The Impact of Specialized Knowledge Search on Enterprise Innovation

Facing the fierce competition in today's market, a closed innovation model based on internal knowledge is not enough to support enterprises to seek high-performance innovation, corporations urgently need to search for external knowledge resources to meet this end. Existing research on open innovation in enterprise management failed to fully explain the impact mechanism of external knowledge search on sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. This paper grouped external knowledge search into three types: science-driven search, market-driven search and supply-driven search according to the knowledge-based theory. Considering the moderating role of the manager's attention focus,We analyzed the data in 485 questionnaires collected from manufacturing enterprises to discuss the impact mechanism of specialized knowledge search on sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. The conclusions we reached would enrich existing researches on factors influencing enterprise innovation, such as sustaining innovation and disruptive innovation. The research results laid an empirical base by summarizing previous theoretical views and also provided references for subsequent in-depth research. Moreover, the paper also provides practical management measures and suggestions for enterprises in developing countries to search and effectively transform external knowledge into innovative fruits. Meanwhile, the paper could be considered theoretical and practical guidance for enterprises to better promote innovation with the help of knowledge search.