Faced with the deep embeddedness in the industrial chain, highly customized value activities, and precise segmentation of customer groups, customization has become an essential strategy for SRDI (abbreviation for Specialized, Refined, Differential and Innovation) enterprises to gain competitive advantages. Based on the value co-creation theory, this paper explored the impact mechanism of customization strategies on the performance of SRDI listed companies in China from 2017 to 2022 through text analysis using big language models. The empirical results indicated that: (1) Customization strategy has a promoting effect on the performance of SRDI enterprises, and this conclusion still holds after robustness testing; (2) The concentration of suppliers and the degree of digitization enhance the positive impact of customization strategy on the SRDI enterprises' performance; (3) Customer concentration weakens the promoting effect of customization strategy; (4) SRDI enterprises with high innovation capabilities are more profitable when using customization strategy; (5) The impact of regional heterogeneity of enterprises on customization strategy is not significant; and (6) Compared to external customization, internal customization has a significant positive impact on performance. This paper has innovatively analyzed and empirically tested the impact of customization strategy on SRDI enterprises' performance, thus emphasizing the importance and feasibility of customization strategy, expanding and enriching theoretical insights into the behavior and performance of SRDI enterprises. The research conclusions will provide theoretical basis and empirical reference for SRDI enterprises to achieve high-quality development.

Domestic substitution of critical components by specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative (SRDI) enterprises is pivotal for the supply chain reinforcement. Low market adoption rates hinder domestic components from achieving iterative optimization through positive supply-demand feedback loops, resulting ‘cold-start paradox’ in domestic substitution. Currently, host manufacturers exhibit a collaboration gap in driving the iterative optimization of domestic components. There is an urgent need to explore how SDRI enterprises can play a proactive role in fostering a supply-demand virtuous cycle. This study employed the systematic methodology of extenics to construct an action framework of ‘context identification-barrier analysis-strategy generation’, aiming to explore pathways for resolving this paradox. The key findings are as follows: (1) The logic underlying the resolution of the ‘cold-start paradox’ in domestic substitution of critical components differs from that observed in complex product systems. The former is fundamentally a logic of market-driven performance optimization, while the latter is a logic of state-orchestrated original innovation driven by top-down institutional design. (2) Guided by the extenics logic of ‘contextual adaptation-barrier decoupling-targeted intervention’ to resolve the paradox, different contexts must be dynamically identified. Based on two dimensions: the stage of host-supplier co-evolution and the state of knowledge power, three archetypal contexts are identified: ‘niche integration-passive compliance’ ‘complementary following-proactive negotiation’ ‘innovation collaboration-equal consultation’. (3) Addressing the above contexts requires overcoming three core barriers: activating trial willingness, confirming reuse decisions, and sustaining adoption routines. Extension models are constructed to target the core issues of inadequate perceived value, unmet organizational satisfaction, and imbalanced benefit distribution. Applying extension analysis and transformations enables targeted breakthroughs against these three barriers. This research will provide SRDI enterprises with a universally applicable solution for resolving the ‘cold-start paradox’ in domestic substitution, which integrates theory with practice.

Developing specialized, refinement, differential and innovation ("SRDI") enterprises is the main measure to solve the "stranglehold" dilemma in China. Compared with leading enterprises in the industry, their independent innovation activities face stronger resource constraints, smaller customer groups, higher innovation requirements, and more radical innovation strategies, so they have higher independent innovation risks. In the context of strong resource constraints, how to effectively control the risk of independent innovation is a major management problem. This paper selected Keda Automation, SRDI, as the subject of a case study, and explored the risk control of independent innovation based on the theory of technology risk and innovation diffusion. The results showed that: (1) Strong resource constraints are an important context characteristic of SRDI to improve their independent innovation capabilities, which are manifested in resource scarcity, limited capacity and selective utilization innovation; (2) The independent innovation process of enterprises is mainly composed of two stages: R&D and diffusion, and the risks faced in the R&D stage are mainly technical risks, which are specifically manifested as technology development and technology transformation risks. The risks faced in the diffusion stage are mainly market risks, which are specifically manifested in the risk of mass production and market demand, and managers can improve their industrialization and market development capabilities through the combination and iteration of products and markets based on market trends to control market risks. The triangular theoretical framework model of independent innovation risk control constructed in this paper is deeply in line with the scenario characteristics of strong resource constraints of specialized, SRDI, and promotes the research on innovation risk control from the technical level to the market level, breaking the "separation wall" between technology and the market, which has enlightening significance for the identification and control of independent innovation risks.

The business environment ecosystem serves as a critical antecedent for improving both the quantity and quality of regional SRDI (abbreviation for "Specialized, Refined, Differential and Innovative") enterprises. Leveraging the city-level data from China and employing the fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) approach, this paper investigated the ecological configurations through which the business environment ecosystem, under the dual institutional logics of market-government, influences the quantity expansion and quality improvement of regional SRDI enterprises. It proposed three ecological recipes that facilitate the quantity expansion of SRDI enterprises: "service driven comprehensive empowerment under dual institutional logics", "production-finance nexus driven under market dominance" and "industry-research-government co-promotion under government guidance". In parallel, three ecological recipes are identified to improve the quality of SRDI enterprises: "talent-driven comprehensive empowerment under dual institutional logics", "talent-innovation dual-driven under market dominance", and "talent-finance-government co-promotion under government leadership". Additionally, the cosine similarity analysis method was introduced to compare the similarities between high-performance and low-performance configurations for quantity expansion and quality improvement, aiming to identify paths for optimizing the business environment ecosystem. The results indicated that the "quality-first" optimization paths are generally better than the "quantity-first" paths, while the "stock reallocation" and "incremental leap" optimization paths can promote both the quantity and quality of regional SRDI enterprises. These findings will provide theoretical and practical insights for optimizing urban business environment ecosystems and accelerate the development of high-performing SRDI enterprises across regions.

"Specialized, refined, differential and innovative (SRDI)" enterprises are vital for upgrading China's manufacturing sector and securing the industrial and supply chains. In the digital context, effectively coordinating the "invisible hand" of the market, the "visible hand" of the government, and enterprises' dynamic capabilities within the institutional environment is key to enhancing the innovation resilience and core competitiveness of SRDI enterprises. This study, based on the institutional and dynamic capabilities theories, analyzed the data from 360 SRDI enterprises using the fsQCA method, revealing that: (1) while no single factor is necessary for high innovation resilience, digital economy market regulation and sensing capability are core conditions; (2) key paths include "government empowerment-capability synergy," "government coordination-sensing capability," and "government regulation-market adjustment-comprehensive synergy"; and (3) SRDI enterprises must strengthen dynamic capabilities to leverage the digital business environment. These findings will offer theoretical and practical guidance for integrating effective markets, proactive governments, and dynamic capabilities to bolster SRDI enterprises' innovation resilience.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the key forces that promote the high-quality development of China's economy and society. However, due to constraints such as funding, talent and technology, their enthusiasm for participating in the co-innovation of large enterprises is not high. Under the background of developing new quality productive forces according to local conditions in the whole society, whether the "niche winner" strategy of SMEs can enhance their co-innovation capabilities has become an essential concern in the current practices and academics. Based on the data of A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2022, this paper adopted China's batch-implemented policy of cultivating specialized, refined, differential and innovative (SRDI) "Small Giants" SMEs as a quasi-natural experiment. We used the PSM-DID method to examine the impact of the "niche winners" strategy on the co-innovation of SMEs. The results showed that the "niche winner" strategy significantly promotes SMEs' co-innovation, mainly through mechanisms that alleviate financing constraints, enhance information transparency, and reduce operational risks. Moreover, based on the heterogeneity analysis of the TOE framework, it was found that the higher the degree of firm digital transformation, the more emphasis on the cooperation culture, and the higher the level of regional social trust, the more pronounced the promotion effect of the "niche winner" strategy on the corporate co-innovation. In addition, implementing the "niche winner" strategy has a more substantial incentive effect on the co-innovation for SMEs in the early and growth stages of innovation. The analysis of economic consequences showed that the increase of corporate co-innovation under the "niche winner" strategic orientation can help to enhance the firm's market performance. Our study will not only expand the relevant research on the influencing factors of corporate co-innovation and the economic consequences of the "niche winner" strategy but also provide new empirical evidence for optimizing institutional supply to promote high-quality development of SMEs in China.

With the intensifying global technological iterations, enhancing the modernization level of China's industrial chain has become a top priority. The specialized, refined, differential and innovative enterprises (SRDI enterprises) leveraging the "niche entrepreneurial capability" to achieve high-quality development is of great significance in addressing manufacturing bottlenecks and engaging themselves into the industrial chain. However, few have studied deeply on the construction and transition process of niche entrepreneurial capability, a core component of the "niche strategy", from the perspective of attention and resources. Therefore, based on the theories of attention allocation and resource orchestration, this paper employed a longitudinal case study approach to systematically explore the evolutionary path of the niche entrepreneurial capability of Neat, a manufacturing single-item champion enterprise. The findings include: (1) the evolution of niche entrepreneurial capability in SRDI enterprises conforms to a three-stage model: the single-point exploration stage, at which the combination of "specialized" and "innovative" features is emphasized, the multi-dimensional integration stage, at which the integration of "refined" and "innovative" features is reflected, and the ecological collaboration stage, at which the intergrowth of "differential" and "innovative features" is highlighted; (2) the internalization mechanism, in conjunction with the identification of present and future opportunities for enterprises, adheres to the evolution path of "core technological breakthrough, market opportunity challenge, and enterprise interest enhancement"; and (3) the orchestration and combination of action mechanism constitutes the pivotal driving force behind the evolution of niche entrepreneurial capability. In this context, resource structuring exhibits a dynamic evolution characterized by "introduction and transformation", "accumulation", and "exploitation". Resource bundling displays an evolutionary upgrade encompassing "integration and innovation", "extension", and "stabilization". The utilization of resource capabilities achieves a logical progression of "agile response, optimized layout, and innovation leadership". This paper has explored the construction mechanism of niche entrepreneurial capability in SRDI enterprises, and broadened the scope and enriching the theoretical outcomes of research in the development of SRDI enterprises' niche entrepreneurial capability. It will provide both theoretical guidance and practical insights for SRDI enterprises to achieve high-quality development by leveraging on product systems and technological innovation.

The breakthroughs of "bottleneck" technologies are critical to national security and overarching development strategies. The "cross-industry and cross-domain industrial internet" platform enables digital intelligence technology. This technology enhances the capabilities of specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative (SRDI) enterprises, creating new opportunities to address the technical challenges of "bottleneck" technologies. Grounded in the theories of digital intelligence enabling and resource arrangement, this study conducted a longitudinal case analysis of how COSMOPlat enabled Qingdao Choho Industrial Co., Ltd. to overcome these "bottleneck" technologies. The key findings include: (1) The breakthroughs of "bottleneck" technologies progress through stages of technology accumulation, breakthrough and iteration. During these phases, two mechanisms—digital and intelligent enabling that promote resource arrangement and their co-evolution—play pivotal roles. (2) In the technology accumulation stages, SRDI enterprises independently build expertise in specialized fields and foundational digital and intelligent technologies. (3) In the technology breakthrough phase, the "cross-industry and cross-domain industrial internet" platform facilitates data and technology enabling, thus enabling SRDI enterprises to orchestrate data and technology resources, and enhancing innovation efficiency. Subsequently, structural enabling prompts SRDI enterprises to engage in process resource arrangement actions which reshape the innovation model. Through this dual coordination, SRDI enterprises achieve breakthroughs in "bottleneck" technologies. (4) In the technology iteration phase, the "cross-industry and cross-domain industrial internet" platform extends the cross-industry and cross-domain enabling, allowing SRDI enterprises to conduct multi-ecosystem-level resource arrangement actions that support the continuous iteration of "bottleneck" technology innovations. This research has enriched the understanding of breakthroughs in "bottleneck" technologies, expanded the interaction mechanisms between digital intelligence enabling and resource arrangement, and it will offer significant insights into leveraging the "cross-industry and cross-domain industrial internet" platform for the digital intelligence enabling of SRDI enterprises across various dimensions.

Stimulating the vitality of various market entities is a critical measure to accelerate the establishment of a new development paradigm. However, existing studies primarily focus on the direct effects of the policies for the "Specialized, Refined, Distinctive, and Innovative" (SRDI) enterprises on "Little Giant" enterprises, while overlooking its potential impact on their supply chain partners. Using the data from A-share listed companies in China between 2008 and 2022, this study employed a two-stage staggered difference-in-differences model to investigate how the policies for SRDI enterprises influence the innovation of supply chain partners associated with "Little Giant" enterprises. The findings revealed that the policies inhibit the innovation of supply chain partners through agglomerative effects and population effect, and such inhibitory effect exhibiting a dynamic temporal pattern. On one hand, the policies for SRDI enterprises concentrate the financial capital and intellectual resources on "Little Giant" enterprises, thereby constraining the innovation resources available to their supply chain partners. On the other hand, as the policies for SRDI enterprises progress, their supply chain partners exhibit "free-riding" behavior, reducing their incentives for independent innovation. Further analysis demonstrated that the supply chain partners with higher levels of digitalization and positive and stable expectations about macroeconomic conditions can effectively mitigate this inhibitory effect, stimulate their innovative activity, and enhance both enterprise development quality and supply chain resilience. This study constructs a theoretical framework to evaluate the indirect effects of the SRDI policy based on the supply chain transmission mechanism, providing an important theoretical foundation for a comprehensive understanding of the policy's effects.

With the increasingly severe international situation, the West has implemented strict technological blockades on China, and the problem of key bottlenecks in technology is becoming increasingly prominent. From a national perspective, China is paying more and more attention to scientific and technological innovation, and increasing R&D expenditures year by year for original and leading scientific and technological breakthroughs. As the main force of technological innovation, enterprises play an important role in the process of tackling key core technologies in China. The solution to the "bottleneck" technical problem relies on the improvement of the technological innovation capabilities of small and medium-sized enterprises with the characteristics of specialization, refinement, differentiation and innovation (SRDI enterprises). However, most enterprises have paid special attention to manufacturing, sales, and service processes in the past. Due to insufficient R&D investment and lack of strategic attention, their technological innovation capabilities are insufficient, and they are still "controlled by others" in key core technology areas. Exploring the impact of R&D intensity on technological innovation capability in SRDI enterprises has become a common concern in both academia and practice.Based on the research objectives and following the principles of typicality and effectiveness, this study selected GK enterprises as the research object for an exploratory single case study to explore the impact mechanism of R&D intensity on the technological innovation capability of SRDI enterprises. According to the grounded theory, this study organized and coded the obtained case data, in order to obtain some important findings.The study found that: (1) The cognition of managers is formed based on external entrepreneurial contexts and internal resources and capabilities, and it is a key antecedent variable in the advancement of the technological innovation capability of SRDI enterprises; (2) As the external context changes, enterprises adjust their R&D intensity. At the same time, driven by both the cognition of enterprise managers and the R&D intensity, the centrality and density of enterprise cooperation networks have shown varying degrees of transformation, leading to the advancement of the enterprise technological innovation capability; (3) The study has proposed an evolutionary process model for the technological innovation capability of SRDI enterprises, clarified the internal relationship between managers' cognition, R&D intensity, network construction and technological innovation capability, and revealed the internal path for improving the technological innovation capability of SRDI enterprises.The innovation points of the study are as follows: firstly, this study explored from a cognitive perspective and found that national policies and market demand are key incentives for the evolution of technological innovation capabilities in SRDI enterprises, while managerial cognition is the micro-foundation of technological innovation capabilities. The research conclusion will fill the gap in the current research on the driving factors of the evolution process of enterprise technological innovation capability and enrich the applicable context of upper echelons theory. Secondly, the study has uncovered the "black box" of the process of enhancing the technological innovation capability of SRDI enterprises from the perspective of organizational behavior, emphasized the key role of R&D investment and network relationship construction, and provided important explanatory pathways for the growth and enhancement of technological capability of SRDI enterprises in China. Thirdly, this study has deeply analyzed the formation and evolution mechanism of enterprise technological innovation capability from a dynamic perspective, and analyzed the internal logic of the formation and advancement of SRDI enterprises technological innovation capability under the new system for mobilizing the resources nationwide from a process perspective. The research conclusion will not only promote the localization process of theory of technological innovation, but also expand the boundaries of dynamic capability theory.

    The innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) drives the national high-quality and self-reliance development and it is the basis for consolidating common prosperity. In addition, enterprise innovation has the characteristics of positive externality. Therefore, the State has issued the "specialized, refined, characteristic and innovative" qualification accreditation policy, the soul of which is to empower enterprise technological innovation. This paper explored the mechanism and impact of the policy on the technological innovation of SMEs, and based on the data of A-share listed companies in Shenzhen and Shanghai from 2015 to 2021, it constructed a time-varying DID model for empirical analysis. The research found that: (1) in general, the qualification accreditation policy of "specialized, refined, characteristic and innovative" enterprises can significantly improve the technological innovation level (R&D investment and innovation output) of SMEs, but the incentive effect is not strong; (2) the mechanism test showed that the policy can promote the technological innovation of SMEs through the "resource bias" effect, and there are heterogeneous effects of "qualification upgrading" and "regional difference"; (3) Compared with provincial and municipal qualification accreditation policies, the national "specialized, refined, characteristic and innovative" qualification accreditation policy has a stronger incentive effect on the technological innovation of SMEs, which verifies the scientific nature of policy gradient cultivation. However, it also reflected that there may be problems such as lax qualification examination and insufficient motivation for continuous innovation in provincial and municipal qualification accreditation. (4) Compared with less developed regions, the absorption effect of policies in regions rich in economic and political resources is weaker, so policies should be adapted to local conditions to avoid the risk of regional policy saturation. This paper has not only expanded the relevant research on the impact of "specialized, refined, characteristic and innovative" qualification accreditation policy on enterprise innovation, but also provided some experiences for optimizing the policy to continuously promote the high-quality development of SMEs.

   The key to promoting high-quality development in China lies in implementing the strategy of innovation-driven development. However, there are obvious differences in development levels between different regions in China, posing new challenges to innovation subjects in how to accelerate their integration into the new regional development pattern and improve their innovation performance. "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises emphasize the competitive strategy of the Porter market segmentation dimension, which is closer to the current situation of industrial development in China and deeply integrates into regional development. It is at the core link of the regional industrial chain and has gradually become the key carrier to implementing the regional innovation-driven development strategy and achieving high-quality development. Reviewing existing studies, there is no relevant research focusing on the relationship between regional high-quality development and innovation performance of "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises around differentiated development situations of different regions in China, so it can′t provide guidance for these small and medium-sized enterprises to break through existing development bottleneck, accelerate their integration into new regional development pattern, and improve their innovation performance.In view of this, this research analyzes the internal mechanism of the whole process of high-quality development in different regions affecting their innovation performance on the basis of analyzing the current development situation of "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises in different regions in China. Results show that: first, development advantages of a single dimension or some of the dimensions of high-quality development can′t be converted into advantages of cultivation efficiency; at the same time, differences in economic development efficiency between different regions have an impact on the cultivation of these enterprises. Second, the innovation emergence of these enterprises can be boosted by improving innovative, coordinated and open development levels in the process of regional high-quality development. Third, the improvement of green and shared development levels in the process of regional high-quality development can′t effectively promote the innovation emergence of these enterprises.The innovation of this paper is mainly embodied in the following aspects: First, other than the existing literature on regional innovation systems that pays less attention to the innovation subjects and the development level of China, this paper focuses on the impact of regional high-quality development on innovation performance of "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises. Second, different from existing literature that doesn′t clear the embedded environmental boundary, this paper matches regional high-quality development and data related to the innovation output of "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises at the provincial level and tests the relationship between the two. Third, this paper has found that not all dimensions of high-quality development can promote the innovation performance of these enterprises; in addition to the possible shortcomings of such enterprises themselves, it may also be that relevant factors related to such innovation subjects have not been paid attention to in the process of deconstructing the partial dimension of regional high-quality development.