The Impact of Cross-Border R&D Sourcing on the Innovation Quality of MNCs, from the Perspective of Business Model Innovation

• Main Authors: Yunlong Duan, Hanxiao Liu, Zhiqing Deng, Peng Tao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: R&D sourcing; innovation quality; absorptive capacity; institutional distance; cross-border; business model innovation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/8/4579

In the literature on business model innovation (BMI) in multinational corporations (MNCs), the influence of cross-border R&D (Research and development) sourcing on innovation performance has been widely discussed; however, from a BMI perspective, apart from innovation performance, the innovation quality is also important. In addition, absorptive capacity and institutional distance are important indicators of MNCs’ innovation quality, although there have been few studies of the moderating effects on the relationship between R&D sourcing and innovation quality. Based on this research gap, starting from the perspective of BMI and by constructing a research framework that includes R&D intensity, R&D diversity, and innovation quality, this paper takes China’s high-tech MNCs as the research object to obtain a sustainable innovative business model. Further, absorptive capacity and institutional distance serve as moderating variables to study the moderating role of the relationship between R&D sourcing and the innovation quality of MNCs. This paper presents the following research findings. During the process of cross-border BMI, R&D intensity has a significant, inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation quality; R&D diversity has a significant negative linear relationship with innovation quality; and absorptive capacity and institutional distance each have a moderating effect on the above relationships.