TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how knowledge search (KS) affects open innovation performance (OIP) in consideration of appropriability hazard in an emerging market context.Design/methodology/approach The authors identify two types of appropriability hazard related to KS activities in the improvement of OIP: partner-related and market-related hazards, and construct a model of KS to the OIP with the government-enterprise relationship and market focus (MF) as moderating factors of the analysis framework, using the hierarchical regression analysis based on a survey sample of 258 Chinese companies.Findings The authors find that KS has a stronger positive relationship with OIP in international market-focused enterprises compared with domestic market-focused enterprises. In addition, using a configuration approach, the authors find that KS is more positively related to OIP when enterprises have an international MF and a good relationship with the government, but less in other MF government and enterprises relationship configurations.Originality/value This paper contributes to previous research work by identifying two types of appropriability hazard related to KS activities in emerging market countries: partner-related and market-related hazards. The authors argue that a positive relationship between KS and OIP is more likely to occur if these appropriability hazards can be mitigated by export MF and a good relationship with the government which has not been demonstrated in previous research. VL - 55 IS - 4 SN - 0025-1747 DO - 10.1108/MD-04-2016-0211 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-04-2016-0211 AU - Zhang Dan AU - Li Shengxiao AU - Zheng Dengpan PY - 2017 Y1 - 2017/01/01 TI - Knowledge search and open innovation performance in an emerging market: Moderating effects of government-enterprise relationship and market focus T2 - Management Decision PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 634 EP - 647 Y2 - 2024/03/29 ER -