The impact of innovation capability on enterprises' upgrading on the global value chain in underdeveloped areas: A resource orchestration perspective

[Objective] Cultivating innovation capability is conducive to the break through of resource dilemmas and the realization of global value chain (GVC) upgrading by manufacturing enterprises in underdeveloped areas. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore the impact of innovation capability on GVC upgrading and its mechanism from the perspective of resource orchestration. [Methods] Taking 219 questionnaire data from Yunnan automobile manufacturing enterprises, structural equation modeling was applied. Based on the resource orchestration theory, this study explored how manufacturing enterprises in underdeveloped areas can enhance their innovation capability through effective resource management and thus capture more value-added in the GVC. Dynamic capability evolution mechanism was introduced to explore the process of resource orchestration acting on innovation capability. [Results] (1) Resource orchestration facilitated enterprises to achieve GVC upgrading by enhancing innovation capabilities. (2) On the basis of effective resource management, enterprises influenced innovation capability by improving the evolution of dynamic capability, that is, the breadth, depth, and speed of dynamic capability combination, which in turn positively affected the GVC upgrading. (3) The three types of resource orchestration had heterogeneous effects on capability and upgrading. Resource utilization had the most pronounced effect on GVC upgrading by facilitating dynamic capabilities evolution. However, resource integration had the most pronounced effect on GVC upgrading through the enhancement of innovation capability. [Conclusion] In the process of enhancing innovation capability, enterprises in underdeveloped areas should pay more attention to the integration of upstream and downstream resources and the development of internal and external resources, so as to provide continuous impetus for realizing value-added in the context of resource constraints.