The Effect of the Exterior R&D Network on the Import Substitution of Small and Medium Venture Firms: The Moderating Impact of Corporate R&D Center

The business environment changing very fast with technology advance and convergence makes the role of R&D become more and more important to firms’ success. By analyzing the 683 firm-level data of small and medium venture firms with the ordinary least squares regression, this study sheds new light on the following four points. First, small and medium venture firms’ exterior R&D collaboration network heterogeneity positively impacts their import substitution from technology development. Second, the existence of the corporate R&D center moderates the positive impact of small and venture firms’ exterior R&D collaboration network heterogeneity on their import substitution from technology development. Third, small and venture firms’ exterior R&D information network heterogeneity positively impacts their import substitution from technology development. Fourth, The existence of the corporate R&D center moderates the positive influence of small and venture firms’ exterior R&D information network heterogeneity on their import substitution from technology development.