Abstract:    Since the rapid sweeping of the innovation wave, the living environment of the practice subjects is becoming more and more complex and uncertain, and this constantly innovative social and technological environment has brought great challenges to the innovation of the practice subjects. It is obvious that the innovation strategy and action of relying only on "have a narrow escape from death" to carry out innovation changes can no longer adapt to the rapidly changing needs of the times, and the "self-innovation" type of innovation is rapidly eliminated. The practitioners need to explore the top-level design and obtain innovation advantages from different channels. At the same time, the rise of innovation issues such as business model innovation, innovation networks, platform economy, innovation ecosystem and innovation value chain has brought unprecedented challenges to cultural theory.
    The emergence of the culture of innovation model has significantly changed the modern way of competition, especially the ways and paths of innovation. The innovation of practical subjects is no longer a single atomic process, but a value-added system process based on the innovation culture ecosystem. As a result, the unique innovation culture is formed by the integration of innovation thinking, national innovation system, ecological niche, value co-creation, competitive network and other ties with each innovation subject, and the practice subject then integrates internal and external innovation resources and innovates based on cultural intermingling will become one of the models commonly adopted worldwide.
    The intertwining of innovation contexts and related research topics also brings opportunities and challenges for the study of innovation culture. Innovation through culture has clearly become the mainstream of the times. Therefore, based on four theoretical perspectives: ecological niche, innovation process, DNA evolution, and cultural innovation, this paper first explores the theoretical "roots" of innovation culture, which is a product of the fusion of innovation and cultural theories. Then, the evolutionary framework of innovation culture is further proposed based on theoretical tracing to reveal the evolutionary mechanism of innovation culture. Based on the theoretical traceability, a mechanistic framework is further proposed to reveal its evolutionary mechanism. The research analysis makes an in-depth study of innovation culture from its formation and dynamics and evolutionary path and law respectively. Then, through the analysis of the influence of industry, market, policy and system, cultural differences and other contextual elements, the evolution mechanism is revealed. 
    Specifically, it includes the following aspects of mechanistic understanding: (1) the law of innovation culture evolution based on "practice/cognition-theory-culture" logic; (2) the "society-organization-individual" oriented innovation culture; (3) the evolutionary model of innovation culture oriented by "society-organization-individual"; (4) the evolutionary structure of innovation culture from "material-behavior-institutional-value" level; (5) the evolutionary structure of innovation culture based on "value chain"; (6) the "value chain - innovation chain - innovation value chain - ecological chain - culture chain" and "value network - innovation network - innovation ecosystem - culture chain"; (7) the evolution path of innovation culture based on "value chain - innovation chain - innovation value chain - ecological chain - culture chain" and "value network - innovation network - innovation ecosystem - culture innovation ecosystem"; (8) the innovation culture evolution path based on the contradictory movement of "productivity-production relations"; and (9) the general mechanism of innovation culture evolution based on the contradictory movement of "productivity-production relations". 
     Finally, on the basis of the mechanism structure, further outlooks are made for the Chinese context. Specifically,  the following four perspectives are proposed: (1) firstly, constructing a theory of innovation culture with Chinese characteristics; (2) secondly, based on the Chinese context, re-examining the concept and dimensional structure of innovation culture, emphasizing the integration with cross-disciplines at the micro level, and developing a suitable innovation culture measurement scale for China; (3) thirdly, focusing on the value co-creation mechanism of innovation culture of innovation subjects based on a multi-dimensional perspective; (4) Based on the system theory perspective, we explore the integration of innovation culture with innovation value chain, open innovation, innovation network and innovation ecosystem research, and reveal the new connotation, new model and new evolution mechanism of innovation culture. The results of this paper have important theoretical and practical implications for clarifying the development of innovation culture and promoting a deeper study of Chinese-style innovation culture.

Key words: innovation culture, theoretical origin, evolution mechanism, prospects in China