PONE-D-21-27668Knowledge Search, Knowledge Integration and Enterprise Breakthrough Innovation under the Characteristics of Innovation Ecosystem Network

——A Moderated Mediation ModelPLOS ONE

Dear Dr.  王,

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“We are grateful to all the participants for their contributions to this study. We would also like to thank the supporters from the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China's Youth Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project (Project No. 19YJC630220) and S&T Program of Hebei (Project No. 21557652D).”

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 “Zhang YL, 19YJC630220, the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China's Youth Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences Research Project, https://www.sinoss.net

Zhang YL, 21557652D, S&T Program of Hebei, https://kjt.hebei.gov.cn/www/index_ssl/index.html

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

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Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: 1. General comments

The authors’ focus on the role of the innovation ecosystem in enterprise breakthrough innovation is interesting.

However, I have some concerns as described below.

2. Specific comments

a) Major

As for the variables used, it is indicated that they were obtained from the responses to the questionnaire survey. However, there is no specific mention of what kind of questions were actually used. Furthermore, some of the papers referred to in the design of the questions are not in English, making it difficult for other researchers to follow up on this study. Although data such as the Cronbach's a coefficient values are presented, it is not enough to determine whether the data of the responses to the questions are truly representative of each variable. However, this problem could be solved by either including the questionnaire questions in the text or submitting the actual questionnaire items used as an appendix.

b) Minor

In this study, the companies surveyed were limited to a specific country or region. Since corporate activities can be influenced by the characteristics of a country or region, it may be difficult to draw general conclusions from the results of this study. In order to solve this problem, for example, the title could be modified and limited by stating the country and/or region.

Reviewer #2: The work is sound and it provides evidence about how enterprises can perform breakthrough innovation. To assess the role of knowledge integration in achieving breakthrough innovations, the authors rely on how knowledge is search (considering breadth and depth) and how the enterprise is embedded in the innovation ecosystem (network size and cohesion).

The work should be improved by clarifying how the innovation ecosystem is constructed and assessed. The authors may consider previous works related to Social Network Analysis applied to Innovation Systems, and specify how the networks are constructed and which cohesion and centrality metrics are used. At least, a reference to Social network analysis applied to Innovation systems, including cohesion and centrality concepts should be made.

Finally, some reflections related to further research needed to ensure a proper extrapolation of the results to other sectors or countries will be valuable.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Knowledge search, knowledge integration and enterprise breakthrough innovation under the characteristics of innovation ecosystem network——the empirical evidence from enterprises in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

PONE-D-21-27668R1

Dear Dr.   ,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Ahmed Mancy Mosa, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

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Reviewer #1: No