The context and innovation performance in external knowledge network: An empirical study in software industry of China

The paper makes a study of how the knowledge network context contributes to the innovation performance of the firms in the network, and further establishes a regression analysis model, which takes objective, trust, communication, rules and risk control as independent variables and the firm's technological innovation performance as the dependent variable. Based on first-hand data of 74 software companies in China, the analysis shows that communication and risk control exert significant positive effects on the firm's technological innovation performance. The paper further explores, through regression analysis, the relations and effects among independent variables, finding that the maturity of rules have remarkable positive effects on the risk control of knowledge network, and that trust and rules have notable positive effects on communication effectiveness.