关键词: 供应链关系, 突破性创新, 渐进性创新, 客户稳定度

Abstract: With an increase in economic complexity, the competition among individual enterprises has gradually evolved into that among supply chains. Only by establishing safe and stable cooperative relationships can enterprises in the supply chain effectively cope with external risks and shocks. As a dynamic problem-solving-oriented capability of enterprises, the positive impact of technological innovation on the sustainable development of enterprises has been recognized by many scholars. However, due to factors such as unclear technological complexity and rapid changes in market demand, technological innovation can not only enhance the competitiveness of enterprises, but also lead to risks. As a complex interdependent network system, changes in one part of the supply chain may lead to those in other parts. As a result, the market opportunities and uncertainty risks created by the technological innovation of suppliers will not only affect individual enterprises, but even threaten the stableoperation of the supply chain. Facing the turbulent external environment, a stable supply chain is the key to enhancing the competitiveness of enterprises, and customer stability is an important part of supply chain stability. Therefore, this paper analyzes the impact of technological innovation on customer stability using the data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2020. This not only considers the positive effects of technological innovation, but also analyzes the possible threats of technological innovation on customer stability from the perspective of supply chain relationships, thus providing a theoretical reference for a comprehensive understanding of the economic consequences of technological innovation activities, as well as for maintaining supply chain stability. What’s more, the market response to the innovation strategy adopted by the supplier may depend on the change degree of the specific innovation strategy. Therefore, this paper further divides technological innovations into radical innovation and incremental innovation, and analyzes the effect of these two types of technological innovations on customer stability from the perspective of innovation heterogeneity. It is worth noting that technological innovation is a strategic decision for enterprises to seek development. And customer stability is an important link in the supply chain relationship to connect the market, so the impact of technological innovation on customer stability is inevitably affected by the original development base of enterprises and the external environment. In order to further clarify the boundary of the impact of technological innovation on customer stability, this paper identifies the boundary conditions of the above relationship in terms of corporate characteristics, supply chain linkages and industry environment.
The study finds that: First, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between technological innovation and customer stability. Before reaching the critical value, the higher the level of technological innovation, the stronger the customer stability. When technological innovation exceeds the critical value, customer stability will weaken as the level of technological innovation increases. Therefore, in the process of maintaining supply chain cooperation, enterprises need to seek a dynamic balance between different degrees of innovation to ensure the continuous improvement of their competitiveness while paying attention to the potential risks arising from excessive innovation. Second, from the perspective of innovation types, different types of technological innovation have a heterogeneous impact on customer stability. Radical innovation that deviates from the original development path of the enterprise has a significant shock effect on customer stability, while incremental innovation that optimizes and adapts products and services based on the technological resources and R&D experience of enterprises does not have a significant impact on customer stability. Therefore, in the current process of vigorously promoting economic innovation development and enhancing supply chain stability, enterprises should pay attention to preventing the implied risks of the excessive pursuit of radical innovation on the supply chain partnership. Third, corporate characteristics, supply chain linkages and industry environment all have a moderating effect on the relationship between technological innovation and customer stability. Among them, corporate operating capacity negatively moderates the relationship between technological innovation and customer stability. Industry competitive intensity positively moderates the relationship between technological innovation and customer stability, while supply chain relationship quality weakens the impact of radical innovation on customer stability.
This paper has an early warning effect on enterprises to deal with supply chain risks. In general, as a strategic decision for enterprises to seek development, technological innovation has a positive impact on corporate profits and performance. However, this perception only focuses on the resource optimization effect of technological innovation, ignoring the fact that technological innovation itself is a long and unpredictable activity with high risk. When enterprises try to achieve breakthrough development through technological innovation, this paper can remind enterprises of paying attention to the potential risk of customer relationship breakdowns in the process of technological innovation. Suppliers conducting technological innovation activities should not blindly pursue profit maximization, but can consolidate existing relationships by sharing part of the innovation dividends or innovation technologies to reduce the potential threat of corporate technological innovation to supply chain relationships.

Key words: supply chain relationship, radical innovation, incremental innovation, customer stability