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Breakthrough technological innovation is of vital significance for firms to acquire and maintain sustainable competitive advantages. The construction of an innovation ecosystem and the interaction with heterogeneous participants have emerged as a new dominant model for driving sustained breakthrough technological innovation in firms. This study aims to explore the effects of collaborative modes within the innovation ecosystem on firms’ breakthrough technological innovation and the ecological legitimacy mechanisms involved.

The research employs data from 212 innovative firms and conducts empirical research using a two-stage structural equation modeling (SEM) and artificial neural network (ANN) analysis.

The results indicate that firm-firm collaboration (FF), firm-user collaboration (FU), firm-government collaboration (FG), firm-university-institute collaboration (FUI) and firm-intermediary collaboration (FI) all have significant positive effects on breakthrough technological innovation (BTI), with FU being particularly crucial. Furthermore, the results confirm the positive moderating effects of ecological legitimacy (EL) on the relationships between FF and BTI, as well as between FU and BTI. Conversely, EL has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between FUI and BTI, as well as between FI and breakthrough technological innovation. Additionally, EL does not have a significant influence on the relationship between FG and BTI.

Through resource dependence theory (RDT), this study unveils the black box of how collaboration modes within innovation ecosystems impact breakthrough technological innovation. By introducing ecological legitimacy as a contextual factor, a new research perspective is provided for collaboration innovation within innovation ecosystems. The study employs a combination of SEM and ANN for modeling, complementing nonlinear relationships and obtaining robust results in complex mechanisms.