Title: Innovation benefitting exporting: benefit enhanced by transnational networking

Authors: Jizhen Li; Zhijun Chen; Thomas Schøtt

Addresses: Research Center for Technological Innovation, School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China ' Torch High Technology Industry Development Center, The Ministry of Science and Technology of P.R. China, Beijing, China ' Department of Entrepreneurship and Relationship Management, University of Southern Denmark, Kolding, Denmark

Abstract: Well-known propositions are that innovation in an enterprise benefits its exporting, and that this dynamic is embedded in the network around the enterprise, in that innovation and exporting are both promoted by the network, especially the entrepreneur's transnational network. These propositions raise the question, how is the transformation of innovation into exporting embedded in the transnational network? The hypothesis here is that transnational networking facilitates the transformation of innovation into exporting, and form a moderating effect that enhances the benefit of innovation for exporting. An approximately representative sample of 38,430 owner-managers of starting and operating private firms around the world reported on networking, innovation and exporting in the global entrepreneurship monitor. Analyses reconfirm that innovation benefits exporting and that networking directly promotes both innovation and exporting. As hypothesised, entrepreneurs' transnational networking moderates and enhances the benefit of innovation for exporting.

Keywords: innovation; exports; transnational networks; global entrepreneurship monitor; GEM: exporting; networking.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2016.075740

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2016 Vol.16 No.3, pp.245 - 263

Received: 11 May 2015
Accepted: 09 Sep 2015
Published online: 01 Apr 2016 *

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