The more cooperation, the better? Optimizing enterprise cooperative strategy in collaborative innovation networks

Under the environment of collaborative innovation network, a dynamic and flexible cooperative strategy can help enterprises improve cooperation efficiency and innovation performance. Based on the individual rationality of enterprises and the stability of innovation network, this study uses game and simulation methods to examine three different cooperative strategies considering the change of network environment, namely decreasing, maintaining, or increasing the number of cooperative connections. The punishment mechanism is also examined in detail under a certain strategy. The investigation reveals the relationships of cooperative strategies with the technology spillover value and the profits of enterprises. Moreover, an appropriate punishment measure can be extremely helpful in reducing the default risk and enhancing the network stability. Finally, according to the results of a series of numerical simulations, we provide further managerial insights for the optimization of enterprise cooperative strategies on the basis of dynamic collaborative innovation networks. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.