Digital technology and industry-university-research (IUR) R&D network configurations: An exploration of market participation and market maturity

Amidst the rapid transformations ushered in by digital technology, which forges comprehensive digital connections across research & development (R&D) networks, leaders of pioneering organizations are diligently predicting market shifts, leveraging insights from institutional and network theories. This research enriches understanding by exploring how the digital technology adoption focus of innovative organizations affects their position within R&D networks, integrating perspectives from both theories. It identifies market participation and market maturity as key moderating factors and assesses their differential moderation effects. Employing a panel dataset of 1654 records from 2010 to 2022, which scrutinizes industry-university-research (IUR) R&D endeavors in China, the analysis demonstrates that an organization's digital technology adoption orientation positively influences its network centrality but adversely affects its position in structural holes. Additionally, the study finds that market participation diminishes the positive relationship between digital technology adoption focus and both network centrality and structural hole bridging capabilities. Conversely, market maturity enhances the association with network centrality but weakens the capacity to bridge structural holes. Further analysis was conducted on the temporal variations and the relationship between digital technology adoption and R&D network centrality and structural holes within heterogeneous innovative organizations. The investigation concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, rooted in institutional and network theory insights.