The impact of legitimacy on cluster´s innovation: Research on innovational investment and performance of STIPs in China

This paper examines the impact of legitimacy of organizational field on cluster´s innovation behaviors and performance in China. Through the data of 52 STIPs in China during the period between 2005 and 2007, we find that the presence of innovational legitimacy have a positive effect on the innovational performance of a cluster. Moreover, the legitimacy has a U-style relationship with cluster´s R&D HR investment. And the relationship between R&D investment and cluster´s innovational performance is be moderated by the legitimacy. These findings indicate that the legitimacy plays a role as both independent variable and moderating variable for the cluster´s innovational behaviors. Therefore, it complicates the relationship between innovational performance and innovational behaviors in a cluster.