Antecedents and outcomes of collaborative innovation capabilities on the platform collaboration environment

The application of emerging collaborative digital technologies enhanced firms' collaborative innovation and firm performance. This paper examines the drivers of collaborative innovation capability, and its effects on the digital collaboration capability. Based on the technology-push and need-pull perspective as well as operational capability hierarchy view, we proposed the model of antecedents and outcomes of higher-level operational capability, such as collaborative innovation capability. We tested the research hypotheses using a field survey of 184 Chinese corporations. The research model was validated using hierarchical regression analysis with the data collected from the survey data. The results provide strong support for the proposed research model. In particular, we found that as hypothesized, the fit of platform technology and collaborative business need is the critical driver of collaborative innovation capability. Furthermore, the higher-level operational capability (i.e., collaborative innovation capability) impacts on the lower-level operational capability (i.e., digital collaboration capability). Especially, the impact of the fit on digital collaboration capability is completely mediated by collaborative innovation capability. By integrating the technology-push and need-pull perspective as well as operational capability hierarchy literature, this paper provides significant implications for antecedents and outcomes of collaborative innovation capabilities under the platform collaboration environment.