Boundary-spanning search, knowledge integration capability and sustainable competitive advantage

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how boundary-spanning search affects sustainable competitive advantage under the conditions that competitors also search and to test the moderating role of knowledge integration capability.Design/methodology/approachThis paper classifies boundary-spanning search into proactive search and responsive search by considering competition and develops a theoretical model in which knowledge integration capability moderates the effects of proactive and responsive searches on sustainable competitive advantage. Empirical analyses were conducted on the data of 245 Chinese advanced manufacturing firms.FindingsThe results show that proactive and responsive searches have inverted U-shaped relationships with sustainable competitive advantage. Moreover, the relationships between proactive and responsive searches and sustainable competitive advantage are moderated by knowledge integration capability. Specifically, as knowledge integration capability increases, the inverted U-shaped relationship between proactive search and sustainable competitive advantage becomes flatter, whereas the inverted U-shaped relationship between responsive search and sustainable competitive advantage becomes almost linear.Originality/valueThis paper enriches the research of boundary-spanning search by considering competition and uncovers how boundary-spanning search affects sustainable competitive advantage under the conditions that competitors also search. Furthermore, this paper sheds light on that the effects of proactive and responsive searches on sustainable competitive advantage are even more complex than inverted U-shaped patterns and provides a contingent viewpoint to deeply understand the relationship between boundary-spanning search and sustainable competitive advantage.

Platform Leadership and Sustainable Competitive Advantage: The Mediating Role of Ambidextrous Learning

“…Moreover, the measurement of exploratory learning (EY) and exploitative learning (EE) was prepared and adopted from Atuahene-Gima and Murray (2007) and Chung et al (2015) . Lastly, the measurement of the sustainable competitive advantage (SCA) mainly referred to Yang and Wang (2020) and Yang et al (2021) . This study conducted a tick-the-box survey.…”

“…Besides, previous studies have suggested that a firm’s ambidextrous learning and the competitive advantage may be influenced by firm age ( age ), firm size ( size ), ownership ( ownership ), and industry characteristics ( Camisón and Villar-López, 2014 ; Ma and Wu, 2020 ; Yang and Wang, 2020 ). For industry characteristics ( industry ), relevant research should compare high-tech and other industries ( Ge et al, 2016 ).…”

“…The role of ambidextrous learning for competitive advantage has been confirmed by many researchers ( Sijabat et al, 2020 ; Wang and Fang, 2021 ). In related studies, exploratory learning and exploitative learning are always used to explain the mechanism of the effects of certain organizational capabilities on sustainable competitive advantage ( Yang and Wang, 2020 ; Yang et al, 2021 ). In a complex, competitive environment, organizations should constantly learn to adapt to the challenges posed by the external environment ( Yang et al, 2004 ).…”

Digital Transformation of Manufacturing Enterprises: An Empirical Study on the Relationships between Digital Transformation, Boundary Spanning, and Sustainable Competitive Advantage

“…Manufacturers are facing an environment with blurred boundaries and inseparable internal and external resources [50]. For manufacturing enterprises, boundary spanning behavior has become an important way to obtain sustainable competitive advantage in the Internet era [53]. In the Internet era, the change of information acquisition and circulation mode has broken the original market structure.…”

Research on the Relationships Among Customer Participation, Knowledge Integration and New Product Development Performance

“…Secondly, knowledge integration is also an effective means to improve the utilization of customer knowledge and avoid R&D risks in the process of customer participation affecting NPD performance. Through the integration of new and old internal and external knowledge, enterprises can increase the possibility of recombination of knowledge elements and form enterprise-specific tacit knowledge, thereby promoting the establishment of sustainable competitive advantages [12]. And the stronger the ability of knowledge integration is, the higher the efficiency of knowledge circulation in an organization will be, which is conducive to the accurate evaluation and utilization of the acquired knowledge by an enterprise, thus effectively reducing the uncertainty in the NPD process and improving the enterprise performance [13].…”