Abstract: Sociologists believe that most of economic activities of enterprises are embedded in social networks, which can bring valuable scarce resources to enterprises for their own development, and then affect their behavior and decision-making. In recent years, the analyst industry has developed rapidly. Generally speaking, analysts will track multiple enterprises at the same time, so there will be common analysts among these enterprises. This connection relationship formed by common analysts tracking constitutes a complex social network, namely, analyst tracking network. At present, the technical structure is becoming more and more complex, and the “single fight” innovation strategy of enterprises makes it difficult for them to deal with it. Cooperative innovation has gradually become an important strategic choice for enterprises to enhance their innovation ability. As an information intermediary, analysts themselves have a lot of information about companies, and need to communicate frequently with enterprise management in their daily work. Can the network built by common analysts be a bridge for information transmission among enterprises, and then affect the cooperative innovation of enterprises?
Based on the social network theory and the data of A-share listed companies from 2007 to 2020, this paper empirically tests the impact of analyst tracking network on enterprises' cooperative innovation. The results of the research are as follows: (1) The analyst tracking network can promote enterprises' cooperative innovation, and the field research is an effective way for the analyst tracking network to transmit information; (2) The impact of the analyst tracking network on enterprises' cooperative innovation is more significant in enterprises with strong absorptive capacity, high-tech enterprises, and under the conditions of high economic policy uncertainty, high degree of marketization; (3)The analyst tracking network improves the enterprise value, and the cooperative innovation plays a partial intermediary role in it.
The main contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) It reveals the new role played by analysts as information transmission agents between enterprises. Domestic and foreign research has not paid much attention to the construction of information bridge between enterprises by analysts. This paper focuses on the influence mechanism of the social network formed by common analysts tracking on cooperative innovation, and further explores the new role playing of analyst profession. (2) It expands the research scope of the social network. In recent years, the research on the social network and the enterprise behavior has gradually increased, but a large number of studies mainly focus on the network built by directors and shareholders, while few studies take the analyst tracking network as the entry point. Compared with other networks, the analyst tracking network has its uniqueness. As an information intermediary, analysts themselves master a large amount of information and need to communicate frequently with the management of the enterprise. Therefore, the connection formed by common analysts can promote the information flow among enterprises and influence enterprises' behavior and decision-making. (3) It enriches the relevant research on the influencing factors of enterprise cooperative innovation. Most of the existing literature explores the influence of the social network on enterprise cooperative innovation from the perspective of the structural characteristics and the relationship characteristics of the overall social network, but ignores the role of the social network constructed by different subjects. This paper broadens the research on the influencing factors of enterprise cooperative innovation from the perspective of the analyst tracking network.

Key words: Analyst Tracking Network, Enterprise Cooperative Innovation, Information Sharing

摘要： 随着技术结构日益复杂,合作创新逐渐成为企业提升创新能力的重要战略选择。本文基于社会网络理论,以2007—2020年A股上市公司数据,实证检验分析师跟踪网络对企业合作创新的影响。研究发现,分析师跟踪网络有助于企业间信息共享,进而促进企业合作创新,实地调研是分析师跟踪网络在企业间传递信息的方式。异质性检验发现,分析师跟踪网络对企业合作创新的影响在吸收能力强、高新技术企业、经济政策不确定性高以及市场化程度高的情况下更显著。经济后果检验发现,分析师跟踪网络提升了企业价值,且合作创新在其中发挥了部分中介作用。研究结论有助于理解社会网络的作用以及分析师的角色,并为企业合作创新的实施提供借鉴。

关键词: 分析师跟踪网络, 企业合作创新, 信息共享