Abstract：Drawing on the performance feedback theory and knowledge-based view, we investigate the effect of performance feedback on the selection of cooperative innovation partners from a cognitive-behavioral perspective, along with the moderating roles of executives’ network centrality and academic experience. Using listed companies in China’s pharmaceutical manufacturing industry firms from 2008 to 2022, Tobit empirical tests reveal that the cooperative innovation level between firms with performance shortfalls (performance surpluses) and industry organizations presents a U-shaped (inverted U-shaped) relationship, while the cooperative innovation level between underperforming (overperforming) firms and academic organizations presents an inverted U-shaped (U-shaped) relationship. Moreover, the executives’ network centrality in the industry intensifies the inverted U-shaped relationship between firms with performance surpluses and industry collaborative innovation. Additionally, executives’ academic experience enhances the inverse U-shaped relationship between underperforming firms and academic collaboration, while diminishing the U-shaped relationship between outperforming firms and academic collaboration.
