Does the Sharing Economy Benefits the Relationship Between External Network Utilization and Innovation Performance?

Sharing economy grow dramatically and influence innovation activities and operation of firms especially small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in high-tech industries. Based on social capital theory, we argue that external net utilization could enhance innovation performance in SMEs when the internal network does not effect. Crowd-innovation space and sharing platform which viewed as part of sharing economy benefits the relationship between external network utilization and innovation performance. Even though external network utilization is weak in SMEs, crowd-innovation space and sharing platform could improve their innovation performance. Sharing databases could not moderate the relationship between external network utilization and innovation performance, but these can benefit innovation performance.