The impacts of business and political ties on innovation resilience: the moderating role of product modularity

Purpose In an era of persistent uncertainty and frequent external shocks, firms face growing challenges in sustaining innovation. While prior research highlights the importance of innovation resilience, the organizational mechanisms through which firms build and deploy this capability remain insufficiently understood. Drawing on the dynamic capability perspective and resource orchestration theory, this study investigates how different types of external network ties—business and political ties—contribute to firms’ innovation resilience, and how product modularity conditions these relationships. Design/methodology/approach Using survey data from 468 Chinese manufacturing firms, we employ hierarchical regression analysis to examine the direct effects of business and political ties on innovation resilience, as well as the moderating role of product modularity. Findings The results show that both business and political ties positively influence firms’ innovation resilience. However, product modularity plays an asymmetric moderating role: it strengthens the positive effect of business ties on innovation resilience, while weakening the effect of political ties. These findings indicate that modular product architectures selectively amplify or constrain the resilience value of different relational resources. Originality/value This study advances innovation resilience research by conceptualizing innovation resilience as a firm-level dynamic capability shaped by relational resources. By integrating dynamic capability theory with resource orchestration theory, it reveals how product modularity functions as a structural boundary condition that creates alignment or misalignment between innovation architecture and network governance logics. Our findings offer new insights into when and how external network ties foster resilient innovation under conditions of structural complexity and uncertainty.