The new generation of science, technology and innovation policy is now becoming a focal point for both policymakers and the academia. Based on the redefinition of concepts such as "innovation", "development", "innovation-driven development" and "policy paradigm", the concept of innovation-driven development policy is proposed as the new generation of science, technology and innovation policy. This paper analyzed the paradigm shift process from science and technology policy to innovation policy and then to innovation-driven development policy, along with its main characteristics, therefore providing a theoretical framework for the formulation of innovation-driven development policy. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) Innovation is a process of diversified value creation and value-added circulation, encompassing the creation of scientific value, technological value, economic value, social value, and cultural value. (2) Innovation-driven development refers to innovation-driven economic, social, environmental and culture development, as well as the development of science and technology. Its essence lies in achieving diversified value creation and value-added circulation under the high coupling of goals and actions of innovation and development. It emphasizes the primary driving force of innovation for development, and the strong coupling relationship between innovation and development as well as the sustainability of development. (3) Innovation-driven development policy is the new generation of science, technology and innovation policy, which refers to the conduct code and action plan adopted by governments and political parties to achieve innovation-driven economic, social, environmental and culture development, as well as science and technology development. (4) Policy paradigm refers to the policy value concepts, policy standards and norms, and policy conceptual system that are commonly recognized by stakeholders in the policy-making process. (5)The science, technology and innovation policy paradigm has undergone a historical evolution from the science and technology policy paradigm to the innovation policy paradigm, and then to the innovation-driven development policy paradigm. The core of this evolution lies in the expansion of understanding of the connotations and extensions of innovation and development, as well as the systematic coupling relationship between innovation and development. This study will provide theoretical and methodological guidance for the formulation of innovation-driven development policy, and lay an important theoretical foundation for the development of innovation-driven development policy science.
Key core technology innovation is a vital source of new quality productive forces. Using the sample of listed companies in the strategic emerging industries from 2010 to 2022, this paper examined the effect of key core technology innovation on firms' new quality productive forces. The study found that focal firms' key core technology innovation has significant positive spillovers, and enhances peer firms' new quality productive forces. The mechanism analysis further revealed that the focal firms' key core technology innovation promotes the peer firms' new quality productive forces by stimulating derivative technology innovation. Technological proximity and social proximity play negative moderating roles in the relationship between focal firms' key core technology innovation and peer firms' new quality productive forces, while geographical proximity is not significant. This research has uncovered the "black box" of the positive spillover effect of key core technology innovation on enterprises' new quality productive forces and its mechanisms, and it will offer useful guidance for identifying effective pathways to cultivate new quality productive forces and sustain high-quality economic development.
New quality productive forces are the core driving force for China's high-quality economic development and realization of modernization with Chinese characteristics while data is a key element in the development of new quality productive forces. This paper, using the data of listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets from 2011 to 2022, and based on the quasi-natural experiment of the national big data comprehensive pilot zones, employed the difference-in-differences method to systematically examine the impact of data elements on the development of new quality productive forces of enterprises. The research findings are as follows: (1) Data elements significantly promote the development of new quality productive forces of enterprises; (2) Data elements promote the development of new quality productive forces of enterprises through internal incubation and external empowerment; and (3) The promotion effect of data elements on the development of new quality productive forces of enterprises has both inclusive and polarizing effects. The polarizing effect can be reduced and the inclusive effect can be amplified by improving the level of digital infrastructure, strengthening the green transformation of regions, and enhancing the coordination between the government and the market. This paper will have certain implications for formulation of China's data industry policies, construction of the data market, and development of new quality productive forces.
The energy factor plays a significant supportive role in the formation of new quality productive forces (NQPFs), and enterprises constitute pivotal practice carries of NQPFs. To this end, this study employed the panel data of 910,784 manufacturing enterprises from the 2007-2016 National Enterprise Tax Survey matching the detailed patent information, and utilized a data envelopment analysis model to compute the levels of NQPFs in these enterprises. Subsequently, leveraging the construction of ultra-high voltage power transmission projects as a quasi-natural experiment, it employed a difference-in-differences model to investigate how the energy element supply promotes the formation of enterprise NQPFs. The empirical findings indicated a significant positive relationship between the energy element supply and the formation of NQPFs in enterprises. The mechanism tests revealed that the energy element supply primarily facilitates the formation of NQPFs by fostering digital economic development, industrial agglomeration, modernization of industrial chains, and reduction of enterprise production and operational costs. The heterogeneity analysis suggested that the impact of energy element supply is more pronounced in those enterprises with smaller asset scales, in traditional industries, and in regions characterized by higher levels of economic development and greater energy demand. This paper also found that the supply of energy elements in the form of "oil" and "electricity" both has a positive impact on the formation of NQPFs. This study has enriched the empirical research on the calculation and driving factors of enterprise NQPFs, while revealing the pivotal role of energy in fostering NQPFs formation from a micro-level firm perspective. It will provide vital insights for the development of NQPFs through the establishment of an efficient, stable, and balanced energy supply system.
As a key strategic resource in the digital economy era, the extent to which firms focus on data elements reflects their strategic emphasis on emerging technological development and plays a guiding role in shaping technology evolution. Using a panel dataset of 39,681 firm-year observations from Chinese listed companies, this study employed the fixed effects models as well as the mediation and moderation analyses to systematically examine the internal pathways through which data element focus promotes artificial intelligence (AI) technological innovation, and explored how external environmental conditions shape this process. The results revealed that: (1) enterprise-level data element focus has a significantly positive impact on AI technological innovation; (2) internally, this effect is primarily driven by the activation of non-precipitated slack resources, while the role of precipitated slack resources is less pronounced; (3) externally, both market competition intensity and the degree of government public data openness enhance the innovation-promoting effect of data focus; and (4) the positive effect of data elements focus is more significant in firms with higher levels of capital, managerial, and technological resources. This study has expanded the boundary of the mechanism of data element values and it will offer practical insights into AI innovation under varying resource structures and environmental conditions.
Driven by the new round of technological revolution, enterprise digitalization is regarded not only as a key approach to optimizing the innovation network structure and enhancing competitive advantages, but also as an important path to promote value co-creation and achieve industrial collaborative upgrading. However, there are still cognitive differences regarding the mechanism by which enterprise digitalization promotes value co-creation. Based on the patent data generated from the R&D cooperation of 148 listed enterprises in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry from 2010 to 2023, this paper constructed a balanced panel model containing 2,072 observations to analyze the overall effect, application channels and situational characteristics of enterprise digitalization on value co-creation. The research found that: (1) Enterprise digitalization has a significant positive impact on both the breadth and depth of value co-creation; (2) Ego-network stability and ego-network conventions play a mediating role in the impact of enterprise digitalization on value co-creation; and (3) Cooperative motivation plays a negative moderating role in the path of value co-creation influenced by enterprise digitalization. From the perspective of R&D cooperation, this paper revealed the internal mechanism by which enterprise digitalization affects value co-creation, enriched the research perspectives on enterprise digitalization and value co-creation, and it will provide some practical guidance for enterprises to optimize their own network structure and digital strategy in practice.
Patient capital provides long-term and stable financial support for breakthrough innovation, which is crucial to the development of nations and enterprises. And institutional investors are one of the key targets for cultivating patient capital. Yet there is a scarcity of discussion regarding the impact of institutional investors on breakthrough innovation when they become common owners. We focused on the non-financial common institutional owners with characteristics of patient capital and investigated its impact on corporate breakthrough innovation by the samples of non-financial listed companies in Chinese A-share market from 2007 to 2022. The results of the empirically examination showed that: (1) Non-financial common institutional ownership significantly promotes corporate disruptive innovation; (2) non-financial common institutional owners promote breakthrough innovation by guiding and supervising the adjustment of corporate resource allocation and increasing funds and personnel to research and development (R&D) investment; executive innovation consciousness enhances the promotional effect while strategic aggressiveness suppresses it; and (3) it is more pronounced in growing companies, and non-high-tech companies; non-financial common institutional investors that have held shares for more than one year have a more significant promotional effect on corporate disruptive innovation activities. This paper has enriched the relevant research on the impact of common institutional ownership on innovation and it will provide practical evidence for guiding and regulating patient capital to empower the development of new productive forces.
In the digital economy, it is increasingly common for startups to rely on platform ecosystems to manage both internal and external resources, driving value creation. However, there is a gap in understanding how platform-dependent enterprises can better utilize these ecosystems to overcome resource limitations and innovate their platform business models. This paper, grounded in the resource dependence theory, focused on startups that depend on platform ecosystems. Using the hierarchical regression and bootstrap methods, it examined how these enterprises' network power influences business model innovation. The study also explored the mediating role of resource orchestration and the moderating effect of digital technology affordances. The findings revealed several key insights: (1) both knowledge power and structural power exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship with platform business model innovation; (2) both knowledge power and structural power show an inverted U-shaped relationship with resource orchestration; (3) resource orchestration partially mediates the relationship between both types of network power (knowledge and structural) and platform business model innovation; and (4) digital technology affordances positively moderate the relationship between network power (both knowledge and structural) and platform business model innovation, as well as the relationship between network power and resource orchestration. This study has contributed to the literature on network power and business model innovation, and it will offer both theoretical and practical insights for platform-dependent enterprises seeking to innovate their business models.
In the context of maritime power and innovation-driven development strategy, inter-organizational cooperative innovation has become a crucial model for overcoming the key technological bottlenecks in emerging marine industries. Under various marine policies, China's strategic emerging marine industries have experienced rapid development. However, sharp issues persist throughout their development process, particularly the fragmentation between academia, industry and research in technological innovation, and lack of effective horizontal and vertical cooperative innovation mechanisms. In response, this paper constructed an undirected weighted network of industrial technological innovation from a cooperative innovation perspective using the joint patent data. The network's topology, spatial distribution, and driving mechanisms are analyzed in depth using network visualization and the ERGM method. The study found that: (1) under the guidance of marine policies, enterprises emerge as the central force in the technological innovation network, with key collaborating entities primarily located in the Bohai Rim area, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta. (2) Analysis of the internal driving mechanisms of network formation indicated that centrality and transitivity are key internal drivers. The formation and development of the technological innovation cooperation network rely on the clustering effect of core entities and the facilitative role of transitivity mechanisms. (3) Among external driving mechanisms, geographical distance affects collaborative tendencies; collaboration among similar types of organizations enhances efficiency; cross-institutional collaboration offers complementarity; and the impact of cultural differences on the cooperative network is diminishing. The analysis of the current state of industrial technological innovation and driving mechanism factors under existing policies will also provide practical insights for promoting high-quality development of marine strategic emerging industries and the formulation of related policies.
Corporate environmental responsibility, social responsibility, and corporate governance (ESG) have become important drivers for promoting the high-quality development of enterprises. In the context of digital innovation, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on how to embed multiple stakeholder responsibilities into enterprises' digital innovation system based on the construction of the ESG system. Based on this, this paper used the data from Chinese listed companies and employed the OLS linear regression model and mediation effect model to examine whether and how ESG performance affect enterprise digital technology innovation. This study found that: (1) In terms of impact effects, ESG performance and its various dimensions have a significant positive promoting effect on enterprise digital technology innovation. (2) In terms of impact mechanism, ESG performance promotes enterprise digital technology innovation through the alleviation of financing constraints and the reduction of enterprise risk levels. (3) In terms of action situation, the promotion effect of ESG performance on enterprise digital technology innovation is more obvious in highly digitized enterprises, highly competitive industries, highly digitized industries, high innovation activity industries, and enterprises in the central and eastern regions. (4) In terms of economic effects, digital technology innovation plays a mediating role in promoting enterprise high-quality development through ESG performance. This paper has examined the mechanism and boundary of ESG performance on enterprise digital technology innovation based on enterprise digital patent data, enriched the relevant research on the economic consequences of ESG performance and the driving factors of digital technology innovation, and it will provide insights for the policy formulation of ESG and digital technology innovation, as well as the promotion of collaborative transformation of digitalization and greening in China.
As an emerging innovation paradigm that balances the demand for profit growth and social value, responsible innovation has been increasingly recognized by enterprises as an effective approach for them to proactively assume social responsibilities and achieve sustainable development goals. In view of the widespread appeal to promote the sustainable development of agriculture with scientific and technological innovation, it is extremely necessary to discuss the topic of responsible innovation in agriculture. Based on the resource orchestration theory, this study constructed a theoretical model that explores how green entrepreneurial orientation influences enterprise responsible innovation. The research data from 248 agricultural enterprises were analyzed using the hierarchical regression and MEDCURVE macro-program. The empirical results indicated that: (1) green entrepreneurial orientation positively influences green supply chain integration; (2) green supply chain integration, in turn, has an inverted U-shaped influence on enterprise responsible innovation; (3) green supply chain integration acts as a mediator between green entrepreneurial orientation and enterprise responsible innovation; and (4) big data analytics capability positively moderates the linear relationship between green entrepreneurial orientation and green supply chain integration, as well as the inverted U-shaped relationship between green supply chain integration and enterprise responsible innovation. This study has not only enriched the research on the formation mechanism of enterprise responsible innovation, but also provided practical enlightenment for managers and policy makers to promote enterprise responsible innovation.
The digital-green synergistic development serves as a new engine for the high-quality development of enterprises. However, systematic research is still lacking regarding how these two forces interact and drive the enhancement of supply chain resilience. From the perspective of synergy, this study adopted a dynamic Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) method, by taking 30 Chinese semiconductor enterprises as case studies, to explore the pathways through which such synergy fosters high supply chain resilience. The findings are as follows: (1) None of the six antecedent conditions related to digitalization and greening can independently constitute a necessary condition for driving high supply chain resilience; its achievement relies on the synergistic effect of multiple conditions. (2) Three configurational pathways to high resilience are identified, namely the "organization-dominated and digital technology-driven pathway", the "regulation-led and multi-factor synergistic pathway", and the "green innovation-dominated pathway". Among these, the degree of emphasis on digitalization acts as a foundational condition, while environmental regulation exerts a dual-directional impact. (3) These configurational pathways vary in terms of temporal stability, with the "regulation-led and multi-factor synergistic pathway" demonstrating significant advantages in responding to sudden disruptions. This research has deepened the understanding of the complex mechanisms underlying the formation of supply chain resilience and it will provide some decision-making references for enterprises to build high resilience under the dual development goals of high efficiency and low carbon.
In the background of self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, responsible innovation plays a crucial role in the sustainable development of enterprises and society. Although the importance of responsible innovation is widely recognized, the factors that affect the implementation of responsible innovation in enterprises are still unclear. Based on the behavioral theory of firms, this research explored the differentiated impact of the intensity and duration of positive performance feedback on responsible innovation, and the moderating effects of managerial myopia and TMT age heterogeneity. This paper selected Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2019 as the research sample and adopted the fixed effect model to test the research hypothesis. The results showed that the intensity of positive performance feedback has an inverted U-shaped impact on responsible innovation, while the duration of positive performance feedback has a positive impact on responsible innovation. Further analysis demonstrated that managerial myopia weakens the relationship between the duration of positive performance feedback and responsible innovation, while TMT age heterogeneity weakens both the relationships between the intensity and duration of positive performance feedback and responsible innovation. The conclusions are still valid after various robustness and endogeneity tests. These findings will not only enrich the behavioral theory of the firm, reveal the impact mechanisms of different dimensions of positive performance feedback on responsible innovation, but also provide important management implications for promoting Chinese enterprises to participate in responsible innovation and achieve sustainable development.
Enhancing enterprise innovation resilience is the key for enterprises to survive and thrive against adversities in the VUCA era. Based on the integrated framework of internal and external factors, this paper identifies six antecedent conditions of enterprise innovation resilience, including top management team's experiences, digitalization level, innovation resources investment, urban innovation climate, external R&D cooperation, and environmental complexity, and discusses the configuration patterns and dynamic trajectories of high innovation resilience of enterprises by multi-temporal QCA method based on the listed manufacturing enterprises in China's A-share market as the observed samples. The results of the study showed that: (1) Enterprise innovation resilience is the outcome of the interaction of multiple factors, and there is no solitary necessary condition; (2) There are four types of equivalent driving paths that enable enterprises to attain high innovation resilience in the pre-impact and post-impact periods, namely digitalization-R&D driven pattern, top management team-R&D driven pattern, top management team-investment driven pattern, and innovation investment driven pattern. Among them, the digitalization-R&D driven pattern emerges stably in both periods, and there are diverse substitution and complementary mechanisms; and (3) Innovation resources investment, top management team's experiences, external R&D cooperation, and digitalization level are the preponderant factors of the driving paths in both the pre-impact and post-impact periods. The research conclusions are conducive to understanding the complicated formation mechanism of enterprise innovation resilience, and they will provide theoretical and practical insights for enterprises to enhance innovation resilience and achieve high-quality development.
Some outstanding small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at home and abroad have achieved sustainable growth through a micro-innovation strategy, but the question of how micro-innovation strategy promotes the sustainable growth of SMEs has not been deeply answered. In this regard, this study combined with the dynamic capability theory, conducted a longitudinal case analysis of Yiwu Shuangtong Company which is the first brand in the global straw industry and the ‘invisible champion’ of domestic SMEs, in an attempt to analyze the mechanism of micro-innovation strategy of SMEs on the sustainable growth of enterprises. The results showed that: (1) The micro-innovation strategy of SMEs follows the evolutionary path of ‘differentiated’-‘specialized’-‘integrated’-‘platform-based’, which has become the driving force for the sustainable growth of enterprises. (2) Guided by the micro-innovation strategy, SMEs build and continuously improve their dynamic capabilities through the circular path of "environmental insight capability-organizational flexibility capability - change and renewal capability", thereby achieving sustainable growth. (3) Under the influence of different micro-innovation strategies, the mechanisms of dynamic capability improvement of SMEs present four different manifestations including structure optimization, specialized technical knowledge optimization, knowledge coordination optimization, and symbiotic relationship optimization, and the fundamental reason is that enterprises according to their own strategic positioning focus resources on optimizing different key activities in the value chain. This research has not only expanded the theoretical framework of micro-innovation and enterprise growth but also provide theoretical reference and management enlightenment for the sustainable growth of SMEs in China.
"A favorable environment attracts talents". Creating a good business environment is the key to promoting the aggregation of enterprises' scientific and technological innovation talents, which is of great significance for enterprises to experience a transition from traditional development models to innovation-driven models. Based on the ecosystem theory, this study employed the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the configurational effects of urban business environment ecosystems on the aggregation of enterprises' scientific and technological innovation talents. The findings revealed that: (1) the aggregation of enterprises' scientific and technological innovation talents is not dominated by any single business environment factor but is influenced by the configuration of multiple factors; (2) business environment factors combine to form three pathways for the aggregation of enterprises' scientific and technological innovation talents: "financial and governmental security driven by market and innovation environments", "legal and governmental security supported by the market", and "a collaborative drive of financial services with legal and governmental environments"; and (3) although no single business environment factor is a necessary condition for the aggregation of enterprises' scientific and technological innovation talents, the government-led administrative environment plays a more universal role. These findings has enriched the antecedent research on the aggregation of enterprises' scientific and technological innovation talents and they will provide policy implications for cities aiming to "build nests to attract phoenixes" by optimizing the business environment ecosystem.
In the current environment where uncertainties are increasing, enhancing export resilience can help mitigate external economic fluctuations and thereby promote stable economic development. Therefore, in the complex and volatile international trade environment, how to fully leverage institutional support and policy backing to effectively enhance export resilience is particularly critical and urgent. This paper, based on a quasi-natural experiment of the national intellectual property demonstration cities policy, utilized the data matched from the China Customs Database and the Industrial Enterprises Database to examine the impact of this policy on the export resilience of local enterprises. The findings are as follows: (1) The implementation of the national intellectual property demonstration cities policy significantly enhances the export resilience of enterprises in the demonstration cities and improves their ability to bear external risks. (2) The heterogeneity analysis revealed that the policy's effect on enhancing export resilience is more pronounced in high-profitability enterprises, non-state-owned enterprises, and regions with well-established intellectual property protection. Additionally, using prefecture-level cities as research samples and extending the study period to 2009-2022, we found that the positive effect of the national intellectual property demonstration cities policy on export resilience still exists. (3) The mechanism analysis showed that the key mechanisms through which the policy enhances export resilience are diversification of exports and improvement in export technological complexity. This paper has enriched the research on the relationship between the national intellectual property demonstration cities policy and export resilience and improves the understanding of the mechanisms and effects of this policy on enterprise export resilience. It will also provide important policy references for fully leveraging the role of national intellectual property demonstration cities in enhancing export resilience.
The complex and dynamic international landscape has elevated intellectual property (IP) to a strategic resource for national development and a focal point in international strategic competition, while innovation has become crucial for enterprises to maintain long-term competitive advantages in their global expansion. Existing literature predominantly focuses on the relationship between domestic patent litigation and corporate innovation, with limited exploration in cross-border contexts. Based on the knowledge-based view, this study selected 292 publicly listed high-tech enterprises headquartered in Asia and Europe from 2013 to 2022 as research objects and used the negative binomial regression analysis to investigate the relationship between overseas patent litigation and the innovation performance of accused enterprises. The findings revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship between the number of overseas patent litigations and the innovation performance of the accused enterprises. This inverted U-shaped relationship becomes steeper with increasing IP protection distance between home and host countries but flattens with greater diversity in the litigation experience of the accused enterprises. The study highlighted the dual effects of overseas patent litigation: a knowledge appropriability effect that restricts the accused firms' use of proprietary knowledge and a knowledge spillover effect that inadvertently transfers valuable knowledge to the accused firms. This research has enriched the literature by supplementing research in cross-border contexts and it will provide guidance for "going global" enterprises on maximizing knowledge acquisition and innovation output when facing overseas patent attacks.
Amid the digital transformation, virtual influencer, as an emerging digital marketing innovation, is becoming a key medium for brands to connect with Generation Z consumers. This study integrates the Diffusion of Innovations Theory, Cognitive Adaptation Theory, and Information Integration Theory constructs a moderated mediation model with the image of virtual influencers (cartoon-like vs. hyper-realistic) as the independent variable, processing fluency as the mediator, and product type and advertising appeal as the moderating variables. Through two scenario experiments, the study reveals the impact mechanism of their advertising effects. The research findings are as follows: (1) hyper-realistic images significantly enhance advertising effects due to their technological credibility advantage; (2) processing fluency plays a key mediating role between the image and the effect; (3) product type and advertising appeal moderate the mediating path: functional products need to match hyper-realistic images to enhance information processing fluency, while hedonic products are more suited to cartoon-like images to evoke emotional resonance, and under emotional appeals, hyper-realistic images have a greater advantage. This study deconstructs the "technology-cognition" dual-driven path of virtual influencers as a service innovation, providing theoretical basis and strategic insights for brand digital marketing practices.
