drawing on network embeddedness, intergrowth, and knowledge absorptive capacity theory. This paper also looked at the mediating variable of intergrowth and information knowledge transfer. According to our findings, intellectual, social, or architectural inclusion, all contribute to the enhancement of product innovativeness. Such beneficial connections are mediated to some extent by the resources provided. The association among networking involvement as well as technology innovation is moderated by information absorbent ability. Our findings add to the body of research in the areas of innovative technology, networking inclusion, and information absorbent ability.