The Impact of Stable Customer Relationships on Enterprises’ Technological Innovation Based on the Mediating Effect of the Competitive Advantage of Enterprises

Abstract

Technological innovation and stable customer relationships are both important factors for the sustainable development of enterprises. However, it remains unclear whether there is a relationship between stable customer relationships and technological innovation. In this work, we manually collected data regarding customer relationships and the innovation of manufacturing companies listed in the A-Share index in China from 2009 to 2016. Through empirical analysis, this work used a two-way fixed effect model and intermediary effect model tests to explore the impact of stable customer relationships on technological innovation. The empirical research found the following. (1) Stable customer relationships significantly promote the technological innovation of enterprises, and the empirical results are still valid after a variety of robust tests. The competitive advantage of enterprises forms a part of the intermediary role in the relationship above. (2) Comparing the samples of large-scale enterprises, state-owned enterprises, mature enterprises, and low-capital-intensive enterprises, the research found that stable customer relationships can significantly promote corporate technological innovation in small-scale enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, young enterprises, and highly capital-intensive enterprises. This article enriches and deepens our understanding of the mechanism by which stable customer relationships affect enterprises’ technological innovation. At the same time, this research is helpful for better evaluating the impact of establishing a stable customer relationship on the sustainable competitive advantage of enterprises.

Determinants of competitive advantage: The roles of innovation orientation, fuzzy front end, and internal competition

“…The results indicate that idea generation (indirect effect = 0.311, lower level confidence interval (LLCI) = 0.219, and upper-level confidence interval (ULCI) = 0.400, P < 0.001), concept definition (indirect effect = 0.467, LLCI = 0.359, and ULCI = 0.582, P < 0.001), and initial planning (indirect effect = 0.364, LLCI = 0.262, and ULCI = 0.475, P < 0.001) mediate the effect of innovation orientation on competitive advantage. The values of LLCI and ULCI are both positive and the bootstrapped confidence interval does not include zero (Cheraghalizadeh et al, 2021). Thus, H3a, H3b, and H3c are supported.…”

“…Competitive advantage refers to the ability to obtain a higher level of performance than others in the same industry or market through attributes and resources (Chen et al, 2021). A company's competitive advantage includes two components, the source of competitive advantage and the outcome of competitive advantage (Huang et al, 2015).…”