Breakthrough innovation(BI) in strategic emerging industry(SEI) represents a crucial pathway for cultivating new quality productive forces. Grounded in the strategic context of achieving high-level self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, this study constructs a three-dimensional co-evolutionary analysis framework of “institution-structure-behavior” based on the institutional logic theory and innovation ecosystem theory. By taking China’s semiconductor storage industry as a vertical case, this study revealed the mechanism of achieving BI in SEI. The findings showed that the realization process of BI in SEI includes three strategic stages: technology marketization exploration, core technology route cultivation and ecological breakthrough of independent innovation. Each stage sequentially adopts the linked innovation mode, recombinant innovation mode, and integrated innovation mode to achieve phased strategic objectives. The three-dimensional co-evolution among the institutional logic, innovation ecosystem and innovation strategic behaviors is realized through interactive mechanisms, namely, behavior shaping, structural support, institutional reconstruction and dynamic feedback. This study aims to develop a systematic framework for analyzing the mechanism for achieving BI in SEI, promote the complementary integration of institutional logic theory and innovation ecosystem theory, and will provide insights into innovative development of SEI.

Developing new quality productive forces is the essential demand and key breakthrough for high-quality economic and social development. Taking A-share listed enterprises in strategic emerging industries from 2011 to 2022 as research samples, this paper attempts to explore and explain the mechanism of technological innovation in the process of cultivating new quality productivity. The results show that:(1) Technological innovation can significantly improve the level of new quality productive forces of enterprises, and the conclusion is still valid after a series of robustness tests and the instrumental variable method to deal with the endogeneity.(2) The test of action mechanism shows that technological innovation investment accelerates the cultivation of new quality productive forces mainly through the technological breakthrough enabling mechanism of key technology breakthrough and digital technology innovation, factor allocation enabling mechanism of improving enterprise resource allocation efficiency and data factor utilization level.(3) Heterogeneity analysis finds that external environment such as intellectual property protection and digital infrastructure, and internal conditions such as high-tech industries and technology-intensive characteristics all help to enhance the driving effect of technological innovation on the development of new quality productive forces. The research conclusions of this paper provide useful enlightenment for China to grasp the new development opportunities and accelerate the formation of new quality productive forces in the process of highquality economic development, and provide theoretical reference for enterprises to occupy new heights in the competition, adhere to independent innovation and achieve sustainable development.

New quality productive forces provide the intrinsic momentum for achieving high-quality development. Scientifically grasping the current state and evolutionary characteristics of China’s new quality productive forces is the key breakthrough point for developing them in a way that suits local conditions. Based on the theoretical essence of new quality productive forces, this paper employed evolutionary economic geography theory to design a spatial differentiation framework encompassing regional knowledge foundations, technological linkages, and path dependencies. Further, from an industrial perspective, it constructed an evaluation index system for new quality productive forces covering traditional industries, strategic emerging industries, and future industries by utilizing entropy values, kernel density estimation, and the Dagum Gini coefficient. Findings revealed that China’s overall new quality productive forces level rose annually during the observation period, with the eastern region demonstrating a significant developmental advantage over other areas. Strategic emerging industries may represent a “new-quality industrial gap” in enhancing productivity levels. Regarding spatial correlation, polarization phenomena were observed in the levels of new quality productive forces across eastern, central, and western regions. Significant regional heterogeneity characterized the distribution of new quality productive forces levels, with inter-regional disparities between eastern and northeastern regions being the primary driver of widening gaps. These findings contribute to an objective understanding of China’s new quality productive forces development, clarify key directions for regional advancement, and promote coordinated development tailored to each region’s industrial foundations and resource endowments. They will provide actionable pathways for developing new quality productive forces in a context-specific manner.

As a driving force behind high-quality development, specialized, refined, unique, and innovative(SRUI) enterprises serve as a key engine for the formation and advancement of new quality productive forces. This study constructed a complex mediation model combining fsQCA and linear regression to explore the pathways through which digital dynamic capabilities drive innovation activity in SRUI enterprises and their mechanisms of influence on new quality productive forces, based on panel data from Chinese SRUI enterprises between 2017 and 2023. The findings revealed:(1) Digital perception capability, digital acquisition capability, and digital transformation capability interact synergistically to form six configurations that drive innovation activity in SRUI enterprises.(2) These six digital dynamic capabilities differ in their impact on new quality productive forces, with digital transformation capability playing a pivotal role in enhancing such productivity.(3) Mechanism tests show that digital dynamic capabilities promote new quality productive forces by stimulating innovation activity, while a lack of digital transformation capability hinders the upgrading and transformation of these productive forces. The results will offer significant insights for optimizing dynamic capability structure, enhancing innovation activity, and advancing new quality productive forces among SRUI enterprises.

Against the backdrop of the rapid evolution of the global digital economy and the accelerated formation of new quality productive forces, chip technology, as a crucial cornerstone of the modern information industry, provides robust computing power support for artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and 5G communications, thereby propelling the high-quality development of the digital industry. This study focused on China’s chip technology sector. Based on jointly authorized patent data from 2009 to 2023, a dynamic innovation cooperation network was constructed, and social network analysis was employed to reveal its structural characteristics and evolutionary patterns. The research findings are as follows:(1) The scale of China’s chip technology innovation cooperation network continuously expanded during the observation period, with network density exhibiting an inverted U-shaped change.(2) Multiple cohesive subgroups emerged within the innovation cooperation network, and the network structure evolved from a single-core to a multi-core form, increasing in complexity over time.(3) The roles of core nodes dynamically changed across different evolutionary stages, exhibiting an alternating leadership pattern of “industry-academia-industry”. This study will provide a reference for policymaking and the optimization of corporate innovation strategies, suggesting measures such as optimizing resource allocation, accelerating multi-core network formation, and deepening diversified collaboration to further facilitate the high-quality development of China’s chip technology industry.

Innovative city construction is a key measure to implement the national innovation-driven strategy, it is a worth investigating whether innovative city construction can promote Chinese-style modernization. We performed theoretical analysis on how innovative city construction affects the internal mechanism of Chinese-style modernization, based on a sample of 281 cities in China from 2004 to 2021. The innovative city pilot policy is treated as a quasi-natural experiment and the multi-period difference-in-differences model is employed to empirically examine the effects and mechanisms through which the innovative city construction influences Chinese-style modernization. The results show that innovative city construction has a significant driving effect on Chinese-style modernization. Heterogeneity analysis indicate that cities to the east of the Hu Huanyong Line exhibit high administrative level, strong talent agglomeration capabilities, and well-developed information technology, and the driving effect of innovative city construction on Chinese-style modernization is stronger compared to cities to the west of the line. Mechanism analysis reveals that innovative city construction can promote Chinese-style modernization by unleashing innovation and entrepreneurial effects. However, the extent of these effects may vary heterogeneously depending on the urban locations, administrative level, talent aggregation capabilities, and informatization level. This study enriches in theory the relevant research on influencing factors for Chinese-style modernization and on evaluation of innovative city construction effects. In practice, it not only provides decision support for the further promotion of innovative city pilots but also offers policy implications for accelerating the process of Chinese-style modernization.

Against the backdrop of global co-opetition, improving efficiency and enhancing capacity within the national innovation system is a core component for advancing Chinese modernization and achieving scientific and technological self-reliance. The “efficiency” and “capacity” of the national innovation system are two sides of the same coin; they reflect and reinforce each other, ultimately driving a leap in overall systemic effectiveness. By placing equal emphasis on both efficiency and capacity, this paper explores the multidimensional logical implications of the effectiveness of the national innovation system. First, the realistic logic is driven by strategic imperatives: high-quality economic development necessitates a path of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance, making the improvement of efficiency and capacity within the national innovation system an objective requirement to achieve this goal. Second, the underlying logic lies in tracing the roots: by deconstructing the generative mechanisms of overall effectiveness, this study reveals the true essence of improving efficiency and enhancing capacity, thereby laying a solid foundation for such continuous efficiency and capacity enhancement. Third, the theoretical logic aims to clarify the conceptual nexus: from a multidimensional perspective, it conducts an integrative analysis of the “external circulation” under the new paradigm of comprehensive opening-up and the “internal circulation” driven by the new whole-nation system for technological breakthroughs, thereby constructing a theoretical framework for enhancing the efficiency and capacity of the national innovation system. Finally, the practical logic focuses on breakthroughs and leapfrog development: by concentrating on both the process performance and the outcome performance of the national innovation system, it seeks breakthroughs through optimizing internal structures and expanding functional outputs, ultimately elevating the system’s overall effectiveness.

With the intensifying competition in the global market and the rapid advancements in technology, companies face the urgent challenge of how to swiftly and effectively leverage artificial intelligence(AI), a disruptive technology, to enhance their competitiveness. This study focuses on the application of AI in improving corporate competitive position, systematically elucidating the mechanisms through which AI affects competitive position. Using panel data from A-share listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2013 to 2023, we employ two-way fixed effect models and mediating effect models to systematically examine the impact of AI on corporate competitive position and its multiple mechanisms. The results indicate that the application of AI significantly enhances corporate competitive position, and this conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that AI has a more pronounced effect on the competitive position of state-owned enterprises, firms with higher risk-taking capacity, those facing greater environmental uncertainty, enterprises in the digital industry, and enterprises in the secondary and tertiary sectors. Mechanism analysis shows that AI significantly influences competitive position through three main pathways, including improvements in total factor productivity, access to government subsidies, and increased analyst attention. The findings of this study not only provide a new perspective for understanding the role of AI in enhancing corporate competitiveness but also offer a theoretical foundation and decision-making reference for promoting the application and optimization of AI technologies in businesses.

Promoting the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy is gradually becoming a new growth driver for China’s economy. This study focuses on A-share listed manufacturing enterprises in China, analyzing corporate patent texts to identify digital patents, thereby constructing a digital technology innovation indicator and examining its impact on corporate market value.The empirical results show that digital technology innovation significantly enhances the market value of manufacturing enterprises, and this conclusion remains valid after endogeneity and robustness tests. The positive effect is more pronounced in high-tech enterprises, labor-intensive enterprises, private enterprises, and large companies. Mechanism tests indicate that digital technology innovation affects market value through three channels: reducing production costs, optimizing labor resource structures, and improving innovation efficiency. This study validates the role of digital technology innovation in boosting the value growth of the real economy, providing reference for policy design related to digital technology in China and offering empirical evidence and recommendations for promoting the digital transformation of real enterprises.

Guiding financial capital to facilitate innovation in real-economy enterprises constitutes a critical strategic priority in China’s economic development. While existing studies predominantly examine corporate venture capital(CVC) through the lens of single-entity participation and parent-subsidiary competition, they largely overlook the multi-agent system involving parent firms, CVC institutions, and portfolio ventures, particularly the value-sharing dynamics between parent companies and their invested enterprises. This study analyzed A-share listed companies receiving CVC support from 1998 to 2022, employing a novel metric of excess portfolio scale that controls for firm-specific characteristics and environmental constraints. We systematically investigated how portfolio scale generates technological innovation spillovers in portfolio firms and created strategic value for parent corporations, thereby elucidating the symbiotic mechanisms and value co-creation pathways within China’s CVC ecosystem. Empirical analysis demonstrated that portfolio scale significantly enhances technological innovation outputs in portfolio enterprises, while simultaneously enabling parent companies to identify emerging technological trajectories that boost corporate innovation performance. Mechanism analysis revealed three operative channels: 1) technological linkage development, 2) failure tolerance mechanisms, and 3) relational network embeddedness. Heterogeneity tests further show amplified innovation spillovers when CVC institutions exhibit weaker professional capabilities, adopt solo-investment strategies, or involve government-affiliated lead investors. These findings substantiate the paradigm shift in CVC operations from short-term risk-return balancing toward long-term value creation alignment, will provide critical insights for fostering cross-scale enterprise collaboration and construct a dynamic innovation ecosystem through institutional innovations in capital allocation.

How to release the value of data elements to optimize public environmental protection policies is a difficult problem of green transformation in the digital era. Taking the establishment of the big data comprehensive experimental area as a quasi natural experiment, this paper empirically investigates the impact and mechanism of data factor agglomeration on the effectiveness of environmental subsidies. The study found that: the data element agglomeration enhanced the prying effect of unit environmental subsidies on green innovation, that is, it played a significant green governance effect on the implementation of environmental subsidies policy. The mechanism identification found that data element agglomeration can improve the efficiency of data management and external governance by reducing the cost of information search, so as to enhance the effectiveness of environmental protection subsidies. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the above effects can be seen in enterprises in heavily polluting industries, non high-tech and high environmental regulation areas, indicating that data element agglomeration can alleviate the resource mismatch caused by environmental regulation. Furthermore, data element agglomeration can also leverage environmental subsidies to promote enterprises to reduce pollution emissions and verify the effect of green governance again. This paper confirms that the aggregation of data elements can help to amplify the prying effect of environmental protection subsidy policy and provide a new path for the governance of public environmental protection policy.

Green development is a necessary condition for the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. As the primary agents responsible for environmental pollution, enterprises play a crucial role in promoting green innovation. Strategic alliances accelerate the flow of resources and elements among partner firms by penetrating organizational boundaries. However, existing research has seldom analyzed the impact of strategic alliances on the sustainability of corporate green innovation from this perspective. This paper investigates the relationship between strategic alliances and green innovation sustainability from the perspective of this inter-firm cooperative network. Using Chinese A-share listed enterprises in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2014 to 2024 as the research sample, this study empirically tests the proposed framework. The findings reveal that: (1) Participation in strategic alliances significantly promotes the sustainability of green innovation.(2) Mediation analysis indicates that strategic alliances promote the persistence of green innovation by enhancing firms’ dynamic capabilities, as reflected in improvements in opportunity-sensing capability, learning and absorptive capability, and resource reconfiguration capability.(3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that the promoting effect of strategic alliances on green innovation persistence is more pronounced among firms with higher stocks of green knowledge, firms operating in more competitive industries, and firms located in regions characterized by stronger public environmental concern and greater cultural diversity. The conclusions enrich the research on the economic consequences of strategic alliances and provide empirical evidence for improving green innovation capabilities in the context of inter-enterprise cooperation.

This study focuses on “zero-waste city” an important environmental protection strategy, and constructs a tripartite evolutionary game model involving the government, shareholders, and enterprises. It analyzes the strategic choices and dynamic evolution paths of each participant before and after the construction of a “zero-waste city” exploring the influence of various factors on the tripartite strategy choices and further examining the stability of the equilibrium points within the tripartite game system. Based on data from China’s A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2022, a dual machine learning model is employed to investigate the mechanisms by which the “zero-waste city” policy influences corporate green innovation. The findings reveal that the “zero-waste city” policy effectively promotes green technology innovation among enterprises. Mechanism testing indicates that shareholders’ green concerns play a positive moderating role in the implementation process. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the construction of a “zero-waste city” has a significantly greater effect on promoting green technology innovation in state-owned and large enterprises compared to private and small- to medium-sized enterprises. The research conclusions enhance the understanding of the micro-mechanisms and differentiated impacts of “zero-waste city” construction, providing theoretical support for advancing the “zero-waste city” policy.

It is important to clarify how to improve the urban status of green technology innovation networks to bridge the development gap of green technology innovation between cities and realize the national “double carbon” goal. Based on the big data of firm-level green technology patents from 2015 to 2021, the study depicts China’s green technology innovation urban network, constructs a theoretical model to enhance the urban status of the green technology innovation network from three aspects: “supply and demand side” business environment, urban administrative level, and economic development level, and uses dynamic QCA method to conduct empirical research. The study found that: first, the green technology innovation urban network has the structure of “interaction inside and outside the circle” with the characteristics of mobility and stability, but the network status of city nodes is unbalanced, and the edge cities are still facing the dilemma of insufficient network embeddedness. Second, the “supply and demand side” business environment, urban administrative level, and economic development level are the multiple concurrent factors that enhance the urban status of the green technology innovation network. The “administrative level” dominance and the “economic level - business environment” synergy are the two equivalent logics to achieve high urban network status. The “supply pull” and “supply-demand linkage” of the “supply and demand side” business environment are their marginal and core conditions, respectively. Third, for the network entities in different positions, the feasible paths to improve the urban status of green technology innovation networks with the business environment are different. The core cities are dominated by the “factor supply side” business environment, while the edge cities rely on the balanced linkage of the “supply and demand side” business environment or the strong driving of the “factor supply side” business environment. On the one hand, under the network-based urban spatial structure, the study provides policy references for the country to build a new development pattern of inter-city green technology innovation cooperation and integration. On the other hand, the findings put forward multiple feasible paths for cities to enhance the green technology innovation network status, and provide empirical evidence for network edge cities to utilize the business environment to mitigate their difficulties in improving urban network status due to their low administrative level and economic level.

Tax incentives play an important role in economic policies and can influence micro innovation behavior of enterprises through macroeconomic regulation. This article used national tax survey data to empirically test the impact of the environmentally-friendly tax incentive policy of special equipment investment credit on corporate innovation investment, and further analyzed the incentive effect of the environmentally-friendly tax incentive policy on innovation investment in industries with different levels of pollution. The research showed that there is a U-shaped relationship between environmentally friendly tax incentives and the level of technological innovation in enterprises. At the same time, there is a U-shaped relationship between environmentally friendly tax incentives and innovation activities of enterprises in heavily polluting industries. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that in industries with high prosperity, low government intervention, and high capital intensity, environmentally friendly tax incentive policies still have a significant “U-shaped” impact on corporate innovation activities. Further comparative analysis reveals that fiscal subsidies do not affect the role of environmentally friendly tax incentives on corporate innovation investment through substitution effects, nor do they distort the economic effects of environmentally friendly tax incentives. The research in this article has important implications for further promoting high-quality economic development and improving the environmentally friendly tax policy system in China.

The uncertainty of commercial credit risk is a key factor restricting the development of supply chain finance regulation. Based on the perspective of supply chain agility, this paper took the 2018 Supply Chain Innovation and Application Pilot as a quasi-natural experiment of supply chain digitization, and studied the impact of supply chain digitization on commercial credit risk and its functioning mechanism based on the data of listed companies in the period from 2014 to 2022. It is found that supply chain digitization significantly suppresses supply chain commercial credit risk, which is manifested in the reduction of the use of high-risk commercial credit modes such as accounts receivable and accounts payable in commercial credit. The mechanism test showed that supply chain digitization affects supply-demand matching, operational efficiency, and trust network by improving customer agility, operational agility, and cooperation agility, and ultimately acts on commercial credit risk. In addition, supply chain digitalization has a more significant mitigating effect on commercial credit risk of non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises with low industry concentration and enterprises in low trust regions. The findings of this paper will provide empirical evidence for supply chain digitization to achieve safe development and its economic impact on supply chain finance, which is of great practical significance for promoting the integration of industry-technology-finance and preventing and mitigating major financial risks under the new development pattern.

Diversity in educational pedigree and career trajectory within research teams has profound implications for creativity, yet its direction and underlying mechanisms remain inconclusive. Drawing on a sample of 1054 researchers from 99 teams at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, we compiled an integrated dataset using resume coding, survey data, and bibliometric analysis. Cross-level regression models were employed to examine how different forms of team diversity influence individual creativity. The findings indicated that career trajectory diversity is positively associated with creativity, primarily through the mediating role of knowledge sharing. Conversely, the effect of educational pedigree diversity is contingent on empowering leadership: only at higher levels of empowerment does such diversity enhance cognitive conflict, knowledge sharing, and ultimately creativity. Building on these findings, this study develops a team cognitive information-processing framework to explain how the value of diversity is realized—either through members’ preexisting boundary-spanning capabilities or through leaders’ deliberate empowerment practices, which generate a positive feedback loop in team interactions. Accordingly, the study suggests facilitating career mobility and adopting empowering leadership practices in teams with diverse educational pedigree.

In the context of “AI+” development, exploring the impact of employee-AI collaboration on innovative behavior has become a crucial research topic in organizational management. Based on activation theory, this study examines the nonlinear relationship between employee-AI collaboration and innovative behavior, along with its underlying mechanisms. Using three-wave data from 301 employees collaborating with AI, we conducted regression analyses to test our hypotheses. The results reveal that:(1) Employee-AI collaboration exerts an inverted U-shaped effect on innovative behavior, suggesting that moderate levels of collaboration optimally foster innovation.(2) Cognitive flexibility serves as a curvilinear mediator, where employee-AI collaboration influences innovative behavior through inducing an inverted U-shaped change in cognitive flexibility.(3) Achievement motivation moderates the inverted U-shaped impact of employee-AI collaboration on cognitive flexibility, both delaying the inflection point of cognitive flexibility decline and mitigating the downward trend. These findings break through traditional linear thinking, deepen our understanding of the nonlinear impact of employee-AI collaboration on innovative behavior, and provide valuable insights for managers to construct effective employee-AI collaborative innovation systems.

Hybrid entrepreneurship of S&T personnel is an important way to transform scientific and technological achievements, but existing studies still lack an in-depth interpretation of the internal correlation between the two. Based on the theory of “knowledge integration”, a conceptual model of the chain relationship among hybrid entrepreneurship of S&T personnel, knowledge integration, and S&T achievement transformation was constructed. Environmental uncertainty was used as a moderating variable. Then, an empirical study was conducted using 326 S&T-based hybrid entrepreneurial enterprises in Hubei Province as samples. Research has found that the hybrid entrepreneurship of S&T personnel has a significant positive impact on exploitative transformation of S&T achievements, while the positive impact on exploratory transformation of S&T achievements is not significant; The hybrid entrepreneurship of S&T personnel has a significant positive impact on knowledge integration; Knowledge integration plays a mediating role in the relationship between hybrid entrepreneurship of S&T personnel and exploitative transformation of S&T achievements; Environmental uncertainty plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between hybrid entrepreneurship by S&T personnel and exploitative transformation of S&T achievements. This paper reveals the limitations of hybrid entrepreneurship of S&T personnel in promoting exploratory transformation of S&T achievements. This study will provide reference value for governments, research institutes and universities to optimize the policies related to encouraging and supporting S&T personnel’s entrepreneurship and transformation of S&T achievements.

Many firms promote organizational innovation by hiring employees with prior entrepreneurial experience. Drawing on identity theory and nostalgia theory, this study places multiple identities within a dual-channel framework of tension and synergy to examine the mechanism through which identity conflict and identity enhancement, arising during the transition between former and current identities, influence the innovative behavior of ex-entrepreneur employees. Using a sample of 237 ex-entrepreneur employees, this study collected data in three waves and tested the hypotheses through path analysis and Bootstrap tests. The results show that:(1) identity conflict has a significant negative effect on the innovative behavior of ex-entrepreneur employees, whereas identity enhancement has a significant positive effect;(2) intrinsic motivation partially mediates the relationships of identity conflict and identity enhancement with the innovative behavior of ex-entrepreneur employees; and(3) entrepreneurial identity nostalgia strengthens the negative indirect effect of identity conflict on the innovative behavior of ex-entrepreneur employees through intrinsic motivation, whereas its hypothesized negative moderating effect on the positive indirect effect of identity enhancement on employees’ innovative behavior through intrinsic motivation is not supported. This study reveals the process mechanism and boundary conditions through which identity relations influence employees’ innovative behavior via intrinsic motivation, enriches research on multiple identities, and extends the literature on the workplace behavior of ex-entrepreneurs after reemployment. The findings also provide important implications for organizations seeking to activate the innovative potential of ex-entrepreneur employees and for ex-entrepreneurs’ career choices.