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Science & Technology Management and Innovation Management

Research on the Mechanism of Industrial Internet Platforms'  Technology Features on the Manufacturing Enterprises' Innova⁃ tion Flexibility 

Sun Yuan1, 2, 3 , Shen Mengjie2 , Wu Lixia2 , Yang Bo2 

(1.Modern Business Research Center, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China; 2.School of  Business Administration (MBA), Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China; 3.Intelligent Man⁃ agement Institute of China, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China)

Abstract: In the context of the convergence of the new global industrial revolution and tech⁃ nological revolution, manufacturing enterprises face an increasingly complex and uncertain ex⁃ ternal environment. Drawing on Resource Orchestration Theory, this study aims to open the  "black box" of how industrial Internet platforms′ technology features affect the manufacturing en⁃ terprises′ innovation flexibility by deeply exploring the mediating role of resource reconfigura⁃ tion and the moderating role of environmental uncertainty. A theoretical model is constructed, encompassing industrial Internet platforms′ technology features (connectivity, compatibility, syn⁃ chronization, and modularity), resource reconfiguration (resource recombination and resource re⁃ allocation), innovation flexibility, and environmental uncertainty (technological uncertainty and  market uncertainty). This study employed a questionnaire survey method, targeting middle and  senior managers from manufacturing enterprises that are currently using the industrial Internet  platform, and collected a total of 309 valid responses. The results indicate that: ①The four tech⁃ nology features of the industrial Internet platform all have significant positive effects on both re⁃ source recombination and resource reallocation in manufacturing enterprises. Specifically, con⁃ nectivity and compatibility, which involve underlying hardware and data levels, have a stronger  effect on resource reallocation, whereas synchronization and modularity, which involve business  process optimization, more effectively promote resource recombination. ②Both resource recom⁃ bination and resource reallocation exert a significant positive influence on innovation flexibility  and play significant mediating roles between industrial Internet platforms′ technology features  and innovation flexibility. This suggests that platforms′ technology features translate into innova⁃ tion flexibility by driving enterprises to re-orchestrate internal and external resources. ③Both  technological uncertainty and market uncertainty significantly and positively moderate the rela⁃ tionship between resource recombination and innovation flexibility, but do not have a significant  moderating effect on the relationship between resource reallocation and innovation flexibility. In  terms of theoretical contributions, this study firstly systematically reveals the influence mecha⁃ nism of the industrial Internet platform on innovation flexibility from the perspective of technol⁃ ogy features. These findings represent a novel discovery in applying resource orchestration  theory to the context of the industrial Internet platform′s application value, thereby extending the  research scenarios of resource orchestration theory. Secondly, it confirms that manufacturing en⁃ terprises exhibit differentiated responses to external environmental uncertainties when leverag⁃ ing resource reconfiguration to enhance innovation flexibility. Regarding the practical contribu⁃ tions, this study guides managers of manufacturing enterprises to fully leverage platforms′ tech⁃ nology features to break resource boundaries and to strategically select resource reconfiguration  modes based on the types of external environmental uncertainties, thereby achieving agile re⁃ sponses to market dynamics and low-cost innovation. 

Key words: industrial Internet platform; manufacturing enterprises; technology feature; re⁃ source recombination; resource reallocation; innovation flexibility; environmental uncertainty; re⁃ source orchestration