The Relationships among Relational Embeddedness, Structural Embeddedness and Innovation Performance: An Empirical Study of South China

The relationships among relational embeddedness, structural embeddedness and innovation performance are discussed with samples with High-tech samples drawn from South China. Moderated regression stepwise regression approaches are used to analyze the models. The results show that: (1) the relational embeddedness between firms, suppliers and customers has a positive impact on innovation performance, (2) the structural embeddedness between firms, suppliers and customers has a positive impact on innovation performance and, (3) the closer a firm´s relational embeddedness with their suppliers and customers is in the industry network, the more notably the firm´s structural embeddedness influences on firms´ innovation performance. These findings support the view that firms can improve their innovation performances by strengthening the construction of their relationships in the industry network.