Science Research Management

The configuration effect of antecedents of business model innovation of technology start-ups

Guo Tao, Li Panpan, Qiao Han

2021, 42(1): 1-9.

Abstract ( 597 )

As an important carrier for the public entrepreneurship and innovation, technology start-ups have always faced the dual pressure of "newborn weakness" and environmental uncertainty. Business model innovation is an important way for technology start-ups to adapt to the dynamic environment, gain competitive advantages and achieve rapidly growth, which is the result of linkage and matching of multiple antecedents, and changes in any antecedent can bring about a series of chain reactions. In addition, there are significant differences in the environmental and resource conditions between start-ups and incumbents. Therefore, it is an important issue to clarify the antecedent elements of business model innovation of technology start-ups, and the linkage matching model of antecedent elements.
Existing research literatures have different opinions on the antecedent conclusions of business model innovation. Due to the limitations of methods, those literatures mainly focus on the "net effect" of a single factor, or the mediating effect or moderating effect of up to three variables, the lack of a completed framework of antecedent factors based on authoritative theory, which can′t fully explain the complexity of cause and effect between antecedents, and not to mention to answer to the question "how to achieve business model innovation" from the perspective of integration. Based on the perspective of system management, the iceberg theory of business model and the CET@I analysis framework are proposed, and the interaction of influencing factors of business model is investigated, providing a theoretical framework for the research on the antecedents of business model innovation. Meantime, as an effective method to explore the "synergistic effect" and "interaction relationship", Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) explores the complex mechanism of multiple antecedents on the result from a configuration perspective, which is an effect tool to analyze the antecedents of business model innovation of technology start-ups under the iceberg theory of business model and the CET@I analysis framework.
To analyze the linkage effect of various antecedents of technology start-ups′ business model innovation, a configuration model of antecedents of business model innovation is constructed based on the iceberg theory of business model. Taking 31 technology start-ups as case samples and carry out empirical analysis by the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method. The main results are as follows: (1) Business model innovation of technology start-ups is "multiple concurrency" and "principle equifinality", single element cannot constitute the necessary conditions for business model innovation. (2) The synergy of network embedding and resource integration capability is essential to the business model innovation of technology start-ups. (3) Under the circumstances of high environmental uncertainty, the synergy of resource integration capability and opportunity identification capability, the synergy of network embedding and strategic flexibility are important ways for technology start-ups to achieve their business model innovation.
The research is an important complement of the iceberg theory of business model, and enriches the research results of antecedents of business model and provides a new perspective to eliminate paradox existing research by introduced the fsQCA method into the research. The conclusion provides theoretical guidance for technology start-ups to cultivate business model innovation capability based on their own situations.

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A research on the influence mechanism of entrepreneur′s effectuation on shaping of entrepreneurial opportunities in great chaos

Xia Lihui, Luo Biao

2021, 42(1): 10-19.

Abstract ( 298 )

High-tech startups are the most active part in promoting the growth of new drivers. The survival and growth process of high-tech startups is the process of opportunity shaping, which is characterized by high innovation and high complexity. In the contexts of China emerging economies, which are characterized by high uncertainty, the uncertainty of opportunity shaping by high-tech startups with limited resources and management capacity is further increased, and the traditional forecation-oriented decision-making logic is difficult to play an effective role. In recent years, a large number of entrepreneurship research have proved that in highly uncertain contexts, entrepreneurs follow the effectuation to make decision. The effectuation theory is action-oriented. It describes how to think, make decisions and practice under uncertainty, including a series of principles such as flexibility, affordable loss, previous commitment and experiment. At present，the effectuation theory has attracted the attention of scholars in the field of entrepreneurship. However, the researchers have not explained and answered the effect of entrepreneurs′ effectuation on the opportunity shaping of high-tech startups, as well as the internal mechanism. Therefore, based on the upper echelons theory, this study discussed the influence of entrepreneurs′ effectuation on organizational opportunity shaping from the perspective of entrepreneurs, as well as the mediating effect of organizational network construction and the regulating effect of entrepreneurs′ entrepreneurial passion.
On the basis of summarizing the existing research, research models are constructed and research hypotheses are proposed. This study collected data from Shanghai and Jilin in the form of questionnaires. According to the calculation of the China Entrepreneurship Activity Index (CPEA) in the Global Entrepreneurship Observation Report, Shanghai is one of the cities with the highest degree of entrepreneurial activity, while entrepreneurial activities in Jilin are not active. This shows that there is a big difference in the degree of entrepreneurial activity between the two cities. The questionnaire requires entrepreneurs or middle-level and senior managers who have a comprehensive understanding of the actual situation of the company to fill in. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed and 141 valid questionnaires were collected.All the items were measured using five-point Likert scales ranging from 1 to 5. 1 represented a strong disagreement， and the 5 represented a complete agreement. In this paper, Harmon single factor analysis was adopted, and the common method variation problem can be ignored．
Before data analysis, the reliability of the variables was tested using cronbach′s coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis in the structural equation model was used to test the scale′s structural validity. The test results show that the scale of all the variables have good reliability and discriminative validity. Correlation analysis also shows that there is a strong correlation among the variables in this study. Then SPSS was used to test the research hypothesis, and the conclusions showed that: (1) entrepreneurs′ effectuation has a positive impact on organizational network construction and organizational opportunity shaping. (2) Organizational network construction plays an mediating role in the relationship between entrepreneurs′ effectuation and organizational opportunity shaping. (3) The higher the entrepreneurs′ entrepreneurial passion, the stronger the relationship between entrepreneurs′ effectuation and organizational network construction; the stronger the relationship between entrepreneurs′ effectuation and organizational opportunity shaping.
The theoretical enlightenment of this article is as follows. First, it expands the research on the influencing factors of organizational opportunity shaping. Second, it expands the research on organizational network construction，and enriches the research on the effect of entrepreneurs′ cognitive factors on organizational network construction. In addition, it has enriches the research on the causes and consequences of organizational network construction, and has also made a useful supplement to the internal mechanism of entrpreneurs′ effectuation and organizational opportunity shaping. Third, it expands the research on the interaction between cognition and emotion in the entrepreneurial field, responding to the call of previous scholars to explore the moderating effects of more different variables on the relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and organizational outputs.
This research provides some inspiration for the practice of high-tech startups. First, the conclusions provide guidances for entrepreneurs. In highly uncertain environments, entrepreneurs should use effectuation to promote opportunities shaping. Second, the conclusions provide advice to policy makers. The government can set up relevant courses or training programs for entrepreneurs in entrepreneurial incubators to help them improve the effectuation and entrepreneurial passion. At the same time, the government can actively organize more activities for entrepreneurs, so as to provide more opportunities to help them construct network. Third, the conclusions provide decision-making guidance for investors. Entrepreneurial passion or effectuation can be used as an indicator to evaluate the development potential of high-tech startups and provide a reference for investment decisions.
This study also has some limitations. First, this study uses cross-sectional data to analyze the static relationship among the variables, and insufficiently examines the longitudinal relationship among the variables. Therefore, a longitudinal case study method is needed to capture the dynamic relationship among various variables in the future. Second, this study only considers the moderating effect of entrepreneurial passion in the relationship between entrepreneurs′ effectuation and organizational network construction from the perspective of entrepreneurs′ characteristics. Future research can investigate the influence of other contextual factors to continuously enrich the research related to boundaries of organizational network construction and opportunity shaping. Third, the measurement of effectuation needs to be improved. Future research can add measurement items through case interviews and other methods, continuously refine and improve the effectuation scale, and improve measurement accuracy.

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A study of the research front identification method based on machine learning

Li Xin, Wen Yang, Huang Lucheng, Miao Hong

2021, 42(1): 20-32.

Abstract ( 644 )

Research front is the most potential and forward-looking research direction in the process of technological innovation. It is very important to early identify the research fronts for scientific research, optimal allocation of enterprises′ R&D resources, governments′ innovation strategies formulation. Faced the massive amount of scientific research results data, how to quickly and accurately identify research fronts has become the focus of the academic community. Many scholars have used bibliometric methods to identify research fronts. Citation analysis is one of the most commonly used methods to identify research fronts, and highly cited papers are regarded as an important data source. However, it takes a certain amount of time to accumulate citations of papers. The existing citation analysis method cannot incorporate newly published papers and papers that will be highly cited in the future into the data collection of highly cited papers that identify research fronts. Therefore, aiming at the current deficiencies in the research on research fronts identification, this paper proposed a novel framework for identifying research fronts based on machine learning methods. The research steps of this framework are as follows.
Firstly, we used Web of Science (WoS) as the data source to download historical highly cited papers and the references of the highly cited papers. Secondly, we constructed the identification indexes system of the highly cited papers and calculated the corresponding values of the indexes. Then we divided the obtained data into the training data set and the testing data set for machine learning model. Thirdly, we constructed support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) models, and continuously adjusted model parameters to make the three models to be optimal. Fourth, we downloaded the newly published papers from WoS to verify the generalization ability of each machine learning model. Then we selected the model with the best generalization ability to predict the future citations of the newly published papers and identified potentially highly cited papers, and we incorporated the potentially highly cited papers into the core data set of the highly cited papers. Fifth, we used the core data set of the highly cited papers as the data source to identify the research front topics by applying cluster analysis. Finally, the research front topics are compared and evaluated to identify the research fronts. We selected solar cells as a case study to verify the valid and flexible of this framework.
The research results show that emerging research fronts in the research field of solar cells include: Ternary organic solar cells/Ternary polymer solar cells, PbS quantum-dot solar cells, inverted planar perovskite solar cells; the growing research fronts include: Non-fullerene polymer solar cells/Non-fullerene organic solar cells, CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cells. We found that the research fronts we identified were basically consistent with the research fronts in the field of solar cells in existing authoritative research reports. In addition, we invited three well-known experts in the field of solar cells to evaluate the research fronts identified in this paper, and they basically agreed with the results. This verifies the effectiveness and feasibility of the method proposed in this paper.

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Structure and evolution mechanism of the enterprise innovation ecosystem in terms of modularity: A longitudinal case study on Haier Group from 2005 to 2019

Zheng Shuai, Wang Haijun

2021, 42(1): 33-46.

Abstract ( 741 )

Upon the transformation of manufacturing enterprises into the ecological innovation strategy, how can the hub firm make technological and commercial decisions to enhance long-term competitiveness with the evolution of innovation ecosystem? The existing literatures have focused on the study on what innovation ecosystems are and how they operate, and most of them have neglected the impact of the external environment. This research aimed to complement the literatures by investigating when and why ecosystems emerge, as well as how the contexts lead to the co-evolution of innovation ecosystems? Based on the research framework of "situation-structure-mechanism", this paper explored the structure, evolution mechanisms and path characteristics of enterprise innovation ecosystem through a longitudinal case of Haier Group from the modularity perspective. The findings are as follows:
First of all, contexts dominate the realization of technological innovation. According to the remarkable events in the development of strategic transformation of Haier′s modular ecosphere, Haier Group has experienced three stages of the netting period for developing new resources, the webbing period for expanding new businesses, and the integration period for disruptive innovation. And this paper revealed the interactive evolution process of the enterprise innovation ecosystem with three situational factors: technical standards, user needs and policy supports.
Secondly, through the systemic analysis, this paper summarized three important characteristics of the structure of the enterprise innovation ecosystem: modularity of innovation architecture, open interface and embeddability of network governance. Thus the evolution path of Haier Group innovation ecosystem is starting from the internal-R&D-oriented innovation system, and transferring to the industry-chain-integration-oriented innovation system, and ultimately to the customer-requirements-oriented innovation ecosystem, which are driven by modular innovation architectures, practically speaking from product and production modularity, organization modularity to ultra-modularity in turn.
Last but not least, the innovation realization mechanism of the enterprise innovation ecosystem is manifested in leverage, synergy and mutual benefit mechanism. By revealing the structural characteristics of the innovation ecosystem and the operation logic of the implementation mechanism: (a)this paper put forward Haier had adopted the modular innovation architecture to maximize the leverage effects of the innovation ecosystem, keeping the structure open without sacrificing the decision-making openness, and the evolutionary path of leverage mechanism is starting from reusing module resources, and transferring to platform resources, and ultimately to ultra-modular scene resources. (b) Haier has facilitated external coordination through the cognitive embeddability of network governance which has laid the foundation of complementors′ trusts, as well as managed internal coordination through the modular innovative architecture. Thus the role of the hub firm has grown from the decomposer, the platform leader to the innovation integrator through cooperative mechanism. (c) Haier has created a more open and fair benefit-sharing contexts through open and transparent decision-making, the management of intellectual property rights and so on. Thus the mutual benefit mechanism has changed from enterprise leading to open market determining.
The results are important for complementing and developing the theory of the innovation ecosystem, and provide enlightenment on the design alternatives for manufacturing enterprises transforming to the innovation ecosystem strategy.

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Belt and Road Initiative and the innovation upgrading of China′s enterprises

Yang Bo, Li Bo

2021, 42(1): 47-56.

Abstract ( 500 )

Nowadays, China′s economy development model has been transforming from the high growth driven by investment to the high-quality development driven by factors. In the process of realizing rational allocation of factor resources, the innovation upgrading has become the primary driving power for the high-quality development. At the same time, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to further deepen enterprises′ going global and bringing in strategies, promote enterprises′ outward foreign direct investment, and optimize the enterprises′ transformation upgrade, since it was put forward. From 2013 to 2018, China′s outbound non-financial direct investment flows have increased from US $92.74 billion to US $120.5 billion. In 2018, non-financial direct investment to countries along the Belt and Road Initiative reached US $15.64 billion, rising by 8.9% year-on-year. Therefore, while the Belt and Road Initiative could promote the transformation of domestic industrial structure and the enterprises′ innovation upgrading, it would play a crucial role in the realization of the high-quality development in China.
At the same time, the paper uses the methods of the Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Difference to evaluate the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on the enterprises′ innovation upgrading. The explained variable is the enterprises′ innovation upgrading, and the core explanatory variable is the Belt and Road Initiative. The result shows that the Belt and Road Initiative has significantly improved the quantity and quality of the enterprises′ patents, and further promoted the innovation upgrading of the enterprises. Simultaneously, the results remain unchanged when it controls the variables, such as enterprises′ productivity, scale, age, cash flows, leverage ratios and profit margins. Especially, the dynamic effect test further shows that the promotional effects are stronger than before in the third-year and fourth-year. In addition, the robustness tests are still robust, including the panel instrument variables, replacing the explained variables, triple-difference methods and the continuous panel data.
One one hand, the paper further analyzes the heterogeneity of enterprises′ innovation upgrading from the two dimensions of the space and industry, including the region ,the ownership and the industry type. The heterogeneity results are as follows. First of all, whether the enterprises are located in the region along the initiative provinces or not, it has significantly promoted the innovation upgrading of the enterprises in the region. Meanwhile, for the enterprises′ ownership, the initiative mainly exists on the state-owned enterprises′ innovation upgrading. Lastly, in terms of the industry type, the initiative mainly promotes the mature industrial enterprises′ innovation upgrading.
One the other hand, the Belt and Road Initiative mainly through the four mechanisms to promote the enterprises′ innovation upgrading, respectively the market competitiveness, the R&D, the enterprises′ financial constraints, and the rise of the value chain. The specific paths are as follows. Firstly, for the market competitiveness, the Belt and Road Initiative could help Chinese companies to get closer to the destination country. So that they could acquire more overseas operating revenue to expand their scale. Secondly, for the enterprises′ R&D, the Belt and Road Initiative could encourage the enterprises to set up R&D centers, and acquire advanced technical knowledge and skill resources in the host countries. Thirdly, for the financial constraints, the Belt and Road Initiative could reduce the external risks of the information asymmetry, and further put the reduced cost into an more effective domestic investment. Fourthly, for the global value chain, the Belt and Road Initiative could promote the enterprises to produce high value-added products, improve the height of the value chain, enhance the intellectual property technology innovation, and ultimately promote the enterprises′ innovation upgrading.
Based on the conclusions above, the research result further provides some practical references to the enterprises′ innovation upgrading under the Belt and Road Initiative. Primarily, the Chinese government should strengthen strategic cooperation and create a community of interests with the countries along the Belt and Road Initiative. Secondly, local governments should participate in the Belt and Road Initiative and encourage local enterprises to invest the countries along the Belt and Road Initiative. Finally, Chinese enterprises should integrate into the Belt and Road Initiative. At last, this paper finds that the Belt and Road Initiative accelerates the enterprises′ outward foreign direct investment and ultimately promotes the innovation upgrading.

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A research on the influence mechanism of patent cooperation networks on innovation performance of technology-based SMEs

Wang Liying, Wu Ying, Zhu Ziqin, Song Xiuling

2021, 42(1): 57-66.

Abstract ( 408 )

Technology-based SMEs are important carriers of strategic emerging industries and core strength of modern industrial systems. Increasing the cultivation and support of technology-based SMEs are an important starting point for going deep into the implementation of innovation-driven development strategies. In the context of patents surging, technology-based SMEs still face bottlenecks of the lack of innovative resources. Although enterprises actively seek to cooperate with other organizations through applying for patents to establish a patent cooperation network, for integrating innovative resources, however, there are some problems. There is a hollow of internal technological innovation caused by excessive dependence on external technologies. On the other hand, there is a dilemma that it is difficult to sustain innovation due to technical rigidity. How much of the rich patent cooperation resources really transfer into a core competitive advantage that promotes the improvement of enterprises′ innovation performance? In an open network competition environment, enterprises must transform from traditional growth methods that rely on its internal accumulation to collaborative development methods that integrate external resources. So it is very important to select and embed a patent cooperation network that is compatible with the development of the enterprises, in this way it can truly promote the improvement of innovation performance. How to build a patent cooperation network that adapts to the growth of the enterprises? How to cultivate the key capabilities to achieve the transformation of patent cooperation resources to internal core competitiveness? How to adjust the evolution path of the patent cooperation network dynamically to achieve a breakthrough in the growth bottleneck? These are the key issues that need to be discussed and solved in the study of the use of patent cooperation networks to promote the sustainable growth of technology-based SMEs. But the unsatisfactory situation is, the existing researches are not deep enough on some aspects, such as how to choose different modes of enterprise patent cooperation networks, and how to establish a coordination mechanism between cooperative enterprises to improve the innovation performance of enterprises.
This research used 5,169 effective cooperative invention patent data from 485 listed technology-based SMEs in the ICT industry and the pharmaceutical industry, constructing four patent cooperation networks modes by different combinations of patent cooperation breadth and depth, which are: "compact type" (high-breadth & high-depth), "exploration type" (high-breadth & low-depth), "utilization type" (low-breadth & high-depth) and "loose type" (low-breadth & low-depth). Based on network characteristics differences and multiple regression analysis, this study explores and verifies the impact of patent cooperation networks on corporate innovation performance.
This study draws some important research results. The study found that in the four patent cooperation network modes based on different cooperation breadth and depth, the "compact type" mode patent cooperation network affects innovation performance of enterprises positively without curve effect; the "exploration type" mode affects innovation performance of enterprises positively, and has "U" shape curve influence effect; the "utilization type" mode affects innovation performance of enterprises positively, with an "inverted U" shape curve effect; the "loose type" mode affects innovation performance of enterprises negatively. 
The study further explores the influence mechanism of different modes patent cooperation networks on enterprise innovation performance by analyzing enterprise network capability and absorptive capability. Enterprise network capability plays a full mediating effect between three modes and enterprise innovation performance, the three modes are: "compact type", "exploration type" and "utilization type". Enterprise absorption capacity has different effects on moderating in the process of different modes of patent cooperation networks affecting innovation performance through network capability.
The research proposes a breakthrough path for technology-based SMEs to dynamically adjust the patent cooperation network and improve the innovation performance by optimizing the patent cooperation behavior: The first is to optimize the patent cooperation network mode. Technology-based SMEs should focus on strengthening their links with other entities from the view of breadth and depth of cooperation. Priority should be given to selecting effective cooperation entities, and actively constructing a "utilization type" patent cooperation network by increasing the frequency of cooperation and deepening the use of resources. Moreover, on the basic of fully possessing an excellent cooperation mechanism, the scope and frequency of cooperation should be expanded in two directions, and the model will be transformed into a "compact type" patent cooperation network mode. For other enterprises, the transformation from the "exploration type" to the "compact type" patent cooperation network can also be considered under some conditions, such as the government′s cultivation and support.
The second is to focus on cultivating the dynamic network capability of enterprises. Technology-based SMEs need to use key capabilities to balance the degree of embedding different types of patent cooperation subnets. At the same time as patent cooperation develops, it is necessary to form a dynamic network capability that matches the organizational changes and adjusts to the changes of the external network environment. By actively embedding to occupy the optimal position in the network, and strengthening interaction through effective communication, technology-based SMEs should effectively identify and integrate the information possessed by the external network, and jointly promote the establishment of cooperation.
The third is to enhance the absorption capacity by enterprises investing according to external resources. Enterprises should enhance their absorptive capacity by cultivating and introducing high-end talents, strengthening internal research and development capabilities, promoting the effective flow of knowledge within the organizations and building a learning culture. When the depth of cooperation between enterprises is low, we should focus on the ability to coordinate and match. While developing the absorptive capacity, attention should be paid to moderate openness, which makes the organic combination of enterprise resource openness and external knowledge absorption. So as to promote the core competitive advantage, we need to work on both inside and outside.
The fourth is to build an efficient patent cooperation network collaborative innovation sharing platform. The sharing platform should be built and cultivated from the government level. The government should introduce sharing cooperation policies and mobilize various innovation entities for resource sharing. In this way, the effective flow of knowledge, technology and information is promoted. Also, it helps to achieve the value-added knowledge and enhance the innovation performance of technology-based SMEs through more efficient patent cooperation networks.

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A research on the impact of partner′s social value on firms′ critical innovation

Bi Jingyu, Xie En

2021, 42(1): 67-77.

Abstract ( 267 )

In a volatile business environment, firms usually build and operate a set of R&D alliances with multiple external partners as R&D alliance portfolios to achieve economic and technological objectives. However, due to the less transparent information disclosure process in emerging markets, it is difficult for firms to obtain reliable information about potential partners through public sources. As a result, firms trend to view the high frequency with which a specific partner is selected by other firms as a convincing signal of quality, because others′ actions can help the focal firm to reduce information asymmetries associating with partner selection decisions. Thus, the R&D alliance portfolio is often featured with high partners′ social value. Previous studies have examined how partners′ social value of the R&D alliance portfolio influence firms′ innovation outcomes, however, the conclusions are inconsistent. Specifically, how partners′ social value influences firms′ critical innovation still remains unknown. This study attempts to fill this gap by drawing on transaction cost theory to examine how partners′ social value of R&D alliance portfolio (which is measured as the average of the linkages of all partners in R&D alliance portfolio) influences firms′ critical innovation.
Because few of the previous studies focus on exploring the boundary effect of partners′ social value on firms′ critical innovation, while, the attributes of participants in the alliance portfolio can indeed affect the information obtained by the focal firm from external partners, especially the technological diversity and geographic diversity of R&D partners in the R&D alliance portfolio. Still, how partners′ technological diversity and geographic diversity moderate the relationship between partners′ social value and firms′ critical innovation remains unclear.
The empirical study, leveraging Chinese listed biopharmaceutical firms during a twenty-year period (1997-2017), and using a negative binomial regression model, aims to fill these gaps by posing two research questions. First, how partners′ social value of R&D alliance portfolio influences firms′ critical innovation. Second, how partners′ technological diversity and geographic diversity moderate the relationship between partners′ social value and firms′ critical innovation. Our results indicate that: (1) Partners′ social value has an inverted U-shaped effect on firms′ critical innovation; (2) Partners′ technological diversity weakens the inverted U-shaped effect of partners′ social value on firms′ critical innovation. The higher the technological diversity of the partners, the inverted-U shaped relationship between partners′ social value and firms′ innovation is weakened; (3) Partners′ geographic diversity has enhanced the inverted U-shaped effect of partners′ social value on firms′ critical innovation. The higher the geographical diversity of partners, the inverted-U shaped relationship between partners′ social value and firms′ critical innovation is steeper. Because existing research provides multiple measurements of firms′ critical innovation, we also use the number of citations of firms′ patent as the measurement of firms′ critical innovation to conduct a robustness test, the results further indicate that the conclusion of this article is still robust.
Relevant research results not only help supplement the existing literature on alliance portfolio and partner diversity but also can provide useful references for managers of the focal firms to select partners and manage their R&D alliance portfolio, thereby improving their innovation capabilities and innovation investment efficiency.

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Inclusive institutional arrangement, selective direct support and R&D performance of enterprises：Heterogeneity in the innovation governance effect of government participation

Chen Qingjiang, Wang Yanmeng, Lan Shan

2021, 42(1): 78-87.

Abstract ( 235 )

Inclusive institutional arrangement and selective direct support are two main ways for governments exerting their influence on enterprises′ innovation activities. The former refers to governments managing to create a suitable external environment for regional innovation activities through industrial, legal, talent, financial and other functional institutional arrangements. The latter is the government′s selective and differential funding support for specific industries or specific enterprises, which aims to enhance industrial security, and speed up technology catch-up or radical innovations in key fields.
Based on the data of manufacturing companies listed in China′s mainland and text analysis of the work report of local government from 2008 to 2017, fixed effect models are employed to investigate the impact of different ways of government′s participation on the innovation output of enterprises. The firm-level data such as patent authorization and government subsidies required for empirical research comes from the CSMAR database. The data required for regional level variables such as economic development level and industrial structure characteristics extract from the China Economic Database (CEIC). This paper sorts out the government work reports for the corresponding year in the 225 cities where the sample companies are located, and text analysis based on 10 keywords related to institutional arrangement provide a reasonable measurement of institutional arrangement.
Inclusive institutional arrangement can promote high-quality innovation output of enterprises more precisely. "Spill-over effect" of the policy on low-quality innovation output is not significant. The possible reason is that China′s social innovation resources are still relatively insufficient in current period, and the optimization of institutional environment promotes the free flow of innovation elements and leads resources to flow more to high-quality innovation activities. On the other hand, inclusive institutional arrangement is less likely to induce companies to "whitewash" their R&D performance with low-quality innovation output.
Selective direct support can promote high-quality innovation output as well, while this policy may induce enterprises′ opportunistic behavior of whitewashing their R&D performance with low-quality innovation output. Information asymmetry between government and support targets is higher in the innovation process and output quality, and opportunistic behavior is more likely to occur.
Synergistic effects between two ways of government participation exist in high-quality innovation output only. Inclusive institutional arrangements can inhibit the opportunistic behavior of enterprises in the process of policy implementation, and improve the governance effects of government direct support. Selective direct support may guide the allocation of social resources to specific enterprises or industries, which can magnify and strengthen the promotion effect of institutional arrangements.
Compared with selective direct support, effects of inclusive institutional arrangement are more durable. The innovation promotion effect of inclusive institutional arrangement has a sustainable impact lasting for at least three years. Although the effect of selective support has deferred effects also, its durability is lower. Based on the above analysis, inclusive institutional arrangement is a kind of long-term mechanism, which can promote high-quality innovation output of enterprises.
Inclusive institutional arrangement can alleviate the negative effect of poor market environment to some extent, while selective direct support for innovation promotion can only be fully realized at a high level of marketization. The policy effect of institutional arrangements is inclusive, which have no significant difference among enterprises of different life cycle. The innovation promotion effect of selective support is more significant for enterprises in the growing stage, whose resources are relatively insufficient.
This paper mainly contributes to the area in the following aspects: First, it introduces the inclusive and functional institutional arrangements into the analytical framework of government intervention and social innovation activities, and expands the research horizon in related fields. Second, the systematic analysis of the two ways of government participation in innovation on the promotion of different quality R&D output of enterprises and the persistence of their policy effects has clarified the heterogeneous innovation governance effects of the two participation methods, providing an analytical framework for reference for subsequent research.
In the backgrounds of global changes in the trend of technological innovation, the research findings mentioned above can provide references for China to improve its national scientific and technological innovation governance system and promote the modernization of government technological innovation governance capabilities. In this process, government should pay more attention to regional innovation environment shaping through functional and inclusive institutional arrangements while continuing to refine the existing selective and differentiated innovation policies. At the same time, the public innovation policy portfolios should be adjusted based on the regional market-oriented environment, the life cycle of enterprises and resource capabilities， to fully realize its synergistic governance effect.

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A research on the impact of financial transfer payment on regional technology transfer

Mao Jun, Li Zihao, Shi Xinqiu

2021, 42(1): 88-99.

Abstract ( 316 )

As an important medium for innovation activities, technology transfer is an important driving force in the initial stage of technological innovation from external introduction to independent innovation evolution. In the context of the rapid changes in the international technology transfer environment brought about by the "Sino-US trade war" and the greater emphasis on high-quality economic growth and regional coordinated development in the domestic cycle, it is particularly important to fully improve the effectiveness of domestic regional technology transfer activities. In terms of the Ministry of Science and Technology, it shows that the national fiscal expenditure on science and technology was 951.82 billion Yuan in 2018; of which, local fiscal expenditure accounted for 60.7%. Under the long-standing structure of China′s central-local fiscal decentralization system, fiscal transfer payments are an important way to make up for the fiscal gap of local governments and promote the equalization of government public services. Since the important goal of fiscal transfer payment is to balance regional financial resources and narrow the regional economic gap, regional technology transfer is an important driving force to narrow the regional technology gap and promote regional economic integration. Studying the impact of financial transfer payments on regional technology transfer is of great significance for stimulating the vitality of factor markets, accelerating the construction of an innovative country, and the implementation of the strategly of developing the western regions in the new era.
As there is no current research on the impact of fiscal transfer payments on regional technology transfer, the role of government fiscal transfer payments in the context of fiscal decentralization still needs to be explored and expanded. Therefore, based on the panel data of 22 provinces in China from 1994 to 2016, this article regards the implementation of the strategy of developing the western regions in 2000 as a natural experiment in fiscal transfer payments, and uses the synthetic control method to simulate the non-implementation of the policy in other regions. This article comparatively examines the impact of financial transfer payments on regional technology transfer in 9 provinces, including Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Guangxi, which implement the strategy of developing the western regions. This research expands existing research in the following aspects: First, in terms of theoretical mechanism, this paper systematically sorts out the influence mechanism of financial transfer payment on regional technology transfer, expands the existing research framework, and makes up for the existing mechanism analysis Inadequate deficiency; Second, from the perspective of research, the system GMM model and the spatial Dubin model have examined the spatial heterogeneity and spatial interaction between fiscal transfer payments and regional technology transfer, confirming that fiscal transfer payments can promote domestic regional technology transfer. It expands the analytical thinking of existing research; Third, in terms of research methods, this article adopts a more scientific and systematic synthetic control method of quasi-natural experimental estimation, which effectively controls the endogeneity of explanatory variables in previous measurement estimations, and helps resolve contradictions in existing research.
Based on the above research conclusions, the following policy implications are obtained: (1) Increase the intensity of fiscal transfer payments, improve the efficiency of fiscal fund utilization, and promote inter-regional technology transfer. (2) Develop inter-regional technology transfer measures based on the development of regional technology markets. (3) Optimize the basic role of the market in resource allocation, establish a reasonable and efficient incentive mechanism, and optimize the combination of supporting policy measures.

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Impact of knowledge base and knowledge distance on firm′s green innovation

Yu Fei, Yuan Shengjun, Hu Zemin

2021, 42(1): 100-112.

Abstract ( 373 )

In the process of firm development in China, the problem of environmental damage has become increasingly serious. Under this background, "Made in China 2025" takes firms green innovation as the key to solve environmental problems. Therefore, how can firms better achieve green innovation has become a hot topic of academic research.
This paper studies the impact of the interaction effects between knowledge base and knowledge distance on firms′ green innovation, and the moderating effect of network density on the relationship between them, by using a panel data of 106 listed Chinese manufacturing firms during the period of 2009 to 2018 and employing multivariate regression model. It supposes that the diversified knowledge base has positive effects on firms′ green innovation in alliance networks with a short knowledge distance. The specialized knowledge base has positive effects on firms′ green innovation in alliance networks with a long knowledge distance. Low-density networks have an inhibitory effect on the interaction effects of the specialized knowledge base and the long knowledge distance, yet enhance the interaction effects of the specialized knowledge base and the short knowledge distance. High-density networks enhance the interaction effects of the specialized knowledge base and the long knowledge distance, and the interaction effects of the diversified knowledge and the short knowledge distance. The moderating effect of low-density networks can persist yet the moderating effect of high-density networks will evade over time.
Our findings reveal that firms′ knowledge base, knowledge distance in alliances and network density of alliances can have a differential impact on firms′ green innovation. The multi-dimensional combination of the above three factors is the key to achieve the ideal green innovation effect. Compared with embedding in alliances with a long knowledge distance, firms with diversified knowledge base are more conducive to green innovation when they embedded in alliances with a short knowledge distance. For the interaction effects of knowledge base and knowledge distance on firms′ green innovation, network density have a moderating effect on them. There is time difference in moderating effect.
The theoretical contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) By adopting the contingency combination strategy, two kinds of best combination configurations are formed to support green innovation, and reveal the impact of the interaction effects between knowledge base and knowledge distance on firms′ green innovation from both inside and outside the organization. (2) The loose and close dynamic change of network density is brought into the research framework of firms′ green innovation, and the moderating effect of network density on the interaction effects of knowledge base and knowledge distance on firms′ green innovation is clarified. (3) By introducing social network theory and knowledge management theory that are widely used in general innovation research into firms′ green innovation research, this paper expands the research thinking of the firms′ green innovation, and promotes the proliferation of mature theoretical achievements about social network and knowledge management from general innovation to green innovation research.
This paper can reveal the mechanism of firms′ green innovation and the best knowledge and network configuration with different situation, and provide a theoretical reference for improving the effect of firms′ green innovation.

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"Policy of innovation" or "means of tax avoidance"—Practice and enlightenment of the "Patent Box" Policy in the United Kingdom

Xiao Bing, He Limin, Xu Ke

2021, 42(1): 113-123.

Abstract ( 423 )

Tax preference is an important means and way to stimulate innovation, "patent box" is an important policy to promote enterprise innovation in EU. In practice, the policy has achieved good results in reducing the tax burden of enterprises and promoting the use of intellectual property rights. At the government level, the introduction of the "patent box" policy is mainly due to two reasons: first, the intellectual property rights represented by patents have become the main carrier for multinational companies to obtain profits, and their trading activities are extremely sensitive to tax rate issues; second, governments of various countries are in order to encourage the innovation and development of regional knowledge economy. The reason why the policy is called "patent box" is that taxpayers who enjoy the preferential policy need to tick a box in their tax returns. From the essence of this policy, the so-called "patent box" refers to a kind of preferential tax policy for the government to reduce and reduce the use fee, license fee, sales income of products or services and infringement compensation income in the process of specific types of intellectual property transactions. By the end of 2019, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and other EU member states have successively formulated "patent box" policies.
"Patent box" policy, as a preferential policy to promote enterprises to use intellectual property by reducing tax burden, is being accepted by more and more countries. It is becoming an important policy for all countries to attract enterprises′ intellectual property transactions, promote the localized implementation of scientific and technological achievements, and then enhance the regional innovation ability and level. Thanks to comprehensive and systematic statistical data and policy evaluation, the UK has become a typical sample to study the implementation effect of "patent box" policy in EU. The "patent box" policy, which is part of the UK government′s economic growth plan, started in 2013 and aims to provide additional incentives (in terms of tax) to encourage enterprises to invest in innovation. The specific policy objectives include: first, to apply for patents in the UK for intellectual property rights acquired in the UK, while ensuring that new and existing patents can be developed and commercialized in the UK; second, to produce and sell these innovative products and services from the UK. Third, encourage companies to create high-value jobs in the process of developing, manufacturing and utilizing these patents in the UK. The formulation and implementation of the "patent box" policy in the UK constitute two main clues for the development and evolution of the policy in the UK. In terms of policy-making, the formulation of the "patent box" policy in the UK has gone through four stages: policy research and planning, policy content design, draft opinion collection and bill promulgation and implementation. From 2013 to 2017, the average annual growth rate of the total tax reduction and exemption from the implementation of the policy is 44%, and the influence of the policy on enterprises is increasing year by year, which shows that more and more enterprises attach importance to and use the "patent box" policy to obtain tax relief.
There are some practical problems that preferential policies have been abused and become tax avoidance tools of enterprises. Therefore, how to balance the two has become an important factor affecting the evolution of the "patent box" policy. Accordingly, we can evaluate the "patent box" policy represented by the United Kingdom from two aspects: encouraging innovation and restricting tax avoidance. Theoretical and practical studies show that the implementation of the "patent box" policy can enhance the enthusiasm of enterprises to apply for patents. But at the same time, "patent box" has the policy effect of encouraging patent application, so the implementation of the policy will cause the decline of patent application examination level due to the increase of patent application. In recent years, in order to prevent companies from transferring their operating income offshore through intellectual property rights for the purpose of tax avoidance, the BEPS action plan actively promoted by OECD aims to limit the scope of application of the "patent box" policy, clarify the calculation method, and reduce the possibility of abuse by limiting the scope of application and refining the calculation method.
From the perspective of the policy system of improving scientific and technological innovation, China can learn from the "patent box" policy, which can be a beneficial supplement to the existing tax incentives, and help to establish a whole process tax preferential system from innovation and research to innovation achievements. Firstly, "patent box" is an important part of improving the tax preferential policy system of scientific and technological innovation, which is conducive to encouraging enterprise innovation; secondly, the "patent box" policy is similar to the existing "enterprise income tax policy of technology transfer income", and there are still some development obstacles in China. Therefore, China can promote the "patent box" policy from the following aspects: first, in terms of the application conditions of the preferential tax policy, appropriately relax the recognition standard of the income from technology transfer of resident enterprises, relax or cancel the time limit of "five years", and lower the threshold for market entities to enjoy the preferential tax policy; second, in the scope of application of the preferential tax policy, it is limited to "invention patent" and "utility model" should appropriately raise the technical threshold for enterprises to enjoy preferential policies, which reflects the requirements of improving patent quality in China at the present stage, and also conforms to the trend of international intellectual property tax preferential policies restricting intellectual property types; thirdly, it is suggested that small and medium-sized enterprises should be given targeted preferential measures in terms of the applicable objects of tax preferential policies Give.

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Green credit policies, supporting hand and innovation transformation of enterprises

Xie Qiaoxin, Zhang Yu

2021, 42(1): 124-134.

Abstract ( 717 )

Dealing with the challenge of resource and environment constraints tightening, China has intensively issued a series of policies, laws and regulations on environment protection and pollution control. Green credit policy issued is one of the important components of environmental policy system.Although there are many literatures discussing effects of green credit policy from marco perspective and micro perspective, such as green development, heavily polluting firms′ debt financing and bank operating performance etc., the discussions about the impact of green credit policy on the innovation and transformation of firms is still few. In addition, existing literatures ignores the role of local governments in the implementation of green credit policies. Will the green credit policy lead to the adjustment of government subsidies allocation, and what does effect of government subsidies on the micro-effect of green credit policies? The role of government subsidies in the effects of green credit policy is still unclear.
Among green credit related laws and regulations, the "Green Credit Guidelines" issued in February 2012 is the most representative. "Green Credit Guidelines" clearly establishes the standards and principles of green credit in the banking industry and is widely regarded as the core of the current Chinese green credit system. In this regard, using the data from 2010 to 2017 A-share non-financial firms as sample, this paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of "Green Credit Guidelines" of 2012 on the enterprise innovation transformation and the regulating role of government subsidies play in the relationship between green credit policy and enterprise innovation transformation.
The empirical results show that: Firstly, the green credit policy significantly promoted the firms′ innovation transformation. Compared with firms in non-polluting-intensive industries, the promotion effect of green credit policy on innovation intensity is relatively weak in firms in polluting-intensive industries. Secondly, the government subsidies play a significantly positive regulating role in the relationship between green credit policy and firms′ innovation transformation. And, the regulating role of government subsidies is difference between firms in polluting-intensive industries and firms in non-polluting -intensive industries. Thirdly, the effect of green credit policies on firms innovation transformation and the regulating role of government subsidies are heterogeneous between different nature of ownership, debt leverage and regional marketization level.
This paper contribute to existing literature in following ways: (1) This paper expands the relevant research scope of green credit policy from micro perspective by analyzing the impact of green credit policy on the innovation and transformation of firms. (2) This paper enriches the literatures about government subsidies by examining the regulating role of government subsidies in the relationship between green credit policy and firms′ innovation transformation. (3) Taking exogenous event of the implementation of green credit policy to construct a quasi-natural experiment, and examine the related hypothesis based on difference-in-difference methods, which could alleviate interference of estimation results causing by endogenous problems in a certain extent. (4) Considering the firms heterogeneities exist in property rights, financial leverage, and regional marketization environment, this study further investigates the different impact of green credit policy on the enterprise innovation transformation and the regulating role of government subsidies among heterogeneous firms, which provide policy implications for related policy-making department to formulate and implement differentiated green credit policies.

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Patent quality, intellectual property protection and high-quality economic development

Meng Mengmeng, Lei Jiasu, Jiao Jie

2021, 42(1): 135-145.

Abstract ( 612 )

China′s economic growth rate is slowing down, and the economic structure needs to be adjusted and optimized. The mode of development has shifted from rapid and extensive growth to high-quality economic growth driven by technological progress and efficiency reform. Innovation leads to high-quality economic development according to the thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era. Previous literatures on the high-quality economic development remain in the stage of connotation definition and theoretical elaboration and only emphasize the role of innovation, lacking empirical test especially in the discussion on the patent quality and high-quality economic development. The studies also lack attention to contextual factors, such as intellectual property protection. So we intend to fill this gap in the literatures by analyzing the relationship between the patent quality and high-quality economic developments.
From the perspective of Romer′s theory of endogenous growth, the knowledge as a production factor will generate positive externalities and drive the sustainable economic growth and so knowledge and technological progress are the main driving force of economic growth. Patent is an important carrier of knowledge and innovation, and so patent quality represents a country′s technological progress level and innovation degree. Patents with a higher level of quality will bring in greater increase in production efficiency and economic value. High-quality economic development refers to higher production efficiency and resource allocation efficiency and so the total labor productivity is an important indicator of the quality of economic development. Improving patent quality is a significant measure to improve innovation level and lead industrial reform that is a primary prerequisite for high-quality economic development. Therefore, the patent quality affects the high-quality economic development positively. The rights of enterprises and R&D personnel are well protected in the context of high level of IP protection. Hence, technical personnel and enterprises are highly motivated and invention patents with a high degree of innovation can be quickly applied and improve production efficiency, which brings in huge economic benefits to enterprises or organizations. Other enterprises or organizations will respond to market competition by improving patent quality that leads to the improvement of production efficiency of the whole industry. In the process of economic transformation and development in China at the present stage, intellectual property protection positively moderates the relationship between patent quality and total labor productivity. That is, the intellectual property protection enhances the effect of patent quality on high-quality economic development.
Based on the theory of endogenous economic growth, this paper analyzes the impact of patent quality on high-quality economic development by using provincial panel data of China from 2003 to 2017. There are 450 observations in the sample. Patent data, GDP and regional employment data are mainly from the national bureau of statistics, China demographic yearbook and China science and technology statistical yearbook. The ratio of the number of invention patents to the total number of patents is used as the proxy index of patent quality and the high-quality economic development is measured by the full labor productivity. Control variables include number of universities, industrial structure, and the dummy variable of region etc. We use the dynamic panel data models (Difference GMM) to reduce the concern of endogenous problem by control the fixed effect and test our hypotheses.
The empirical results show that patent quality has a positive effect on the high-quality economic development significantly and intellectual property protection enhance the positive relationship between the patent quality and high-quality economic development. We also run other models to test to check the robustness of the results. Firstly, we regard the energy consumption per ten thousand yuan of GDP as the proxy variable of high-quality economic development and give two results of difference GMM and system GMM using dynamic panel data model. The result illustrate the patent quality can reduce energy consumption per GDP, which supports the positive impact of patent quality on the high-quality economic development. What′s more, we use the alternative proxy variable of IP protection to make the robustness check, such as the IP protection index, the proportion of lawyers and the proportion of agency companies. The coefficients of the interaction term are all significantly positive regardless of the small change in the value of coefficients. Therefore, our results are robust.
According to our knowledge of prior literatures, it is the first time to construct the theoretical framework of the effect of patent quality on high-quality development in the view of patent. This paper focuses on the patent quality that reflects the technological innovation level and provides empirical evidence for understanding the connotation of high-quality development "more efficient and more sustainable", which enriches the literature of the thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era. The theoretical contribution of this paper is to build the theoretical model of the influence of patent quality on the high-quality economic development from the perspective of patent for the first time and make an empirical test. This paper expands the exist literatures on innovation and high-quality economic development and specifies the scientific connotation of that innovation is the primary driver of development. Patent quality mainly represents technological progress in the theory of endogenous growth. At the same time, the intellectual property protection is introduced as a moderator to test the boundary conditions of the effect of patent quality on high-quality economic development, which reveals the influence of contextual factors on the relationship between patent quality and high-quality economic development.
The results provides the policy implications for the government to make innovation incentive policy and assessment system. Firstly, the government should improve the evaluation index of innovation performance and increase subsidies for the invention patents improve the quality of patents, which conforms to the inherent requirements of high-quality economic development. If the government highlights the number of patent and underestimates the patent quality, the patent bubble is produced to be harmful to high-quality economic development. The government should build a good business environment which strengthens the protection of intellectual property rights. Furthermore, effective incentive policies should be made to attract more lawyers and intellectual agency companies to provide professional services for enterprises. Intellectual property protection facilitates the transformation of high-quality patent and enhances the positive effect of patent quality on the production efficiency.

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Industry selection characteristics under different types of online technology marketplace

Zhu Xuezhong, Hu Kai

2021, 42(1): 146-155.

Abstract ( 197 )

The online technology marketplaces is of great significance for the construction of an interconnected national technology trading network. From the perspective of knowledge transfer barriers caused by knowledge characteristics, it studied the industries characteristics of technology source of online technology marketplaces supported by Chinese government and social capital in this paper. It focused on the industry level factors related to technology marketplace and knowledge transfer, and studied how the above factors affect the possibility of industrial inventions entering different types of online marketplace. It attempted to prove that different types of online marketplaces have different preferences for industry selection, so as to make up the research gap of the attraction of online technology marketplace types to technology traders.
Based on the analysis framework of Dushnitsky and Klueter, it selected representative online platform enterprises according to certain principles, classified and counted their listed patents, and analyzed the influence of industry characteristic factors on the number of listed patents. Based on the types of patent transactions and the characteristics of online platform enterprises, it put forward the theoretical hypotheses of the barriers of knowledge transfer and the choice of online technology marketplace types. Two hypotheses were as follows: in the online technology marketplace of private enterprises, the industry knowledge fuzziness was obvious, which show that the industry knowledge fuzziness was positively related to the number of listed patents in the industry; in the online technology marketplace of state-owned enterprises, the industry knowledge was obvious, which show that the industry knowledge specificity was positively related to the number of listed patents in the industry.
In the process of screening a typical online technology marketplaces, the first step was to use Baidu search engine, to conduct a combined search according to three groups of key search terms, to obtain a preliminary online marketplaces list and news reports of relevant marketplaces, and then preliminarily screen out some marketplaces that have not attracted media attention. The second step, according to the online marketplace activity and the requirements of the bilateral marketplace, was to exclude the platforms that have less listing and only serve the single type of institutions such as universities and governments. The third step, according to the classification requirements of the online marketplace for patents, it excluded the marketplaces that do not provide technology classification search, simple and broad classification standards, and/or search functions cannot be used. The fourth step, according to the operation status of the online marketplace, it excluded the stopped operation and newly established platforms. Finally, the determined online technology marketplace included two state-owned enterprise platforms and two private enterprise platforms. The steps to determine the industry classification were as follows: first, based on the national economic industry classification standard issued by the National Bureau of statistics of China, 96 categories of the industry were selected. The second step was to classify all the listed patents into the national economy industry category based on industry categories of the above four online technology marketplaces. In this study, the number of patents listed in the online marketplaces of different industries was the dependent variable; in terms of the selection of independent variables, the industrial linkage degree was taken as the proxy variable of industry knowledge fuzziness, and the industrial invention patent intensity was taken as the proxy variable of industry knowledge specificity. The negative binomial regression model was used for estimation, and the analysis software was stata14.1.
In the regression model of the number of patents listed in the online marketplace of private enterprise, although the regression coefficient of industry patent density is positive, the correlation is no longer significant, but the industrial linkage degree still maintains high significance, and the significance level of influence coefficient and sensitivity coefficient are 5% and 1%, respectively. In view of the operation flexibility and service diversification of private enterprise platform, it is more attractive for industries with high knowledge fuzziness to participate in its marketplace. In the regression model of the number of patents listed in the online marketplace of state-owned enterprises, the coefficient of industry patent intensity is positive and significant at the level of 5%; while the influence coefficient of industrial linkage degree becomes not significant, and the significance level of sensitivity coefficient also drops. It shows that in view of the marketplace stability, standardization and other characteristics of the online marketplace of state-owned enterprises, more industries with high requirements for knowledge specificity will be attracted to participate in its marketplace. The above results verify the two theoretical hypotheses. The results show that different types of online technology marketplace have different technology sources, and the barriers of knowledge transfer significantly affect the type preference of industry organizations to online technology marketplaces. The online marketplaces established with the support of social capital is better at reducing the knowledge fuzziness of the industry, while the online marketplace established with the support of the government is more attractive to industries with higher knowledge specificity. The theoretical significance of this study is as follows: firstly, from the perspective of knowledge transfer, it is proved that the technology sources of China′s online technology trading platforms have the characteristics of industry selection; secondly, under the national conditions of China, the online technology marketplace dominated by government and social capital has been formed, and the research proves that there are different industry selection preferences in the two different types of online marketplaces. This study appropriately responds to the call of theoretical research, and can increase the understanding of current technology trading platform enterprises in China. In China′s online technology marketplaces, especially in the initial stage of online technology transaction display and online contact between potential buyers and sellers, different types of platform enterprises play important and different roles. Significant differences in operation mode, personnel structure and service content of platform enterprises will lead to differences in platform technology sources, which also reflects the preferences of different technology owners for platform enterprises.

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A research on the relationship among specific investment type, control mechanisms and overseas knowledge acquisition

Wang Lei, Zhu Ying, Wang Shengjun

2021, 42(1): 156-167.

Abstract ( 214 )

This paper explores the impact of the matching relationship between the specific types of investments (physical specific investment and human specific investment) and control mechanisms on overseas knowledge acquisition among different knowledge complexity scenarios. Applying AMOS 17.0 and SPSS16.0 to test empirically the sample data of 229 Chinese local companies, the results show that:
Firstly, the matching relationship between different types of specific investments and different governance mechanisms is verified through the classification of specific investments. Specifically, the interaction between contractual control and physical specific investment has a positive impact on overseas knowledge acquisition and the interaction between relational control and human specific investment has a positive impact on overseas knowledge acquisition, while unreasonable matching relationship between specific investment and control mechanisms (i.e. contract control v.s. human specific investment; relational control v.s. physical specific investment) on overseas knowledge acquisition is not significant. This result further enriches the study on the protection mechanisms of specific investments in transaction cost theory and helps suppliers to choose different governance mechanisms according to different types of specific investments.
Secondly, through the study of knowledge types in the foundry business, we clarify the different effects of the matching relationship between specific investments and control mechanisms on overseas knowledge under different knowledge complexity. Specifically, the interaction between contract control and physical specific investment is more significant in promoting overseas knowledge acquisition at lower knowledge complexity, while the interaction between relational control and human specific investment is more significant in promoting overseas knowledge acquisition at higher knowledge complexity. This finding suggests that when the knowledge complexity in contemporary industrial services increases with firm upgrading, the effect of contract control and physical specific investment on overseas knowledge acquisition decreases, while the effect of relational control and human specific investment on overseas knowledge acquisition increases.
Thirdly, this result finds that contract control and relationship control are applicable to different types of transactions in the context of transition systems. Specifically, trust-based relationship control can hardly improve the positive impact of physical specific investments on overseas knowledge acquisition, while contract control, which does not rely on social relationships, can help promote the positive impact of physical investments on overseas knowledge acquisition. The above research shows that even though China is still in the process of institutional transformation and the construction of formal systems is not yet complete, contract control still plays an important role in coordinating international cooperative relationships.
Although this paper illustrates the impact of the matching relationship between specific asset types, control mechanisms and knowledge complexity on overseas knowledge acquisition, which helps guide companies to select appropriate control mechanisms based on knowledge complexity and specific asset types, and to get better overseas knowledge acquisition performance. There are still some limitations. First, this paper only considers the impact of physical investment and human capital specific investment on overseas knowledge acquisition. In the future, we should further explore more dimensions of specific investments. Second, this paper only considers the impact of specific investment on overseas knowledge acquisition. Future research can explore whether specific investment, cooperation frequency and uncertainty will have different impact on overseas knowledge acquisition. Third, due to the limitation of data acquisition, the data in this paper uses cross-sections. Using panel data will obtain more valuable research results.

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Self-owned knowledge, knowledge spillover and regional innovation output

Su Yi, Lin Zhouzhou

2021, 42(1): 168-176.

Abstract ( 347 )

At present, China′s economic development has entered the "new normal" and faces many problems, such as technological innovation upgrading, resource and environment constraints, and regional disparities. It must rely on innovation driven to achieve sustainable economic development. From a practical perspective, there are two ways to improve regional innovation output. One is to rely on endogenous innovation efforts, and the other is to absorb advanced technology and knowledge from other regions through knowledge spillover. With the improvement of regional innovation level in recent years, limited self-owned knowledge has been unable to meet the needs of innovation and development, and the introduction of external knowledge is particularly important. Therefore, how to give full play to the innovation-driven effect of internal and external knowledge and effectively promote the improvement of regional innovation output is a hot topic of current research. From the existing literatures, we can find the following limitations. First, most of the relevant literatures study the relationship between self-owned knowledge or knowledge spillover and innovation output from a holistic perspective, while the study of self-owned knowledge or knowledge spillover has little impact on the stages of innovation output at different points. Second, the relevant literature mainly focuses on the relationship of self-owned knowledge or knowledge spillover on regional innovation output. Few scholars have simultaneously studied the differential impact of self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover on regional innovation output, and lack the optimal choice and comparison of self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover. Third, in the process of regional innovation, how does the interaction of self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover affect innovation output? This issue remains to be explored. Therefore, it is necessary to incorporate self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover into a research framework for comparative analysis, and to study the influence of the two and their interaction effect on regional innovation output.
In order to better study the impact of knowledge resources on regional innovation output, from the double perspective of both inside and outside in the region, and from the perspective of knowledge source heterogeneity, this paper first divides knowledge resources of regional innovation activities into self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover. The former is the main internal source of knowledge, while the latter mainly represents knowledge spillover from other regions. Then this paper chooses regional innovation output as dependent variable, self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover as independent variables, human capital level, transportation facilities level and economic development level as control variables. Then this paper uses OLS and quantile regression method, and empirically analyzes the impact of self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover on regional innovation output by using the panel data of 30 regions in China during 2009-2016. Finally, the corresponding optimization countermeasures and suggestions are proposed for the research results. The study of this paper is of great theoretical and practical significance to clarify the mechanism of innovation of heterogeneous knowledge sources in various regions, to promote the improvement of regional innovation output, and to promote the implementation of innovation-driven development strategy. The results show that: (1) Self-owned knowledge has a significantly positive effect on regional innovation output. Under the different positions of the conditional distribution, the influence of self -owned knowledge on regional innovation output shows different intensity of action. At the same time, with the increase of regional innovation output quantile, the influence coefficient of self-owned knowledge shows a trend of rising first and then decreasing, and the promotion effect is the greatest at 0.25 quantile. (2) Knowledge spillover has a significantly negative impact on regional innovation output as a whole. At the same time, the results of quantile regression show that knowledge spillover has a significantly negative impact on regional innovation output except at 0.25. (3) The main effect of self-owned knowledge on regional innovation output is greater than that of knowledge spillover, and there is a significantly synergistic effect between them in the process of influencing regional innovation. This shows that knowledge spillover plays an important role in promoting regional innovation output. Effective synergy and coupling with local knowledge must be emphasized. Quantile regression results also show that the interaction effect of knowledge spillover and self-owned knowledge is not consistent among different quantities of regional innovation output. At 0.25, 0.50 and 0.90 loci, there is a significantly synergistic effect between self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover. At 0.1 and 0.75 loci, there is no significant interaction between self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover.
Finally, the corresponding optimization countermeasures and suggestions are proposed for the research results. (1) Each region should pay attention to the core position of self-owned knowledge in the process of regional innovation, and fully realize that innovation output still relies mainly on the contribution of its own knowledge. Therefore, each region needs to increase the total amount of its own knowledge. On the one hand, we can increase investment in R&D funds to provide financial guarantee for the smooth development of innovation activities; on the other hand, we should vigorously develop science, technology and education, and strive to cultivate innovative talents. At the same time, we should improve the talent evaluation mechanism and incentive mechanism to stimulate innovation vitality and tap innovation potential to the greatest extent. (2) Each region should effectively improve its ability to absorb external knowledge, maximize the internalization of external knowledge, and enhance the matching and applicability with self-owned innovation activities. While increasing the funds for digestion and absorption, each region should accurately analyze the development characteristics and resource defects of self-owned innovation activities. According to actual needs, we will focus on digesting and absorbing external knowledge that may be successfully transformed and utilized, and strive to improve the efficiency of spatial resource allocation, so that it can serve self-owned innovation well. (3) Each region should give full play to the positive impact of the synergy effect of self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover on regional innovation output, actively promote the integration of self-owned knowledge and knowledge spillover, and realize the integration and utilization of knowledge resources inside and outside the region, so as to effectively promote regional innovation capacity and regional economic development.

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A research on the technology transfer mechanism of military-civilian integration enterprises in the perspective of biological evolution

Fang Wei, Zheng Liming

2021, 42(1): 177-188.

Abstract ( 301 )

The technology transfer of military-civilian integration enterprise, which is an important carrier of military-civilian science and technology integration, is of great significance in implementing of the in-depth the national strategy of military-civilian integration and accelerating the construction of national science and technology innovation system in the new era. In view of the similarity between the theory of biological evolution and the development of military-civilian integration technology transfer, the technology transfer mechanism of military-civilian integration enterprises is analogized. The mechanism is to increase corporate profits ,expand scale, and achieve the generalization of advanced technology through technology transfer among enterprises, between enterprises and research institutions, or among third-party institutions. In the process of technology research and development, transfer, and application, there are environmental, institutional, financial, and human influences. According to literature analysis, it is found that the introduction of biological evolution theory is an innovative direction in the research of technology transfer mechanism of military-civilian integration enterprises, and the combination of empirical and simulation in system dynamics is an effective method to explore the key factors in the mechanism evolution process.
The four major evolutionary theories of organisms are well known, from single cells to multiple cells, from simple to complex, from lower to higher, from aquatic to terrestrial. This theory is borrowed from the study of military-civilian integration, and has obtained four perspectives: military-civilian integration technology transfer from single technology to multiple technologies, simple cooperation to complex alliances, common technology to core technology, lack of regulations to policy perfection. First, based on these four perspectives, the boundaries of technology transfer between military-civilian enterprises are determined, and four key causal circuits of technology transfer between military and civilian enterprises are obtained, and the relationship between various factors is clarified. Second, build a system dynamics model of the technology transfer mechanism of military-civilian integration enterprises, and divide the 21 variables involved in the model into state variables, rate variables, auxiliary variables, and constants based on system dynamics. Finally, based on the actual data of enterprises in the military-civilian integration section of Chinese A-share securities market from 2012 to 2017, the state variables and constants are assigned, the equations between the variables are calculated by SPSS, and the typical nonlinear variables are represented by table functions.
After comparing the actual and simulated values of the four state variables, the article considers that the model is reasonable and can be simulated, and then enters the obtained equations and table functions into the model for simulation analysis. Because there are many variables in the model, according to the four key causal circuits, analogous to many theories of biological evolution, the four main issues need to be explored. First, explore whether technology transfer revenue changes as technology acceptance numbers changes, and supplement the impact of three variables on technology acceptance numbers, technology acquisition costs, and government subsidies on technology transfer revenue to clarify whether companies should pay more attention to technology acceptance numbers; Second, by comparing the size of the company, government subsidies, and technology acceptance numbers, analyze the advantages of the company in the cooperative alliance, and analyze which factor occupies an important position can make the company profit the most in the cooperative alliance; Third, does the military-civilian integration enterprise increase the proportion of research and development, increase revenue by increasing independent innovation capabilities, or increase the cost of acquiring technology, and purchase technology from other companies to increase revenue? Fourth, what kind of enterprises does the government favor? Are the companies larger or are they more focused on research and development, or do they accept the more technology numbers?
The simulation results show: (1) In the development of military-civilian integration enterprises from single technology to multiple technologies, technology acceptance number is a key variable and it is sensitive to the technology transfer revenue. Therefore, it is concluded that the current technology transfer of military-civilian integration enterprises is accelerating the application and can rely on multiple technologies. This kind of technology transfer realizes profit, instead of " When you have a skill, you can eat your fill"; (2) In the process of cooperation alliance, government subsidies have advantages over technology acceptance numbers and enterprise size. It can be seen that the government′s attitude towards enterprises is related to the status of military-civilian integration enterprises in the cooperative alliance. This dominance is the key to successful revenue generation for military-civilian integration technology transfer projects; (3) The transfer from ordinary technology to core technology, the increase in the intensity of research and development expenditure investment is more obvious than the increase in technology acquisition costs, and the ability to absorb innovation continues to increase with the deepening of military-civilian integration; (4) This analysis reveals whether the company should improve its independent innovation ability or rely on outsourced mature technology to develop; (5) In the changes of the environment and the system, technology acceptance numbers is more important than the impact of and enterprise size on the government fiscal technology expenditure. From the current situation, the government prefers companies with more technical resources and companies with stronger innovation capabilities.
According to the simulation conclusion from the perspective of biological evolution, the article believes that military-civilian integration enterprises should focus on market demand and collect information comprehensively. Military-civilian integration enterprises can increase technology acceptances number by increasing research and development capabilities, or disassembly and reorganization after acquiring technology, and improve innovation capabilities and innovation efficiency, so as to win the favor of government, so as to gain the leading power on the road of cooperation alliance and realize income generation in the military-civilian integration technology transfer project.

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A research on the robustness measurement model of incumbent′s digital business model

Wang Xuedong, Kuang Haibo, Wang Qi

2021, 42(1): 189-199.

Abstract ( 321 )

In today′s digital age, many incumbent enterprises have built digital business models and are striving for digital transformation. The construction of digital business model by incumbent enterprises is a process of remodeling business model with great risk and high failure rate. "Business model robustness" is the key to whether incumbent enterprises can achieve digital transformation. However, the existing research and evaluation of business model pays less attention to the innovation and practice of incumbent enterprises in traditional industries, and does not provide a systematic method in general to evaluate the robustness of incumbent enterprises′ digital business model. Therefore, "how to evaluate and maintain the robustness of incumbent′s digital business model" still remain poorly understood in current studies. The purpose of this paper is to build a robustness measurement model of incumbent′s digital business model.
In order to answer the above questions, considering multiple criteria, this study made a construction of a comprehensive evaluation measurement model covering quantitative and qualitative indicators, and decomposed complex multi-standard decision-making〖JP〗 problems into hierarchical structures by qualitativly grounded analysis, R clustering and coefficient of variation, MA-OWA operator ,TOPSIS method and other algorithms. Beginning with qualitative inductive analysis and with the help of quantitative rational screening, a scientific, practical and operational robustness measurement model of incumbent enterprises′ digital business model was constructed.
Our research shows that the robustness measurement model of incumbent′s digital business model mainly includes three levels: the target layer, the criterion layer and the indicator layer. The target layer with robustness as the core. And business model robustness refers to the feasibility and reliability of business model in dealing with external turbulent environment; The criteria layer represented by the compatibility of original customers, novelty of new customers, balance of internal operation, stability of external system and effectiveness of profit model, etc. The robustness of the digital business model of the incumbent enterprises mainly includes five secondary indicators: original customer compatibility, emerging customer novelty, internal operation balance, external system stability and profit model effectiveness. Among them, the original customer compatibility refers to the degree of compatibility of the incumbent enterprises′ digital business model with the original customers. Digital transformation is not to abandon the original customers, but to better serve the original customers and provide a more convenient digital interface for the original customers, so that the incumbent′s enterprises′ relative customers can retain the dominant power in a better way. The novelty of emerging customers refers to the novelty degree of the digital business model of the incumbent enterprises to emerging customers beyond the original customers. In digital business model innovation, incumbent enterprises need to meet more different dimensions of customers and provide them with more diverse and complementary value. The balance of internal operation refers to the incumbent enterprises, in the process of digital business model innovation, need to complete the digital coordination among organizational reconstruction, management evolution and internally original business; to open up the internal logistics, capital flow, information flow and business flow of the enterprises to realize business digitization. The external system stability refers to the stability of the ecosystem constructed by the incumbent enterprises in the process of digital business model innovation, which is reflected in the locking of system customers, the network effect, the synergistic effect brought by participants and the value network extension of operating external ecosystem. The effectiveness of profit model refers to the effective degree of the income and profit sources of the incumbent enterprises in the digital business model innovation process. Incumbent enterprises cannot achieve profitability like Internet start-ups, through traditional way of free and subsidize, but depend more on the way of non-neutral pricing and non-economic compensation to gain income and profits; And the indicator layer includes 18 dimensions.
At the same time, this paper also uses the constructed robustness measurement model of incumbent enterprises′ digital business model to quantitatively evaluate the digital business model practice cases including Baowu Steel Group, CMST Development Co.,Ltd, Transfar Group, Tielong logistics, etc. Based on the 5-level likert scale scoring of 35 middle and senior managers of four enterprises, the collected data were evaluated according to TOPSIS method. The results showed that the project of Baowu Steel Group′s Ouyeel Group had outstanding compatibility of original customers, stability of external systems and balance of internal operation; at the same time, Transfar Group′s highway port project of Transfar group performs well in the effectiveness of profit model, the novelty of emerging customers and the balance of internal operation. Therefore, the evaluation results show that the project of Baowu Steel Group′s Ouyeel Group and Transfar Group′s highway port has good robustness. 
This paper opens up a new direction about the incumbent enterprises in the study of business model evaluation, and provides a theoretical enlightenment of measurement model for incumbent enterprises′ digital transformation practice, which will help more traditional industry incumbent enterprises to carry out digital transformation practices in an even better fashion.
The theoretical contribution of this paper lies in two aspects. On the one hand, from the perspective of robustness, this study comprehensively uses a variety of qualitative and quantitative evaluation models to develop a set of robustness measurement model of digital business model for incumbent enterprises that can be measured and quantitatively analyzed, which enriches the current research status of business model evaluation based on performance evaluation and sustainability evaluation. On the other hand, this study focuses on the special scenarios of incumbent enterprises′ digital transformation, opening up new directions for incumbent enterprises′ business model evaluation research, and providing new measurement methods for digital transformation, which enriches academic research in the business model evaluation and the related fields of digital transformation.
The practical value of this paper is that we provide inspiration of the robustness measurement for incumbent enterprises′ innovation of digital business models with high uncertainty and high risk. Although each enterprises faces different digital transformation challenges and digital business model innovation paths, many incumbent enterprises can reference qualitative and quantitative evaluation results of relevant indicators from the measurement model of this research and obtain valuable enlightenment of digital transformation to implement digital transformation more steadily.
It should be pointed out that this paper only constructs the robustness measurement model of the digital business model for the incumbent enterprises. In the future, further in-depth analysis should be carried out around the anaphor, intermediary and other variables of the robustness of the digital business model.

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A research on the effects of executive′s ties on innovation performance of manufacturing enterprises

Chen Jianlin

2021, 42(1): 200-208.

Abstract ( 314 )

Under the background of innovation driven development strategy and culture of relationship in China, this paper empirically studies the effects of executive′s ties on innovation performance of manufacturing enterprises. This paper attempts to explore the impact of different types of social relations on enterprise innovation based on Chinese cultural background.
Based on the empirical study of listed manufacturing companies, the paper has made several conclusions: (1) executive′s ties help to increase the innovation performance of enterprises. (2) based on the emotional relationship, this study finds that the internal executive′s ties is more conducive to improving the innovation performance of the enterprise than the external executive′s. (3) based on the spatial relationship, the research found that cross regional executive′s ties is more helpful to improve enterprise innovation performance. (4) based on the perspective of emotional relationship and spatial relationship, executive′s ties can be divided into four types. This study finds that the combination of "internal executive′s ties + cross regional executive′s ties " is beneficial to improve innovation performance. (5) in areas with high marketization, executive′s ties can significantly enhance enterprise innovation performance; in areas with low marketization, executive′s ties has no significant impact on innovation performance.
Based on the research results of this paper, the following suggestions can be put forward: first of all, enterprises should attach importance to the role of executive′s ties in enterprise innovation. The results of this paper show that: executive′s ties has a significant effect on innovation performance. If enterprises want to further strengthen their own innovation ability and motivation, they should not only strengthen the material basis of innovation, but also attach importance to the role of executive′s ties. Secondly, the enterprise should match the different types of executive connections. Enterprises need to increase social capital of internal executives, so that executives are more motivated to use various information resources to make innovative decisions. Enterprises should strengthen the connection of executive in different regions, from which enterprises can obtain information resources of different regions. Therefore, enterprises should focus on the development of "internal + cross regional" type of executive′s ties. Finally, the government departments should continue to promote market-oriented reform, improve the business environment, protect the innovation achievements of enterprises, and help to enhance the positive effect of executive′s ties on enterprise innovation performance.
From the perspective of relationship types, this paper explores the impact of different types of relationship intensity on innovation performance, enriches and expands social capital theory. Specifically, the contribution of this paper is reflected in three aspects: firstly, it expands the research field of enterprise innovation. Although many literatures have discussed the influence of different factors on enterprise innovation, few literatures have studied the relationship between executive′s ties and enterprise innovation. However, this paper proposes and finds the important relationship between executive′s ties and enterprise innovation. Secondly, it enriches and develops the theory of social capital. Academic circles generally pay attention to the impact of social capital on enterprises. This paper further explores the impact of different types of executive connections on enterprise innovation. Finally, based on the actual situation that China is in the process of market-oriented reform, this paper further explores the moderating effect of the degree of marketization on the relationship between executive′s ties and enterprise innovation.

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