On the Construction of Knowledge Ecology Models in the Strategic Change from Traditional Enterprises to Innovative Enterprises from the Perspective of Combination Innovation〔*〕

Liu Yan，Li Yuntao

(1．International School of Commerce Tianjin Foreign Studies University，Tianjin 300204;

2．School of Commerce Tianjin University of Commerce，Tianjin 300134)

Ⅰ．Introduction

China is in the crucial period of fulfilling the 12th Five－Year Plan of national economy and social development．It is the general policy of China to enhance autonomous innovation ability and accelerate the construction of innovative country in the overall construction of economic society at present．The construction of innovative country must be realized by large number of innovative enterprises．Since innovative enterprises have strong continuous innovative ability and industrial influence，they are of guiding importance in the construction of technique creation system，thus becoming the main force in exerting the science－oriented function．It is the major focus how to realize the strategic change from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises．There are two innovation methods in the strategic change from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises:original innovation and integrated innovation．Though the two methods have some differences，they are by nature a process of knowledge creation which manifests certain like life－form quality．Considering the fact that the strategic change at present phase is dominated by the latter method，this paper tries to expound the extensive ecological process of knowledge creation in the strategic change from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises from the perspective of integrating innovation so as to find the effective methods of successful implementation of strategic reform and boost the sustainable development of enterprises．

Ⅱ．The pan－ecological process of the strategic change from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises from the perspective of combination innovation

The strategic change from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises from the perspective of combination innovation，generally speaking，falls into the realm of the organic integration and innovation of existent resources and technology of the enterprises，which can be further divided into integrated innovation path and digestive absorption innovation path．The former refers to the production of products and techniques by the organic combination of existent resources and technology of the enterprises，while the latter refers to the innovation of products and techniques by integrating the mature resources and techniques introduced from the market on the part of enterprises．

The knowledge creation process of integrated innovation and digestive absorption innovation both include the links of knowledge preparation，knowledge production and knowledge diffusion．In knowledge preparation，employees acquire knowledge resources in and out of the organization and make preparation for the knowledge creation activity．In knowledge production，employees process the inspiration created by knowledge innovation and form individual knowledge．In knowledge diffusion，employees communicate individual knowledge and pass on knowledge，which forms the process of organizing group knowledge．

Ⅲ．The knowledge ecology model of the integrated innovation path

1．The preparation process

Different from original innovation，employees can be inspired by existent knowledge to create basic inspiration rather than having no examples to turn to when undertaking integrated innovation within enterprises．Therefore，as for the basic inspiration of knowledge innovation，the dependence of external knowledge field mainly manifests as directly introducing existent knowledge out of enterprises．Comparatively speaking，the dependence of internal knowledge field on the part of integrated innovation is weaker than that of original innovation，and in most cases，employees do not need the long － term accumulation of the internal knowledge to form knowledge spores．What they need are the moderate accumulation of internal knowledge and how to take advantage of the introduced external knowledge．

2．The developing process

The way employees process scattered knowledge under integrated innovation path is profoundly different from that of original innovation，which is called polymerization．The essence of knowledge fragments are not changed，and instead，organized in an orderly way and form a new type knowledge system．

3．The diffusion process

Similar to original innovation，employees need to communicate their knowledge with others and feedback the reconstructed knowledge to employees to be subsequently processed．Different from original innovation，the reconstruction process of knowledge during the communication is manifested as shaping，which means that knowledge provided by employees needs not to be sublated since it all comes from the existent knowledge resource．The process of interaction and reconstruction is mainly about the systemic integration of different individual knowledge，and several times of systemic integration will lead to the substantial integrated results recognized by the organization，such as integrated products and techniques．

The derived knowledge system generated by integrated innovation cannot keep the advantageous edge of enterprises like original innovation does．But core competitiveness of enterprises can be formed in certain period，and vigorous profit growth and market share for some time can be provided．

Ⅳ．The knowledge ecology model of the digestive absorption innovation path

1．The preparation process

In the process of forming basic inspiration，namely knowledge spore，by digestive absorption innovation path，employees need to introduce existent knowledge resources from external knowledge field to make subsequent process．As for integrated innovation，employees of enterprises tend to have certain understanding of the knowledge to be processed and how to create by using this knowledge．However，in the digestive absorption innovation path，employees tend to lack understanding of the introduced knowledge and fail to offer effective information source for knowledge preparation．As a result，knowledge spores generated by digestive absorption innovation tend not to rely on internal knowledge field．Knowledge spores can be generated by digestive absorption by means of the direct introduction of external knowledge field．

2．The developing process

In the developing process of digestive absorption innovation，due to the fact that employees lack understanding of the knowledge introduced from external knowledge field at first，the polymerization method cannot be adopted directly as integrated innovation does in processing the knowledge fragments that constitute knowledge spores．Instead，these knowledge fragments must be analyzed at first and then employees will come to know how to organize them，which is referred to as digestion．The digested knowledge fragments will be polymerized and form distinguished derived knowledge system，which is called individual derived knowledge bacteria strain．

3．The diffusion process

Like integrated innovation path，individual derived knowledge bacteria strain also needs to interact with and reconstruct individual external knowledge by means of knowledge communication platform，and then give feedback to employees to make further processing．However，the knowledge interaction and reconstruction have different way than that of integrated innovation path．Due to the fact that digestive absorption innovation relies on existent knowledge，it shows on evident innovation．Therefore，in the process of interaction，employees need to pass local innovation thoughts to other members so as to arouse consensus among them without showing severe thought conflicts or systemic integration．The above －mentioned interaction and reconstruction are called penetration．Individual knowledge tends to be assimilated through several times of penetration，thus forming derived knowledge system of organizations．In terms of ecology，this process can be understood as the formation of organizational derived knowledge flora by copy and transcription of individual derived knowledge bacteria strain．

Organizational derived knowledge flora formed by digestive absorption innovation tends to be imitated by other enterprises．Therefore，core competence of enterprises brought by the organizational derived knowledge flora is quite weak and short－term，but it is the most basic form of enterprise innovation．

Ⅴ．Conclusion

It can be found that there are many paths of the knowledge creation in the strategic change from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises in the above－mentioned knowledge ecology model under the innovative path．There are different characteristics of the knowledge preparation，knowledge production and knowledge diffusion in each path，and the difficulties of creation vary．Despite that this paper does not involve the knowledge ecology model under the original innovative path，it should be pointed out that the knowledge generated by original innovation first appears in society in the sequence of knowledge creation．Original knowledge can offer necessary reference to knowledge creation of other two paths，but it requires the investment of more resources than the other two on the part of enterprises．For growing enterprises，the sequence of the path choice of knowledge creation tends to be opposite from the time sequence of knowledge creation．That is to say，digest and innovate knowledge creation when the enterprises are weak，undertake integrated knowledge creation when they become powerful，then undertake original innovative knowledge creation when they are strong enough，the whole process of which can offer realistic reference to the strategic change for enterprises from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises according to their characteristics．

At the same time，the knowledge ecology model of different innovation paths reflect that the knowledge creation in the process of the strategic change from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises can be influenced by many elements，including internal and external knowledge field，knowledge carrier，operation method of knowledge，interaction and restructuring of knowledge，which may influence the final effect of knowledge creation in each path．Only by analyzing the internal mechanism of the knowledge creation process of the strategic change from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises from the perspective of these elements can we find the strategies to improve the effect of the strategic change from traditional enterprises to innovative enterprises．

Notes:

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