The multiple mediation effect of absorptive capacity on the organizational slack and innovation performance of high-tech manufacturing firms: Evidence from Chinese firms

Previous studies have been conducted on how organizational slack impact on the firms' innovation performance. However, there are few researches on how slack availability impact on the firms' innovation performance. In addition, absorptive capacity is also an important factor affecting innovation performance, but there is no literature focusing on the important role of absorptive capacity on organizational slack and firms' innovation performance. Therefore, it is necessary to combine organizational slack, absorptive capacity and innovation performance to analyze. In addition, high-tech manufacturing firms are the pillars of the country's economic development, and its development affects the country's international competitiveness. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the promotion mechanism of innovation performance for promoting national competitive advantage. Based on this, we classify organizational slack from the perspective of slack availability, and analyze the effects of different dimensions of organizational slack and absorptive capacity on innovation performance in high-tech manufacturing firms. Additionally, we compare and analyze the multiple mediation effects of two absorptive capacities on organizational slack and innovation performance. Using the data from Chinese high-tech manufacturing firms from 2016 to 2018, we construct a panel data model to conduct empirical analysis and obtain the following research findings: with the increase of available slack and potential slack, the innovation performance of high-tech manufacturing firms exhibits an initial increasing trend and then a decreasing trend. In contrast, with the increase of recoverable slack, the innovation performance of high-tech manufacturing firms exhibits an initial decreasing trend and then an increasing trend. In addition, we use the bias-corrected bootstrap method to test the multiple mediation effects of the two absorptive capacities, and find that available slack can influence the innovation performance of high-tech manufacturing firms through realized absorptive capacity. In addition, potential slack can influence the innovation performance of high-tech manufacturing firms through potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity.