IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wsi/ijimxx/v29y2025i03n04ns1363919625500136.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Will Knowledge Field Activity Within Technological Innovation Alliances Lead To Knowledge Leakage: The Mediating Role Of Knowledge Flow

Author

Listed:
  • JIANMING ZHOU

    (School of Business Administration, Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, China)

  • PING HE

    (School of Business Administration, Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, China)

  • MINGHAN SU

    (School of Business Administration, Guangdong University of Finance & Economics, China)

Abstract

Drawing from the perspective of competitive intelligence, this paper conducted an empirical study to find out whether knowledge field activity (KFA) will lead to knowledge leakage by testing the mediating role of knowledge flow with Structural Equation Modelling, so as to alleviate the concerns associated with enhancing KFA of technological innovation alliances (TIA). Data from 157 high-tech firms that have participated in TIA in China confirmed that a high level of KFA in TIA is more likely to cause both intentional and accidental knowledge leakage (AKL), with the occurrence and impact of AKL being greater than intentional knowledge leakage. In addition, the reason behind the KFA leading to both intentional and AKL lies in its promotion of both tacit and explicit knowledge flows (EKFs) within the alliance. A high level of active tacit and EKFs in a competitive intelligence environment can result in intentional and AKL such that both implicit and EKFs play a fully mediating role in the relationship between KFA and intentional as well as AKL. The results reveal the risk of knowledge and technology leakage lurking in the background of highly active enterprise TIA. A comprehensive intellectual property protection mechanism to ensure the secure flow of technological knowledge within enterprise TIA for policymakers and enterprises is discussed in managerial implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Jianming Zhou & Ping He & Minghan Su, 2025. "Will Knowledge Field Activity Within Technological Innovation Alliances Lead To Knowledge Leakage: The Mediating Role Of Knowledge Flow," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 29(03n04), pages 1-28, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:wsi:ijimxx:v:29:y:2025:i:03n04:n:s1363919625500136
    DOI: 10.1142/S1363919625500136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1363919625500136
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1142/S1363919625500136?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wsi:ijimxx:v:29:y:2025:i:03n04:n:s1363919625500136. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tai Tone Lim (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.worldscinet.com/ijim/ijim.shtml .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.