IT-enabled inter-organisational relationships and collaborative innovation: Integration of IT design and relationships governance

Abstract

Firms developing collaborative innovation from IT-enabled inter-organisational relationships (IORs) are faced with both technological and relational challenges. Drawing on knowledge-based view, this paper first proposes a model to integrate IT design with relationships governance, then investigates and compares the technological and relational antecedents of collaborative innovation for focal firms in IT-enabled IORs, and finally explores the competitive performance impact of collaborative innovation. The research model is evaluated with data collected from 191 Chinese firms that digitally collaborate with their distributors. The findings suggest that digital platforms capability and two governance mechanisms (i.e., contractual governance and relational governance) work together to influence collaborative innovation, which in turn enables focal firms to obtain competitive performance. This study provides theoretical and practical implications for collaborative innovation literature by discovering the different impacts of IT design and governance mechanisms on collaborative innovation in the context of IT-enabled IORs.