How to realize the sustainable development of the industry-university-research institute (IUR) collaboration innovation ecosystem has become a key factor restricting the independent innovation capability of Chinese enterprises. Knowledge transfer performance is a key consideration in the process of R&D collaboration between companies and research institutes; how to improve the performance of knowledge transfer depends on the matching between the partners of IUR collaboration. This article seeks to explore the influence mechanism of partner differences in the industry-university-research institute collaboration on the performance of knowledge transfer from the perspective of enterprises. Specifically, the study explores the moderating effect of technical knowledge difference and goal difference on the relationship between absorptive capacity, learning willingness, and knowledge transfer performance. The study applied the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach to model these relationships, based on survey data gathered from 211 Chinese firms. The results show that the goal difference of industry-university-research institute collaboration partners has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between learning willingness, absorptive capacity, and knowledge transfer performance. The greater the degree of goal difference, the lower the role of the enterprise’s learning willingness and absorptive capacity to promote knowledge transfer performance. Technical knowledge difference has a significant inverted U-shaped effect on the relationship between absorptive capacity and knowledge transfer performance: a high degree of technical knowledge difference weakens the effects of absorptive capacity on knowledge transfer performance, while a low degree of technical knowledge difference will also negatively moderate the effects of absorptive capacity on knowledge transfer performance. The research conclusions provide scientists, government bodies, and decision makers with the necessary information for a better understanding of the effective mechanism of sustainable knowledge transfer in the IUR innovation ecosystem.

Focusing on internal corporate governance, this paper applies the shareholder activism perspective to consider how large shareholder participation behaviors might influence firm innovation performance. Specifically, “confrontationally strategic intervention” and “cooperatively strategic consensus” participation behaviors are examined and hypothesized to have different effects on managers’ risk-taking and firm innovation performance. Drawing on 182 Chinese firm samples, this paper applies hierarchical ordinary least-squares regression analysis to test the proposed hypotheses. The results show that strategic intervention was negatively associated to managers’ risk-taking and firm innovation performance, while strategic consensus positively affected managers’ risk-taking and firm innovation performance. Moreover, managers’ risk-taking fully mediated the influence of strategic intervention on firm innovation performance, whereas it partially mediated influence of strategic consensus on firm innovation performance. The study extends research on shareholder participation by construing that large shareholders’ participation behaviors can significantly influence managers’ risk-taking and corporate innovation performance, further deepening the understanding of the influences of large shareholders on the firm-level outcomes. The theoretical and practical implications of this finding are also discussed.

Key core technology innovation has become an important strategic path for countries to maintain industrial security amid intensifying global technological competition. As an important innovation paradigm, R&D collaboration is generally regarded as an effective way to achieve such innovation. However, the key issue of which collaborative mechanism is most effective at promoting key core technology innovation remains insufficiently explored. Therefore, systematically comparing the effectiveness of different mechanisms of collaborative innovation is of great strategic significance for achieving key core technology innovation and overcoming Western technological blockades. In this study, the R&D level and market share of key core technology were incorporated into an analytical framework and applied to a differential game focused on the innovation behaviors of leading enterprises, supporting enterprises, and academic research institutions under Nash non-collaborative, cost-sharing, and collaborative mechanisms. A simulation analysis was conducted using the MATLAB 2020a software. The results show that the optimal strategies for the key core technology innovation of innovation entities are negatively correlated with the cost coefficient, discount rate, technology, and market recession coefficient. Meanwhile, they are positively correlated with the sensitivity coefficient of technology R&D and market promotion. Furthermore, the R&D levels and market shares of key core technology are highest under the collaborative mechanism. In this scenario, the revenues of the innovation entity and the overall system reach Pareto optimality. Within a threshold range, the cost-sharing mechanism significantly improves innovative efforts, the R&D level, and the market share of key core technology, leading to a Pareto improvement for both the participants’ and overall system’s revenues compared to the non-collaborative mechanism. This study not only contributes to theoretical results of differential games but also provides valuable suggestions for policymakers and innovation entities to foster key core technology innovation from the perspective of collaboration.

The objective of this paper is to explore how design service organizations sustain competitiveness in production networks. In trends of global sourcing and production networks, manufacturing enterprises outsource more and more activities and become dependent much on their network suppliers. Design service firms play multiple roles in the network, knowledge and network relationship are essential for them to take advantages. The study focus on industrial design firms, a research framework is developed through literature, and a multiple case study was conducted to illustrate and explore the details. It is presented that successful design firms are rich in knowledge in all levels of user, organization and networks, and knowledge in user domain are emphasized. The abilities of integration and collaboration are the key points to maintain and develop design relationship in production networks.