关键词: 自主创新, 中国制造业, 国际竞争力, 市场竞争, 人力资本

Abstract: The last four decades has witnessed the rapid growth of China’s manufacturing. With the advantage of low cost and rapid response to market demand, China has become the world’s largest country in manufacturing. However, the technological capability of Chinese firms is still weak compared to that of developed countries. The "Made in China 2025" plan aims to facilitate the transformation of China from a manufacturing giant with a focus on quantity to one with a qualitative edge which is based on R&D and technological innovation. Therefore, in the context of China implementing the strategy of innovation-driven development, an analysis of the impact of indigenous innovation on manufacturing’s international competitiveness is of great importance, either practically or theoretically.
Research on indigenous innovation of industry originated from discussion about the road selection of technological innovation in developing country or newly industrialized country in the 1980s. Most scholars focused on the issue of how the backward countries, especially Japan and South Korea, could achieve technological leapfrogging. Although a variety of empirical evidence showed the value of indigenous innovation for China’s manufacturing, there is little work providing strong evidence about how indigenous innovation ultimately influenced China’s manufacturing. In addition, samples in previous studies were confined to single industry, lack of analysis of the manufacturing as a whole. In this paper, we try to contribute to the debate by focusing on the relationships between indigenous innovation and the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing.
Indigenous innovation is the foundation and guarantee for Chinese enterprises to participate in international market, which is reflected not only in the initiative of enterprise to obtain innovative property rights and innovative benefits through internal efforts, but also in the dominance of enterprise in controlling innovative benefits. Building on the literature on innovation economics, we posit Hypothesis 1 claiming that indigenous innovation has a positive effect on the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing. Then we introduce two moderating variables (market competition and human capital) to observe the dynamics of the relationship between indigenous innovation and international competitiveness. Hypothesis 2 claims that the more intensive the industry’s market competition is, the stronger the impact of indigenous innovation on the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing is; and Hypothesis 3 claims that the higher the industry’s human capital level is, the stronger the impact of indigenous innovation on the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing is. Furthermore, we refine Hypothesis 1 from two aspects: one is the input of indigenous innovation including internal R&D investment intensity, ratio of R&D manpower, ratio of enterprises’ R&D institutions, and intensity of technology absorption; the other is the output of indigenous innovation including intellectual property output measured by the amount of patent applications per unit of R&D, and innovation income measured by the intensity of new product export sales. We posit six hypotheses from 1a to 1f concerning how different aspects of indigenous innovation affect the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing.
To test theoretical assumptions, we applied the empirical research paradigm based on the data that covers 22 sectors of China’s manufacturing over the period 2000-2015. The measurement based on the data of import and export is used as an indicator of industry’s international competitiveness, including NetExPorts ratio(NetX), Michaely index(MCY) and Revealed Symmetrical Comparative Advantage (RSCA). The level of indigenous innovation of industry is measured by six indicators including intensity of R&D investment, ratio of R&D manpower, ratio of enterprises’ R&D institutions, intensity of technology absorption, amount of patent applications per unit of R&D, and the intensity of new product export sales. The measures of indigenous innovation draw on data from China Statistical Yearbook on Science and Technology, and Statistics Yearbook on Science and Technology Activities of Industrial Enterprises in China. The data for measuring international competitiveness comes from the International Trade Statistics database of WTO, China Customs Statistics Yearbook, and the COMTRADE database of UN.
The findings of the empirical test show that indigenous innovation helps China’s manufacturing better participate in international competition. In addition, in industries with intensive market competition and high level of human capital, the relationship between indigenous innovation and international competitiveness is stronger. The specific findings of our empirical research are as follows. Firstly, hypothesis 1a, 1b and 1e are strongly supported, hypothesis 1f is weakly supported: since intensity of R&D investment, ratio of R&D manpower, amount of patent applications per unit of R&D, and the intensity of new product export sales have a positive effect on the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing. Secondly, both hypothesis 1c and 1d are not supported: because neither ratio of enterprises’ R&D institutions nor intensity of technology absorptionshow any influence on the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing. Thirdly, both Hypothesis 2 and 3 are strongly supported: since either market competition or human capital shows a positive moderating role in the relationship between indigenous innovation and the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing.
In this paper, we aim to further the understanding of how indigenous innovation affects the international competitiveness of China’s manufacturing. The empirical results indicate that most indicators of indigenous innovation have a positive impact on China’s manufacturing participating in international market competition. However, many Chinese enterprises have not paid enough attention to R&D and innovation. In fact, Chinese enterprises mainly concentrate on experimental development, with a small proportion of investment in applied research and basic research. Our findings also provide references for Chinese enterprises to promote the coordination between indigenous innovation and open innovation when they move towards international market or embedding in global innovation network. In this way, our study suggests that Chinese enterprises should not rely too much on obtaining external innovation resources, because it will cause the weakness of long-term R&D investment oriented to endogenous technological capabilities. Further, we argue that Chinese enterprises should think deeply how to increase the ratio of income to the cost of indigenous innovation and manage indigenous intellectual property rights effectively.

Key words:  indigenous innovation, China’s manufacturing industry, international competitiveness, market competition, human capital