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From breakthrough innovation to disruptive innovation: Their connotations, characteristics and evolution Xu Jiaqi, Wang Xuefeng, Lei Ming, Chen Hongshu 2023, 44(2): 1-13.  Abstract ( 589 )       Although a large amount of previous research has theorized about the character of breakthrough innovation and disruptive innovation, there has been limited evolutionary relationship theoretical investigation of this matter. By adopting the systematic review method, the study reiterates the concept connotation of breakthrough innovation and disruptive innovation, explores the historical process of disruptive innovation, and then clarifies their underlying logic of evolution. The study discovers that: (1) Breakthrough innovation belongs to the concept of technological innovation, which is an innovation activity based on the organizational and tactical levels. In terms of technical attributes, breakthrough innovation emphasizes major technological breakthroughs and belongs to the positive discontinuous technical curve. The primary traits of breakthrough innovation are discontinuity, novelty, mutation, and interdisciplinarity. (2) Disruptive innovation is a complex innovation oriented by "subversive breaking" that is based on organizational strategy. In a narrow sense, disruptive innovation is based on the perspective of technology. It includes cross-border integration of low-end or existing technologies as well as major breakthroughs in cutting-edge technologies with significant national strategic implications. Generally, disruptive innovation not only includes the scope of technological innovation activities, but also covers all innovation activities proposed by Schumpeter. It is distinguished by more discontinuity and mutation, as well as non-competitiveness, relativity, fusion, and timeliness. (3) There are significant disparities between disruptive and breakthrough innovation. The information and communication technology era serve as the background for breakthrough innovation, which emphasizes the change in product performance brought on by technological advancements. Disruptive innovation is founded on the backdrop of rapid technological advancement at the end of the twentieth century and the ongoing compression of the social demand change cycle. It pays more attention to the deep integration of technology and organizational resources, covering all innovation activities. In short, breakthrough innovation is related to organizational tactic innovation. Disruptive innovation is a type of organizational strategic innovation. From the perspective of market occupation, breakthrough innovation is generally driven by incumbent enterprises and invades the market from top to bottom. Contrarily, disruptive innovation is led by new entrants and plays a subversive role from bottom to top by invading low-end markets or establishing emerging markets. (4) Disruptive and breakthrough innovation are linked by a gradient evolution. The market value brought by breakthrough innovation is formed in the original value network of the organization. Although breakthrough innovations have disruptive effects, they do not cause the entire industry to fall into trouble. Disruptive innovation not only includes the "additional effect" of technology, but also emphasizes the faster and more profitable delivery of products and services. New entrants break through resource barriers to obtain innovative resources. They can overthrow the entire sector and eventually complete the transition from incremental advancement to qualitative change by creating a new self-centered value network.Based on the key findings, the disruptive innovation is the core of the digital economy era. The study thinks that the following issues should be prioritized in the future. (1) Talk about the evolutionarily based logic of disruptive and breakthrough innovation. The internal connection and correlation between them will involve deeper theoretical research. (2) Develop a theoretical framework for the digital economic era. Disruptive innovation is committed to seeking development opportunities in the organization′s external environment, which has the characteristics of high organizational openness and dynamic correlation. This theoretical analysis framework will provide an analytical tool for dealing with the uncertainty of disruptive innovation. (3) Pay close attention to the strategic balance and governance of disruptive innovation opening and control, which can help latecomers grasp the scale of openness and control. (4) Focus on identifying and mining the unmet needs of users. This is an important prerequisite for organizations to implement disruptive innovations. (5) Explore early identification methods for disruptive technologies, which requires the clarification and precise quantification of the advent of disruptive technologies. It will have strategic importance in determining the course of disruptive technologies and putting them into practice. (6) Analyze the evolutionary mechanism and realization path of disruptive innovation in the context of China, which can open the "black box" of the evolutionary process of disruptive innovation. Through the systematic research, a deep understanding of the concepts of breakthrough innovation and disruptive innovation has been developed. More importantly, it serves as a source of inspiration for both longitudinal theory-deepening research and situational research on innovation practice. Related Articles | Metrics

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Establishment of triple helix environment of university development driven by industrial policies——Research by taking the development of China′s lithography equipment industry as an example Niu Yuanyuan, Wang Tianming 2023, 44(2): 14-20.  Abstract ( 159 )       In this paper, through the case study method, using the triple helix space theory, the analysis framework of the interaction logic among university, industry and government is constructed. Taking the development of domestic lithography equipment industry driven by the national 02 major project and the integrated circuit industry policy as an example, this paper discusses the positive significance of the lithography industry practice on the establishment of the external development environment of application-oriented universities, and demonstrates the necessity and mechanism of establishing external triple helix environment for application-oriented universities in China. The core mission of application-oriented universities is to promote the development of regional economy and society, and provide human and intellectual resources guided by external demand. Under the background of knowledge society and innovation development, application-oriented universities can develop more effectively in the triple helix environment of government-university-industry.Taking the development of domestic lithography industry supported by industrial policies as an example, this paper takes the triple helix theory as the analytical framework to explain that the development of domestic lithography industry is the objective evolution result of the implementation of national industrial policy. The central and local governments integrate domestic academic institutions and existing industrial resources through industrial funds and policy preferences, and appropriately support the development of emerging industries related to microelectronic equipment according to the regional economic characteristics and industrial foundation, forming a triple helix interactive industrial alliance with government industry university as the basic element. The innovation ecosystem of lithography industry is organized by the government, participated by universities and research institutions, and composed of 02 special enterprises, suppliers and photolithography customers. The government is the catalyst to promote the triple helix cooperation. The formation and development of the knowledge space, consensus space and innovation space of the lithography industry development have the particularity of China′s scientific and technological innovation practice. Under the guidance of national policies, supported by major special projects and industrial funds, universities and research institutions research and tackle key technologies of lithography, and enterprises support, coordinate and organize the development and industrialization of lithography machines. From its establishment to development, the lithography industry benefits from the operation of this triple helix model.The triple helix practice case of domestic lithography industry development has certain enlightenment on the external environment of university application-oriented development. The conclusion is that the development practice of lithography industry provides a new opportunity for the cooperation between universities and enterprises, and creates a new platform and mechanism for the cultivation of new talents. The industrial support policies implemented by the state provide opportunities for some universities to improve their applicability. Universities actively integrate into the regional economic innovation and development. The triple helix system of government university industry provides a positive interactive external environment for the sustainable development of application-oriented universities. Only by integrating into the regional innovation and development and assuming specific roles and responsibilities, universities are more likely to actively and effectively serve the social and economic development, cultivate the talents they need, and provide and transform the knowledge and technology they need. Related Articles | Metrics

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How the NEV industry policies stimulate technological innovation of enterprises? Liu Hewang, Huang Zhijiao, Zheng Shilin 2023, 44(2): 21-31.  Abstract ( 310 )      China′s new energy vehicles is a strategic emerging industry, which is urgent for the government to implement relevant industrial policies to support them. Since 2009, the Chinese government has successively introduced "supportive" policies by means of subsidies and incentives and "threshold" policies by means of standard constraints in order to accelerate the development of the new energy vehicle industry. Although the development of the new energy vehicle industry cannot be separated from the support of various "supportive" policies, unreasonable "supportive" policies also lead to enterprises to carry out "strategic" innovation, fabricate false sales data and other "fraud" problems. Under this situation, it is particularly important to evaluate the "supportive" and "threshold" policy innovation incentive effects of new energy vehicles, and study which type of policy tools can better adapt to the current development of China′s new energy vehicle industry and help China to move from a big automobile country to an automobile power.Theoretical studies on the innovation incentive effect of new energy vehicle industry policy mainly focus on two types: "supportive" and "threshold". For example, Dosi et al. (2006) and Chi et al. (2022) found that the "supportive" policy effectively stimulated the technological innovation of enterprises; A single "supportive" policy may disturb the market order (Dosi,1988); Different combinations of "supportive" policy tools have different impacts on innovation(Wang and Zhang ,2020), and both tax incentives and financial subsidies can promote the technological innovation of new energy vehicle enterprises. ZEV credits policies such as "double credits" have also significantly promoted the R&D investment of new energy vehicle enterprises (Melton et al.,2016; Li and Xiong,2021); Based on product attribute catalog standards, enterprises may "seek subsidies" for production instead of innovation (Chen et al.,2021). Compared with the previous studies, this paper provides a new perspective to test the similarities and differences between the two types of new energy vehicle industrial policies in terms of stimulating technological innovation. Based on the difference-in-difference model and a unified empirical analysis framework, this paper  selects listed companies in the new energy vehicle industry from 2007 to 2018 as research samples  and compares the innovation incentive effect and mechanism of the single policy and the synergy of the two policies. We find that: (1) Both types of policies have stimulated technological innovation of enterprises; the "threshold" policy has a greater innovation incentive effect than the "supportive" policy, and there are complementary effects between the two types of policies; the synergy of the two types of policies has a greater incentive effect on enterprise technological innovation than a single policy type. Our conclusions remain reliable after a series of robustness tests. (2) The mechanism test found that the "supportive" policies stimulated enterprise innovation by increasing R&D intensity and other resource compensation effects; while the innovation incentive effect of "threshold" policies was closely related to the degree of market competition: moderate market competition increases the incentive effect of the "threshold" policy on enterprise innovation, while excessive market competition inhibits the effect. (3) There is heterogeneity found at firm and regional level. Based on the above conclusions, this paper draws the following policy implications. First, the government should pay attention to the complementary coordination of "supportive" and "threshold" policies when formulating industrial policies. Second, promote industrial policies for new energy vehicles in an orderly way. In the implementation of "supportive" policy, we should give full play to the positive role of resource compensation in promoting enterprise innovation. When implementing "threshold" policies, we should adhere to market leadership and government guidance. Third, the government should accurately implement new energy vehicle industrial policies and continue to promote high-quality development of the new energy vehicle industry. Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on the influence mechanism of regional high-quality development on innovation performance of "SRDI" small-and medium-sized enterprises Wang Weinan, Wang Kai, Yan Zichun 2023, 44(2): 32-44.  Abstract ( 313 )      The key to promoting high-quality development in China lies in implementing the strategy of innovation-driven development. However, there are obvious differences in development levels between different regions in China, posing new challenges to innovation subjects in how to accelerate their integration into the new regional development pattern and improve their innovation performance. "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises emphasize the competitive strategy of the Porter market segmentation dimension, which is closer to the current situation of industrial development in China and deeply integrates into regional development. It is at the core link of the regional industrial chain and has gradually become the key carrier to implementing the regional innovation-driven development strategy and achieving high-quality development. Reviewing existing studies, there is no relevant research focusing on the relationship between regional high-quality development and innovation performance of "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises around differentiated development situations of different regions in China, so it can′t provide guidance for these small and medium-sized enterprises to break through existing development bottleneck, accelerate their integration into new regional development pattern, and improve their innovation performance.In view of this, this research analyzes the internal mechanism of the whole process of high-quality development in different regions affecting their innovation performance on the basis of analyzing the current development situation of "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises in different regions in China. Results show that: first, development advantages of a single dimension or some of the dimensions of high-quality development can′t be converted into advantages of cultivation efficiency; at the same time, differences in economic development efficiency between different regions have an impact on the cultivation of these enterprises. Second, the innovation emergence of these enterprises can be boosted by improving innovative, coordinated and open development levels in the process of regional high-quality development. Third, the improvement of green and shared development levels in the process of regional high-quality development can′t effectively promote the innovation emergence of these enterprises.The innovation of this paper is mainly embodied in the following aspects: First, other than the existing literature on regional innovation systems that pays less attention to the innovation subjects and the development level of China, this paper focuses on the impact of regional high-quality development on innovation performance of "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises. Second, different from existing literature that doesn′t clear the embedded environmental boundary, this paper matches regional high-quality development and data related to the innovation output of "SRDI" middle and small-sized enterprises at the provincial level and tests the relationship between the two. Third, this paper has found that not all dimensions of high-quality development can promote the innovation performance of these enterprises; in addition to the possible shortcomings of such enterprises themselves, it may also be that relevant factors related to such innovation subjects have not been paid attention to in the process of deconstructing the partial dimension of regional high-quality development. Related Articles | Metrics

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Research on the realization mechanism of enterprises′ exploratory innovation performance based on knowledge relationship and activity process Zhang Na, Liu Fengchao 2023, 44(2): 45-54.  Abstract ( 162 )      Based on absorptive capability theory, by matching the activity process of enterprises′ exploratory innovation (knowledge acquisition, knowledge assimilation, knowledge transformation and knowledge creation) with knowledge relationship characteristics between enterprises and their collaboration partners, this paper investigates the impact of knowledge similarity between enterprises and their collaboration partners on enterprises′ exploratory innovation performance, and the moderating effect of tie strength between enterprises and their collaboration partners, intra-organizational collaboration network cohesion and network distance. And then, taking global enterprises in electric vehicle from 2005 to 2015 as research samples, the empirical test is conducted by Poisson Quasi Maximum Likelihood (PQML) regression model to test hypothesis.The results show that, knowledge similarity between enterprises and their partners has an inverted U-shaped relationship with exploratory innovation performance. As the level of knowledge similarity increases from slight to moderate, enterprises′ exploratory innovation performance increases; as the level of knowledge similarity increases from moderate to great, enterprises′ exploratory innovation performance declines. This indicates that increased knowledge similarity benefits for enterprises to get heterogeneous knowledge, which prevents enterprises′ exploratory innovation performance; when the knowledge similarity exceeds critical value, enterprises acquire few heterogeneous knowledge, and then prevent enterprises′ exploratory innovation performance. Thus, an appropriate level of knowledge similarity between enterprises and partners is most beneficial to exploratory innovation performance. Enterprises should choose enterprises that have certain similarities with their own knowledge structure but some differences as collaboration partners, so that they can acquire heterogeneous knowledge on the basis of effective communication. Furthermore, with tie strength between enterprises and their collaboration partners increasing, the inverted U-shape between knowledge similarity and exploratory innovation performance are steeper. This indicates that when knowledge similarity between enterprises and partners is at a low or moderate level, higher tie strength can ensure the effective identification of heterogeneous knowledge acquired from partners, thus promoting the positive influence between knowledge similarity and enterprises′ exploratory innovation performance. Therefore, enterprises should strengthen exchanges and trust with existing partners. Through close communication and the establishment of trusting relationship, enterprises can effectively absorb the external heterogeneity knowledge. On the other hand, when knowledge similarity is too high, high relationship strength will increase the cost of network maintenance and coordination, thus intensifying the negative impact between knowledge similarity and enterprises′ exploratory innovation performance.With network cohesion increasing, the inverted U-shape between knowledge similarity and exploratory innovation performance are flatter. This indicates that when enterprises have low network cohesion, the positive effect of knowledge similarity on enterprises′ exploratory innovation performance becomes stronger, which is more conducive for enterprises to transform heterogeneous knowledge to produce exploratory innovation performance. Therefore, when knowledge similarity between enterprises and partners is at a low or moderate level, the enterprises should reduce the close collaboration relationship among members within the organization. By building a loose intra-organizational collaboration network structure, the enterprise can promote the effective transformation of external heterogeneous knowledge. With network distance increasing, the inverted U-shaped relationship has no change. Based on the above findings, compared with intra-organizational collaboration network cohesion, intra-organizational collaboration network distance does not affect the transformation of collaboration partners′ heterogeneous knowledge. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Impact of environmental regulation on the green technological progress of marine economy Ren Wenhan, Wang Qi 2023, 44(2): 55-64.  Abstract ( 180 )       Environmental regulation is an effective means to protect the environment, and the relationship between environmental regulation and technological progress has always been the focus of the academic community. Existing research provides theoretical and empirical support for understanding the relationship between environmental regulation and technological progress, but it is difficult to meet the needs of the new situation of marine high-quality development: (1) Most of the existing studies ignore the rigid constraints of resources and the negative effects of environment in the process of economic development. This kind of economic growth at the cost of resource waste and environmental pollution does not meet the requirements of marine high-quality development. (2) Existing research has been carried out more in industry and other fields, but there are few researches specifically on the marine field. (3) Previous studies mostly focused on the direct relationship between environmental regulation and technological progress, and regarded the intermediate link as a theoretical "black box", thus ignoring the possible indirect relationship between environmental regulation and technological progress.In response to the above-mentioned problems, this paper takes China′s marine economy as the research object and studies the impact of environmental regulation on green technological progress. Firstly, based on relevant literature and theory, this paper analyzes the mechanism of environmental regulation on green technological progress of marine economy from the direct and indirect effects. Secondly, this paper incorporates the rigid constraint of resources and the negative environmental effect into the measurement model, and uses the mixed radial EBM model combined with the Global Malmquist-Luenberger index to measure the green technological progress of marine economy. Thirdly, this paper uses feasible generalized least squares estimation to empirically test the impact path of environmental regulation on green technological progress of marine economy. In order to ensure the unbiasedness and consistency of the empirical results, this paper re-examines the endogenous problems that may exist in the model. On this basis, this paper also introduces the limited information maximum likelihood (LIML) method to compare with the results.The study found that the direct impact of environmental regulation on green technological progress of China′s marine economy has an "inverted N-shaped" nonlinear relationship, indicating that in terms of improving the green technological progress of marine economy, it is not that the higher the intensity of environmental regulation, the more appropriate, nor the lower the intensity of environmental regulation, the more effective. It is precisely the moderate intensity of environmental regulation that is optimal for the advancement of green technological progress of marine economy. There are many indirect influence mechanisms of environmental regulation on green technological progress of marine economy. Among them, although environmental regulation has strengthened the role of industrial structure in promoting the green technological progress of marine economy, it has also inhibited the promotion of human capital and investment in science and education. In addition, environmental regulation has also restrained the negative influence of the import and export of coastal areas and the scale of land industry on green technological progress of marine economy.The above empirical conclusions provide some enlightenment for the high-quality development of China′s marine economy: It should make continuous adjustments based on actual conditions to ensure that the intensity of environmental regulation is both strict and appropriate. The government should impose heavier penalties on those enterprises that do not strictly abide by environmental regulation and have negative environmental protection attitude, and grant certain subsidies to those enterprises that carry out clean and green technology research and development, so that the enterprises which actively solve the marine environmental problems can obtain the advantages of cost and capital, and attract more enterprises to actively implement environmental management strategy and improve the green technological progress of marine economy. At present, China′s marine environmental pollution is still in the stage of large stock and range, and the market mechanism and supporting environmental protection system are not perfect. The formulation of marine environmental regulation policy should be appropriate to the stage of economic development. At the same time, the endowment conditions and capital base of coastal areas should be fully considered to refine the regulation standard. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Streamline administration and delegate power to enterprise, innovation environment and the innovation willingness of S&T micro- and small-enterprises Zheng Ye, Jiang Yunshan, Qin Yi 2023, 44(2): 65-72.  Abstract ( 102 )        Although the central and local government departments have repeatedly emphasized the need to further the reform of "streamline administration and delegating power to lower levels", optimize the innovation environment and stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprises for innovation, the academia lacks systematic research on this view at the theoretical level. In order to promote the innovation development of science and technology micro- and small-enterprises, the scientific question that needs to be considered and verified is: does the reform of "streamline administration and delegating power to lower levels" enhance the innovation willingness of technology micro- and small-enterprises? How does the reform enhance the willingness to innovate of technology micro- and small-enterprises? The in-depth discussion of these questions can help the government deepening the reform and promote the innovation development of technology micro- and small-enterprises.Based on the existing theories and literature, we construct a model of the relationship between the reform of "streamline administration and delegating power to lower levels", innovation environment and innovative intention of enterprises to examine the mechanism of influence of the reform of "streamline administration and delegating power to lower levels" on the innovative intention of technology micro- and small-enterprises. In this study, 399 valid questionnaires were collected from Chinese technology micro- and small-enterprises, and the questionnaire distribution method and the reliability and validity of the variables were tested to be acceptable for subsequent analysis. The results of the multiple regression analysis showed：(1) The two dimensions of the reform of "streamline administration and delegating power to lower levels" (reducing red tape and giving autonomy to enterprises) and their interaction terms both positively affect the innovation environment and innovation willingness, and the effect of "decentralization" is stronger. (2) Innovation environment partially mediates the relationship between the two dimensions of the "streamline administration and delegate power" and willingness to innovate, and the mediating effect of innovation environment is stronger between the reduction of red tape and willingness to innovate. (3) There is a significant regional effect on the effect of decentralization on willingness to innovate, i.e., the effect of decentralization is generally more significant in traditional administrative regions, while the positive effect of innovation environment on the willingness to innovate of technology micro- and small-enterprises is stronger in emerging development zones. (4) Among the measures of the reform of "streamline administration and delegating power to lower levels", "decentralization" measures, such as expanding enterprises′ production and operation power, relaxing market access conditions, and strengthening enterprises′ market responsibilities, are more effective in creating a good innovation environment and enhancing innovation intentions, and the various "decentralization" measures compared with "streamline administration" and "decentralization" can optimize the innovation environment and enhance the willingness to innovate of small and medium-sized enterprises in science and technology.Based on the above research, the practical implications of this study include: (1) The direct and interactive effects of the reform of "streamline administration and delegating power to lower levels" show that the "reduction" and "slimming" of non-technology government departments is also a booster to promote innovation-driven development strategy and enterprise innovation. The implementation of the decentralization of government should not only play the "simplification" and "decentralization" of their respective effectiveness, but also to play a good "combination" of the two, to give full effect to "streamline administration" and "decentralization" synergy. (2) The intermediary effect of innovation environment shows that government departments should deepen the decentralization and simplification of government to create a good innovation environment for science and technology micro- and small-enterprises, and then improve the innovation enthusiasm of science and technology micro- and small-enterprises. (3) The regional effect of decentralization suggests that the government should adopt targeted measures according to the characteristics and needs of different types of enterprises, and avoid a "one-size-fits-all" policy. (4) The decomposition effect of "Streamline administration and delegate power" shows that since "decentralization" can create a more innovative environment and enhance enterprises′ willingness to innovate. Then, government departments should effectively increase "decentralization" efforts, optimize the list of powers and responsibilities, relax market access restrictions, provide a more free and fair innovation environment for enterprise innovation, and stimulate the innovation enthusiasm of small and medium-sized enterprises in science and technology. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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An analysis of the funding effect of the National Social Science Fund in the field of public administration Chen Lijun, Li Yan 2023, 44(2): 73-80.  Abstract ( 103 )       It is undeniable that the development of science and technology and the improvement of scientific research performance are primarily attributed to the support of national scientific research investment and the science foundation system. How to judge scientific research funds′ efficiency and whether scientific research projects achieve the expected goals has become a common concern of practical and academic researchers. The existing researches focus on the funding effect of natural science from two categories. One is to construct the performance evaluation indicators for science foundation projects and further evaluate input-output effectiveness at the macro level. The other is to evaluate the fund provision′s function to a specific project at the individual level through bibliometric analysis and quasi-experimental research. However, most of these researches pay little attention to evaluating the funding effect in humanities and social sciences, nor does it distinguish the different effects of funding and the endowments of researchers on scientific research performance.This study takes 316 samples from public administration research projects. We study the data collected from 2006 to 2015 through the Propensity Score Stratification and Regression Analysis to explore the National Social Science Fund′s effect, trying to classify the function of the researcher′s endowments to his/her performance in researches.The results indicate that the National Social Science Fund can improve scientific research achievements, and for researchers with different scientific endowments, its effects are different. Specifically, this paper′s significant findings are summarized as follows: (1) Compared with the non-funded researchers, the National Social Science Fund can effectively improve the performance of Chinese articles. (2) Under the premise of similar scientific endowments, researchers who received the National Social Science Fund′s funding performed better, showing the National Social Science Fund will maximize the benefits to the good performers. (3) There is a significant difference among the research capability levels when obtained the funding support. The fund assistance plays stronger performance for the better capability researchers than less capable researchers. The higher productive researchers without funding support perform better than these low capability researchers with funding support, which indicated the scientific endowment is a key to researchers′ performance.The theoretical contribution of the study is to identify the effect of the National Social Science Fund on the research performance under the different scientific endowments of researchers. Regarding the practical implications, the National Social Science Fund shall prefer these researchers with higher research capability. The fund shall more use capability indicators in addition to the historical output of the researches in selection of project awards. The fund shall support these candidates with high research potential and high-quality performance, which can significantly improve the funding cost-effectiveness.However, this study still has the following limitations: (1) Data are mainly from Chinese journals, without including international academic journals, which may lead to underestimating the researchers′ outputs. (2) Researchers selected here may award multiple supports from different channels. It is a challenge to isolate the effect of a single channel to evaluate. Going forward, we shall integrate both local publishes and international publishes to study the effect of different channels of funding support, such as social science fund and natural science fund. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Institutional distance and the performance of Chinese enterprises′ cross-border mergers and acquisitions Zhou Nan, Yang Zhu 2023, 44(2): 81-88.  Abstract ( 183 )     This paper explores the impact of different dimensions of institutional distance on the innovation performance of Chinese enterprise after cross-border M&A. While more and more Chinese firms participate in cross-border M&A to seek knowledge abroad, many of them failed due to the difficulties brought by institutional distance between the host and home countries. However, the academic literature provides limited understanding of the impact of institutional distance on innovation performance after cross-border M&A. Therefore, it is imperative for us to examine this issue in the context of Chinese firms.Institutional distance is a multi-dimensional concept. In this study, we distinguish between formal and informal institutional distance and examine their different impacts on the innovation performance of cross-border M&A. In particular, we argue that the information asymmetry and political discrimination brought by formal institutional distance are hard for firms to overcome, thus leading to a negative impact of formal institutional distance on the innovation performance of cross-border M&A. On the contrary, informal institutional distance could increase knowledge diversity that firms face, thus increasing the innovation performance of cross-border M&A. Moreover, prior M&A experience of firms could help them learn how to overcome the difficulties brought by formal institutional distance, thus weakening the negative impact of formal institutional distance on innovation performance of cross-border M&A.We test these ideas using a sample of Chinese listed manufacturing firms that have implemented cross-border M&A from 2014 to 2017. We adopt zero-inflated negative binomial regression model to examine the effect of formal and informal institutional distance on the innovation performance of cross-border M&As, as well as the moderating role of acquirers′ M&A experience. Empirical results indicate that formal institutional distance has a significant negative impact on the innovation performance of Chinese enterprises after cross-border M&A, while the informal institutional distance has a significant positive impact on the innovation performance of Chinese enterprises after cross-border M&A. In addition, we find that acquirers′ prior experience in cross-border M&A weakens the negative effect of formal institutional distance on innovation performance. Although we predict that prior M&A experience could also strength the positive impact of informal institutional distance on innovation performance, we did not find support for this prediction. It could be driven by the fact that informal institutions are tacit and cross-border M&A experience in one country could not be applied in another country without modification, thus mitigating the positive moderating effect of M&A experience on the relationship between informal institutional distance and innovation performance of cross-border M&As.The findings of this study enrich our understanding of the impact of institutional distance on innovation performance of cross-border M&As. Institutional distance is a double-edged sword when it comes to the innovation performance of cross-border M&As. On the one hand, formal institutional distance creates barriers for innovation after cross-border M&As. On the other hand, informal institutional distance creates opportunities for firms to benefit from knowledge diversity. For managers of firms conducting cross-border M&As, it is necessary to understand such difficulties and opportunities, and evaluate whether their firms have the capability to overcome such difficulties and capture the opportunities before they make the strategic decision of conducting cross-border M&As. Our study suggests that one proper way to develop such capability is to accumulate relevant cross-border M&A experience. Our study thus provides both theoretical support and practical guidance to firms that intend to increase their innovation capability by engaging in cross-border M&As. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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A comparative study of knowledge management, product innovativeness and firm performance between China and the United States Zhang Xiaotang, Zhang Haili, Michael Song 2023, 44(2): 89-97.  Abstract ( 127 )       Relevant studies suggest that knowledge management enhances firm performance. Yet further studies are needed to examine the intermediate mechanisms that mediate the relationship between knowledge management and firm performance for three reasons. First, although many studies have shown that there is a positive relationship between knowledge management and firm performance and that product innovativeness increases firm performance. Few studies have examined how product innovativeness mediate the relationship between knowledge management and firm performance. Second, most published studies have only examined how a specific dimension of knowledge management affects product innovativeness or firm performance. Few studies have explicitly examined the effect of all three dimensions and the relative effects of the three dimensions of knowledge management. Third, few cross-national studies exist. Using the theoretical lens of Source - Positional Advantage - Performance (SPP), this study develops a theoretical model for investigating how product innovativeness mediates the relationship between each dimension of the three knowledge management and firm performance. The model is tested using data collected in China and the United States. In our proposed model, knowledge management is divided into knowledge generation, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge application based on knowledge management process. This study performed hierarchical regression analyses to test the theoretical model and research hypotheses. The study was designed to explicitly avoid the common method bias and improve ability to draw causal relationships. We first collected the data on knowledge management, followed with collection of the data on product innovativeness one year later, and collected three years of firm performance data. This study reported the merged data which include complete data from 647 Chinese and 354 U.S. firms.The findings indicate that knowledge management enhances firm performance via product innovativeness as a mediator in China and in the United States. The results reveal several cross-national differences. First, knowledge application and dissemination are more important to improve firm performance in China. But knowledge generation and dissemination are more important in the U.S. Second, product innovativeness partially mediates the relationship between knowledge dissemination/application and firm performance in China and the U.S. However, product innovativeness fully mediates the relationship of knowledge generation and firm performance in the U.S. Third, knowledge application is most important factor for increasing product innovativeness in China while knowledge dissemination is most important for enhancing product innovativeness in the U.S.This study makes three contributions to the literature. First, this study introduces product innovativeness as a mediator to study the impact of knowledge management on firm performance. This study enhances current understanding of how knowledge management affect firm performance through product innovativeness. Second, this study explores the different effects of the knowledge generation, knowledge dissemination and knowledge application. The study results extend the literature on multidimensional knowledge management and its relationship with product innovativeness. Third, this study explicitly tests the "knowledge management-product innovativeness-firm performance" model using data collected in China and the U.S. This study enriches the cross-national comparative literature.The study results offer two major managerial recommendations. First, Chinese firms should use knowledge application to enhance product innovativeness. In the United States, companies should increase level of knowledge dissemination and sharing to enhance product innovativeness. Second, in China, the dissemination and application of knowledge not only directly improve firm performance by a large margin, but also indirectly improve firm performance through product innovativeness. Therefore, Chinese firms should focus on knowledge diffusion and application to improve firm performance. In the United States, knowledge dissemination and generation directly improve firm performance, and knowledge application can only indirectly improve firm performance through product innovativeness. Therefore, firms in the United States should focus on knowledge generation and knowledge diffusion to improve firm performance. In addition, they can invest in knowledge applications, but must ensure that the investment is transformed into innovative products. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The capture of the generative value of innovation: A study based on the dynamic perspective of the internal knowledge and collaboration network of enterprise Huang Can, Xu Ge, Shen Huijun 2023, 44(2): 98-107.  Abstract ( 128 )      With shortened technological lifecycle and rapid technological change, it is a major challenge for firms to continuously benefit from innovation. Technological inventions not only have an intrinsic value as solutions to specific technical problems, but also create generative value as the knowledge base and springboard for future technological inventions. Many existing studies focus on the primary appropriability to obtain revenues from technological inventions by incorporating them into products and licensing them in the market for technology. However, to continuously benefit from innovation, firms must also consider how to enhance generative appropriability, i.e., enhance the effectiveness of capturing greatest share of value from existing inventions by spawning from these existing technologies to generate future inventions. On the one hand, firms should promote sequential inventions and prevent their inventions from being imitated and exploited by competitors to sustain their competitive advantages. On the other hand, building on prior inventions would help firms to obtain subsequent products with improved performance, create higher commercial prospects than the original ones, and capture more revenue from their prior innovation efforts. Thus, enhancing generative appropriability is vital for firms to continuously benefit from innovation and sustain competitive advantage. Most existing literature focuses on primary appropriability. However, studies on generative appropriability remain relatively few. How to capture the generative value of inventions and continuously benefit from innovation is still under-explored. While primary appropriability emphasizes the effectiveness of achieving profits from innovation by commercializing inventions, generative appropriability highlights the importance of capturing value from subsequent technologies spawned by a firm′s existing technologies. There are still some theoretical gaps to be filled. First, prior literature indicates that appropriability mechanisms such as intellectual property regimes, trade secrets and complementary assets help protect and commercialize inventions to enhance primary appropriability. The effectiveness and potential roles of other types of informal appropriability mechanisms, such as internal networks, has yet to be thoroughly analyzed. To enhance generative appropriability, firms may need to dynamically change the structure of their internal knowledge network and collaboration network to promote sequential innovation and prevent imitation from competitors. Second, although prior literature has extensively investigated the impact of internal networks on innovation performance, relatively few studies have examined how internal network influence value capture, especially the dynamics of internal networks.To address these gaps, this study integrates profiting from innovation framework and internal network perspective to examine the impact of the dynamics of a firm′s internal knowledge network and collaboration network on generative appropriability. We argue that internal knowledge network dynamics, which promote knowledge recombination and sequential innovation and form imitation barriers, will lead to higher generative appropriability. Internal collaboration network dynamics also enhance generative appropriability by facilitating learning among inventors to effectively exploit existing technology, as well as by intensifying social complexity and increasing the imitation cost of competitors. In addition, the two positive relationships are weakened when the firm′s inter-organizational R&D network centrality is high due to frequent knowledge outflow and inter-organization interactions.We conduct an empirical analysis using a panel dataset of 965 Chinese pharmaceutical companies from 2005 to 2020. Results based on the panel data fixed effects model show that both the dynamics of the internal knowledge network and collaboration network help firms to capture the generative value of their technological inventions, but this positive effect is weakened when the inter-organizational R&D network centrality of firms is high. The results show that by dynamically adjusting the internal network structure, firms can better adapt to the rapid changes in the technological environment and continuously profit from innovation. This paper′s contributions are twofold. First, this paper enriches the studies on profiting from innovation by identifying internal knowledge network and collaboration network dynamics as the antecedents of generative appropriability. Secondly, this paper extends the studies on internal networks. By differentiating the mechanisms of internal knowledge network and collaboration network dynamics on generative appropriability, our study also provides empirical evidence that internal networks work effectively not only as a way for value creation but also for value appropriation.  References | Related Articles | Metrics

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The influencing mechanism of innovation policies on the performance of service enterprises: The mediating effects of product and service innovation capability Chen Yanhua 2023, 44(2): 108-115.  Abstract ( 136 )      The service industry, as one of the most critical support industries in the Chinese economic growth, keeps reforming and innovating to seek sustainable development. To promote enterprise innovative development, the Chinese government has issued innovation policies as a tool to affect enterprise innovation processes, and as a result to improve the enterprise performance. Although it is common to investigate how innovation policy affects enterprises, existing studies often focus on universal enterprises and few of them pay attention to the service enterprises. How innovation policy affects service enterprise performance is still unclear and need to be ascertained. Understanding how innovation policy affects service enterprise performance will benefit local governments towards better innovation policies with more specific purposes in the future, which in turn facilitate innovation and development of those service enterprises.As innovation comes with risk, enterprises tend to use different innovation decision-making strategies according to different government policies. This leads the enterprises to develop different levels of innovation capabilities, which poses impacts on the enterprise performance. To this end, we introduced the innovation capability as a mediator variable to build a framework, composed of a chain of "innovation policy-innovation capability-enterprise performance". Within this framework, we further divided variables into multiple dimensions. On one hand, each of existing literature investigates one or some of innovation policy instruments in terms of their impacts on enterprise performance. Alternatively, this paper considers innovation policies as a general concept by using the Rothwell and Zegveld′ framework of government innovation policies. Therefore, we included three kinds of policy mixes: supply-side, demand-side and environment innovation policies. Theoretically, these three innovation policies differ in the mechanisms how they impact the enterprises. One the other hand, compared to manufacturing enterprises, service enterprises produce intangible outputs and deliver their service in the premise of the producer and consumer interaction. To emphasize the unique innovation characteristics in service enterprises, this paper focused on both the technological and non-technological forms: product innovation and service innovation. As a result, the product innovation capability and service innovation capability were introduced as mediator variables between the three kinds of policies and enterprise performance.Following the theoretical analysis, this paper proposed three categories of research hypotheses: (1) each of the supply-side, demand-side and environment innovation policies has a significantly positive impact on enterprise performance; (2) each of three kinds of policies has a significantly positive impact on both product innovation capability or service innovation capability; and (3) each of product and service innovation capabilities has a significantly positive impact on enterprise performance. These hypotheses were then tested by the empirical research paradigm. Accordingly, the survey data were collected from 229 representative service enterprises in the Changsha City. The five-point Likert-type scale was used to measure all the latent variables in the survey data, whose measurement validity was tested using the common method bias, validity and reliability analyses. Finally, the partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) analysis was used to test relationships between variables and analyze mediation and moderation effects.The results show three kinds of innovation policies positively affect enterprise performance, but in different ways. The main findings are summarized as follows:Firstly, the supply-side innovation policy has a significantly positive, direct impact on enterprise performance (with a path coefficient of 0.264), a significantly positive, direct impact on product innovation capability (0.234) and a significantly positive, direct impact on service innovation capability (0.207). This suggests that the supply-side innovation policy impacts enterprise performance by both direct effect and innovation capability-mediated indirect effect. According to the theory of innovation policy, the supply-side innovation policy can provide innovative resources including capital, talents and technologies and other innovative elements. Our observations show that, the supply-side innovation policy can 1) promote service enterprises to invest in product innovation and service innovation, and 2) boost the overall development of enterprises in other ways.Secondly, the environmental-side innovation policy has a significantly positive, direct impact on service innovation capability (0.215), but has no significant, direct effect on enterprise performance nor product innovation capability. However, the total indirect effect of the environmental-side innovation policy on service enterprise performance is positive and significant (0.093). This finding denotes that environmental-side innovation policy can affect enterprise performance through impacting service innovation capability. In the practice of innovation management, the environmental-side innovation policy can contribute to build a better atmosphere in the society to promote interactions and communications between service producers and consumers, thus improving the opportunities to optimize the service delivery. It also highlights that, from another aspect, the improvement of product innovation of service enterprises depends more on the supply-side innovation policy.Thirdly, the demand-side innovation policy has limitedly direct impacts on enterprise performance, product innovation capability or service innovation capability. Therefore, the moderation effects of the demand-side innovation policy were further tested. Our results show that 1) demand-side innovation policy positively moderates the relationship between the supply-side policy and product innovation capability (0.168) and 2) the relationship between the environmental-side policy and service innovation capability (0.345). In theory, the demand-side innovation policy plays an important role in expanding the market. In practice, launching a demand-side innovation policy will increase the business volume and offer an opportunity to improve both product innovation capability and service innovation capability.In summary, this paper has investigated the impact of innovation policies on service enterprise performance with a focus on the service industry innovation. In the service industry, differences were found among the three innovation policies in mechanisms how they impact enterprise performance. These findings will be a useful guidance for the governments to formulate targeted innovation policies in the future to serve different purposes. 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Research on the influence of university knowledge network on the industry-university collaborative innovation performance Wang Haihua, Du Mei, Liu Zhaocheng 2023, 44(2): 116-126.  Abstract ( 149 )      With the rapid development of science and technology, innovation has become an important driving force to promote high-quality economic development. As an important innovation model in the national innovation system, industry-university collaborative innovation plays an important role in promoting the implementation of the strategy of strengthening the country through science and technology. In the process of collaborative innovation, universities play a key role in promoting collaborative innovation and enhancing national innovation strength. Therefore, how to improve the knowledge management ability of universities, enhance the development of industry-university collaborative innovation, and then heighten the overall innovation ability of the country has become a common concern issue in research and practice of innovation. Meanwhile, industry-university collaborative innovation is not only affected by the university knowledge networks, but also affected by the regional collaborative network. In addition, the university knowledge network is no longer limited to the static network structure, but also includes the network behaviors and activities, which is a dynamic process.Based on the perspective of dependent multi-layer network, this paper uses the invention patents data applied by the Double First-Rate Universities from 1985 to 2018 to construct a multiple network research framework including university knowledge network and regional collaborative network. Among them, the university knowledge network and the regional cooperation network are formed by 31 provincial-level regions in China and university knowledge elements, respectively. Further, the dependent variable is the industry-university collaborative innovation performance, that is the total number of patents jointly applied for by the Double First-Rate Universities every year. The independent variables are the static characteristics of university knowledge network, which are the diversity, uniqueness, structural holes and centrality of university knowledge network, and the dynamic characteristics of university knowledge network, which are the expansion and stability of university knowledge network. The moderating variables are the centrality and structural hole of regional cooperation network. At the same time, the number of university cooperative enterprises, the level of regional economic development and the number of scientific and technological papers published by universities are taken as control variables. Therefore, based on the social network theory and resource-based view, this paper constructs the time-fixed negative binomial regression model by using Stata 16.0 to analyze the impact of static and dynamic characteristics of university knowledge network on industry-university collaborative innovation performance, and the moderating effect of regional collaborative network. The results show that the diversity of university knowledge network has a significant inverted U-shaped effect on industry-university collaborative innovation performance; the uniqueness, structural hole, expansion and stability of university knowledge network have a significant positive impact on the industry-university collaborative innovation performance; the structural hole of regional collaborative network has a positively moderating effect between the uniqueness, expansion of university knowledge network on the industry-university collaborative innovation performance; the centrality of regional collaborative network has a positively moderating effect between the diversity, uniqueness, structural hole, expansion, stability of university knowledge network and industry-university collaborative innovation performance.The theoretical contributions of this paper include two aspects: Firstly, this study expands the impact of static characteristics of university knowledge networks on industry-university collaborative innovation performance by considering positive or negative direction. It also makes up for the inadequacy of exploring the relationship between university knowledge networks and university-industry collaborative innovation performance only from a single level. Secondly, from the perspective of interdependent multi-layer network, university knowledge networks, regional collaborative network and industry-university collaborative innovation performance are integrated into one research framework to enrich social network theory.Based on the empirical analysis, this paper puts forward some suggestions for the behavior of universities. Firstly, universities should improve the knowledge network structure, expand their own knowledge coverage areas, comprehensively utilize diverse knowledge and unique knowledge, promote interdisciplinary cross integration, enhance their knowledge reserve and knowledge reorganization ability, and create valuable heterogeneous knowledge resources to improve the efficiency of industry university collaborative innovation. Secondly, universities should take into account the advantages of disciplines and emerging disciplines, develop emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, and promote the dynamic improvement of knowledge base, so as to break through the limitations of existing knowledge rigidity on innovation ability. Finally, universities should give full play to their regional advantages, find the driving point from the regional innovation policies, excavate the policy support and innovation guarantee mechanism provided by the region, and cooperate with the government and enterprises through project cooperation. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Target firms′ innovative ability and willingness to make performance compensation commitments Li Zhe, Xie Bingyuan, Zhang Xinbi, Jiang Yichen 2023, 44(2): 127-136.  Abstract ( 102 )        Performance compensation commitment, being more and more widely used, can alleviate information asymmetry in M&A and solve the problems of adverse selection and moral hazard. However, there is little research on the motivation of making commitment. Innovation ability is a key factor in M&A transaction. In order to prevent their own value from being underestimated, target firms with high innovation ability may be more inclined to make commitments and more confident to achieve performance goals, but they may also be reluctant to make commitments for the sake of cost saving and risk management. Therefore, are firms with high innovation capability "bolder" and dare to make performance commitments?On the one hand, companies with high innovation capability may tend to make performance commitments, so as to prevent from being undervalued. Performance commitments can also be used as a signal to depict a good prospect for the acquirer, thereby gaining a satisfactory bid. Because of its high innovation ability, companies do not have to worry about failing to achieve performance goals, so they can boldly make performance commitments or even high-performance goals. In addition, making performance commitments can also effectively repel other competitors and reach a final deal. However, on the other hand, companies with high innovation capability may be reluctant to make performance commitments to attract acquirer, because performance commitments may induce large cost and risks. For example, excessive resource consumption to achieve performance objectives and moral hazards caused by performance commitments are possible. And it is also possible to get a relatively fair bid without making performance commitments. Therefore, whether firms with high innovation capability tend more to make performance commitment is an empirical question with tension.Based on signaling theory, using the cited patents to measure the innovation ability of the target firm, this paper empirically investigates M&A events of China′s listed companies from 2014 to 2019 to studies the links between the target firm′s innovative ability and the possibility of its making performance compensation commitments by logistic regression. Furthermore, this paper also attempts to verify the mediating effect of investment risk and the moderating effect of patent judicial environment, so as to systematically explain the main findings of this paper. The paper finds that target firms with greater innovation ability is more inclined to make performance compensation commitments and the link is more obvious in the regions without an ad hoc intellectual property arbitration court, suggesting that performance compensation commitment may be more similar to the "icing on the cake" effect for companies with high innovation ability. It is also found that the firms with innovation ability have lower investment risk and is more likely to fulfill the performance commitments.The results enrich the literatures on both innovative ability and performance compensation commitments and provide possible explanation and evidence for the popularity of performance compensation commitment. Practically, this paper suggests a new idea for the bidding company to identify high-quality underlying assets, i.e., target companies that are willing to make performance commitments are more likely to have high innovation capabilities. The paper also provides helpful empirical evidence for authorities to regulate M&A events. Authorities can reasonably allocate regulatory resources based on whether the company has given performance commitments, strengthening the supervision of target companies that have not made performance commitments in M&A transactions, further protecting the interests of investors. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Intellectual property right protection,technological innovation and return to capital in China Yang Jun, Xiao Mingyue, Jiang Mobing 2023, 44(2): 137-145.  Abstract ( 136 )      It is a well-established theory that capital deepening is inevitably accompanied with a decline in capital return. But for the past few decades, China managed to maintain high capital return in the process of capital deepening. One of the major reasons that are widely believed in the academic world is the occurrence of technological progress. However, China′s capital return has fallen sharply from 14.76% in 2008 to 5.16% in 2016. The rapid decline of the return to capital has dramatically weakened the investment-driven economic growth, which raises concerns among scholars about the sustainability of China′s economic growth. Does it mean technological progress cannot play its role in promoting China′s capital return anymore? What happens to China′s technological innovation? Nowadays, there is still a large gap between China and developed countries in technological innovation. One important reason is the high R&D risk caused by insufficient intellectual property right (IPR) protection. Although China′s IPR protection has been continuously strengthened, especially after the implementation of the Outline of the National Intellectual Property Strategy in 2008, the return to capital in China has been falling rapidly since 2008. Therefore, it raises the question of whether there is a relationship between the increased IPR protection and the decline of China′s capital return. According to the existing literature review, IPR protection has an important impact on technological innovation, and technological innovation is a key driving force for the improvement of the return to capital in China. Then, can IPR protection become a driving force to promote China′s capital return? Does the theory of "optimal IPR protection" hold in China? At present, scholars mainly focus on the impact of IPR protection on technological innovation, and there is still a big dispute over whether IPR protection could bring technological innovation and whether there is an optimal protection intensity.Based on the Chinese patent database, this paper first constructs the index of IPR protection from three aspects of administrative law enforcement, judicial decision and legal system environment, and examines the effect of IPR protection on the return to capital in China using GMM. Then based on the mediation effect model, this paper tests the transmission mechanism by using three mediating variables. We conclude that the impact of IPR protection on China′s return to capital presents an inverted U-shaped relationship, which is more significant after the financial crisis while the regional heterogeneity is not obvious; China′s IPR protection has unexpectedly passed the optimal intensity and has a restraining effect on the return to capital; IPR protection acts on the return to capital mainly by affecting technology transactions while the transmission mechanisms of R&D investment and technology quality fail; lacking of indigenous innovation has prematurely pushed China into the downward interval of the inverted U-shaped curve when China′s IPR protection is still loose. In fact, China may have the risk of falling into the "IPR protection trap".The above conclusions not only explain the causes of the decline of China′s capital return in recent years from the perspective of IPR protection, but also have important policy implications: First, China needs to accelerate the transformation from imitative innovation to independent innovation, to achieve key technology breakthrough that affects industrial development, which is not only the key to overcome the "IPR protection trap", but also an important measure to increase the capital return in China; Second, Chinese government needs to put emphasis on the promotion effect of the development of the technology market on the return to capital, continuously improve the legal system for technology transactions, give play to the leading role of the market in the allocation of technology resources, and effectively stimulate the vitality of innovative factors; Finally, the formulation of IPR protection policies should aim at promoting independent innovation and improving technological quality. In different development periods, the IPR protection policies should be dynamically adjusted and optimized according to the characteristics of economic development to accelerate the formation of a "quality-oriented" innovation evaluation system, so as to realize the maximization of the promotion effect of IPR protection on the return to capital.This paper may contribute to the literature in the following aspects: First, this paper constructs the indicators to measure the IPR protection intensity of provinces in China based on administrative law enforcement and court law enforcement, respectively, which avoids the defect of GP index that only measures IPR protection from the legislative level; Second, many literatures have studied the driving force of the return to capital from the perspective of economic factors, while our study provides a new institutional angle to explain the causes of the changes of China′s capital return; Third, by using mediation effect model to verify whether IPR protection could influence China′s capital return through R&D investment, technology transaction and technology quality, this paper finds that in addition to paying attention to technology importation, China should also improve the efficiency of R&D investment and implement quality-oriented technology innovation policies to effectively improve the return to capital; Finally, our conclusions have strong practical significance. The judgement that China may fall into the "IPR protection trap" not only contributes to the in-depth understanding of the "optimal IPR protection intensity", but also provides new enlightenment for the improvement of the IPR protection system. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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An empirical study of the influencing factors to determine the FRAND license royalties for standard-essential patents Zhang Yurong, Wu Wenfei 2023, 44(2): 146-155.  Abstract ( 112 )   Standard-essential patents (SEPs) are the core of competition in technology-intensive industries such as a new generation of information technology. The effective licensing and implementation of SEPs is an important driving force for realizing economic digital transition and upgrading. Although the International Standards Organization has proposed a governance system of international rule based on FRAND principle as the core for the licensing of SEPs, litigation disputes focused on the determination of the FRAND license royalties sweep the globe because the FRAND principle is vague and has no mandatory binding force. In order to explore the factors affecting the determination of the FRAND license royalties, an empirical study is analyzed based on the theory of patent value evaluation and judicial practice. The factors affecting the determination of the FRAND license royalties are studied from the three dimensions of the determination of patent value: commercial factors, technical factors and legal factors. In order to analyze the influencing factors of the determination of license royalties for SEPs encumbered FRAND, this article first systematically examines the influencing factors of the determination of FRAND license royalties from the above three dimensions. On the basis of theoretical analysis, 17 typical cases from different jurisdictions are selected for empirical research, including the feasibility and difficulties of application of each factor, identifying the main influencing factors and their approaches to measure for exploring the way of determining FRAND license royalties. The conclusions of this paper reveal that commercial factors, technical factors, and legal factors are sequenced according to the frequency from high to low when considering the three major categories. Specifically, first, among commercial factors, comparable licenses are the preferred way to determine FRAND license royalties because this method can reflect the economic value of the patented technology in the market, respect for the principle of freedom of contract, and eliminate the complicated calculation process, which can improve the efficiency of the court trials. However, when faced with barriers such as difficulties, in demonstrating comparability, lack of a sufficient number of comparable agreements and relevant information of cross-licensing or license with preferential terms, this method is not applicable. Second, in terms of technical factors, there are some difficulties of the technical contribution of SEPs to products and the technical contribution of SEPs to standard, such as how to apply entire market value rule or the smallest salable patent practicing unit rule to determine the basis of apportionment, how to calculate the proportion of the number of SEPs involved in the total number of SEPs, and how to adjust the number proportion according to the importance of the SEPs involved, so they are sub-optimal methods. Moreover, the two methods of the patents involved outweigh the utility of alternative technologies and the implementation cost of alternative technical solutions are lack of reference significance because these two technical methods are too difficult to operate. Finally, the legal factors such as avoiding patent hold up and hold out, avoiding royalty stacking are difficult to measure, so they are of less reference significance. However, legal factors can provide a meaningful reference for the choice of calculation methods and the conditions of injunction. Generally speaking, the determination of FRAND license royalties is a very complex issue. Various calculation methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Above them, the methods of comparable licenses and top-down approach are the most commonly used methods which could be applied according to the details of the case. Based on the above conclusions, this article provides specific suggestions for determining the FRAND license royalties. In short, all calculation methods must be applied selectively or comprehensively case by case to determine a more accurate range of FRAND license royalties and realize the benefits of the parties.  Related Articles | Metrics

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Boundary recognition of knowledge blocking or sharing for hybrid offerings in manufacturing enterprises Luo Jianqiang, Guo Yatao, Hu Bingkun 2023, 44(2): 156-164.  Abstract ( 77 )       Service derivation has become an important strategy for manufacturing enterprises to obtain competitive advantages. Compared with the independent provision of products or services, the hybrid offerings can achieve greater value co-creation for supply and demand. As modular derivative service components are continuously embedded in hybrid offerings, the structure of hybrid offerings has become more complex and the knowledge content has sharply increased, which arouses the attention of manufacturing enterprises to knowledge management after the provision of hybrid offerings.In order to obtain more service opportunities and prevent knowledge leakage, manufacturing enterprises usually block the two types of hybrid offerings knowledge: (1) Profitable knowledge is conventional knowledge, related to services such as accidental failure handling, immediate operation & maintenance and functional repair. Profitable knowledge is external knowledge of hybrid offerings with explicit and practical characteristics, and customers can directly obtain it through learning or interacting with manufacturing enterprises. (2) Protective knowledge is unconventional knowledge, related to product structure and technological transformation. Protective knowledge involves enterprises′ intellectual property, which has tacit and value-added characteristics, so that customers usually cannot directly obtain unless manufacturing enterprises share it. However, knowledge blocking restricts the innovation and value creation of hybrid offerings by customers, which deviates from the goal of value co-creation for supply and demand through service derivation. Therefore, reasonable knowledge sharing can increase customers′ willingness to pay for hybrid offerings and customer utility, which caters to the vision of open innovation and alliance knowledge sharing advocated by the service economy. But in the meanwhile, knowledge sharing will bring the risk of knowledge spillover and accelerated diffusion, which may weaken the competitiveness of enterprises, and make enterprises easy to fall into the sharing paradox. Existing literatures have analyzed the knowledge blocking of manufacturing enterprises and designed knowledge sharing contracts, but the strategic choice of knowledge blocking or sharing after the provision of hybrid offerings is currently inconclusive. It is still necessary to further analyze the impact of knowledge blocking and sharing on the value creation for supply and demand.Manufacturing enterprises implement a two-stage knowledge blocking strategy from shallower to deeper after the provision of hybrid offerings: (1) In the initial stage after provision, manufacturing enterprises let customers grasp the using knowledge of hybrid offerings through co-production and training. Customers desire to obtain deeper knowledge of hybrid offerings, such as accidental fault handling, immediate operation & maintenance and functional repair, to better adapt to market demand fluctuations and reduce delay cost caused by untimely equipment maintenance. At this time, in order to obtain more service opportunities and profit space, manufacturing enterprises usually adopt the first stage of profitable knowledge blocking strategy. (2) As hybrid offerings tend to be homogeneous, it is easier for customers to grasp profitable knowledge. At this stage, customers desire to obtain knowledge about renovation, improvement and overhaul of hybrid offerings, to further expand the value creation scope and break the original use field of hybrid offerings. Therefore, in order to prevent the knowledge diffusion of advantageous businesses, manufacturing enterprises usually adopt the second stage of protective knowledge blocking strategy.Based on the above situation and considering the impact of knowledge sharing on customer utility and knowledge spillover, this paper constructs a model of value creation for supply and demand under three knowledge management strategies (knowledge blocking, profitable knowledge sharing and protective knowledge sharing), aiming to find the boundary of knowledge blocking or sharing. The results show that: (1) The knowledge sharing of hybrid offerings in manufacturing enterprises has a double boundary measured by knowledge spillover cost coefficient. Also, the boundary of protective knowledge sharing is narrower than profitable knowledge sharing. Only by implementing the knowledge sharing strategy within the boundary can manufacturing enterprises realize the value co-creation for supply and demand. (2) The knowledge sharing value creation and the knowledge spillover cost in manufacturing enterprises are in a trade-off relationship. The value creation, optimal price and quantity of hybrid offerings under the protective knowledge sharing are more sensitive to the knowledge spillover coefficient than profitable knowledge sharing. (3) If customers can use shared knowledge to achieve greater value creation, manufacturing enterprises are more willing to share two types of knowledge. Therefore, customers should express their desire for the knowledge and demonstrate their knowledge absorptive capacity to manufacturing enterprises. When the value creation of knowledge sharing becomes predictable and measurable, manufacturing enterprises are more willing to share knowledge with customers under the guidance of a reasonable contract.The conclusions enrich the knowledge management theory in the process of manufacturing servitization and clarify the preconditions for the knowledge sharing contract design. The implications for service-oriented manufacturing enterprises′ knowledge management after the provision of hybrid offerings are: (1) If hybrid offerings dominate the market, manufacturing enterprises can implement the knowledge blocking strategy to ensure a stable revenue stream. (2) If hybrid offerings are highly competitive in the market, manufacturing enterprises can implement the profitable knowledge sharing strategy to stimulate potential customers′ demand. (3) If hybrid offerings tend to be homogeneous, manufacturing enterprises can implement the protective knowledge sharing strategy to stimulate innovative use of hybrid offerings to achieve greater value creation for both supply and demand. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Impact of FDI on the technological innovation and high-quality development of China′s economy and its action mechanism——The moderating role under environmental regulation Zou Zhiming, Chen Xun 2023, 44(2): 165-175.  Abstract ( 196 )       Over the past 40 years of reform and opening-up, China′s economy has maintained rapid growth, and has made a great achievement that amazed the world. In 2010, it became the world′s second largest economy. However, extensive economic growth has led to increasingly serious problems such as waste of resources and environmental pollution, which have seriously affected the sustainable and green development of the economy. It urgently needs to transform economic development model that relies on the input of a large amount of labor, energy, and other traditional factors, and transform to a total factor productivity (TFP) growth model that relies on technological progress, innovate economic development methods, and achieving high-quality economic development. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an important driving force for achieving high-quality economic development in China. We must always attach great importance to the use of foreign capital in the process of promoting high-quality economic development and modernization. Technological innovation capability is the most critical manifestation for a country′s strength, which depends not only on independent R&D, but also on international technology spillover such as FDI. FDI is an important way to take advantage of late-comer advantages and accelerate innovation and development. At present, China′s economy has shifted from a stage of high growth to high-quality development. In the process of "higher level of opening to the outside world", how to attract and make use of FDI at a higher level, especially with high-quality, to promote innovative development, which is a practical problem that needs to be resolved urgently. Based on the above realistic background, this paper fully draws on the existing literature and explores the ways and mechanisms of FDI affecting high-quality economic development. The paper uses the panel data of 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2003 to 2017 to conduct an empirical analysis of theoretical expectations by using the instrumental variable (IV-2SLS), intermediary effects and threshold models. The research found that: under the constraints of environmental regulations, there is a significant role in promoting technological innovation, and "Spillover Effect" is obvious; FDI can improve the quality of China′s economic development, and it do not support the "pollution paradise" hypothesis in China; The interaction of FDI and environmental regulations significantly improved the quality of economic development, and environmental regulations have a certain "screening" effect on FDI; The results of the intermediary effect show that FDI will affect high-quality economic development through three pathways such as technology innovation, industrial structure and productivity effect; compared with the transmission channel of technological innovation and industrial structure on FDI, the effect of production efficiency mechanism is more obvious. FDI has significantly promoted the increase in productivity, and it is the main source and power that drives high-quality economic development; In general, FDI has a negative effect on high-quality economic development through technological innovation, which is contrary to theoretical expectation. Further analysis found that the impact of technological innovation and FDI on high-quality economic development has a significant threshold effect, which is reflected in different levels of technological innovation. Both technological innovation and FDI should reach a certain threshold level to promote high-quality economic development. Based on the above conclusions, this paper reveals the following policy implications. Firstly, we must increase the intensity of FDI, increase the level of opening-up, effectively bring into play the reversing effect of environmental regulations, and efficiently promote high-quality economic development. Secondly, we must adhere to the concept of innovation-driven high-quality development, and high-level opening to promote high-quality development. The local government should reasonably formulate the policies in different regions at different stages of economic development based on threshold conditions of technological innovation and FDI for economic quality to avoid the inefficiency of technological innovation and reduce the negative impact of FDI intermediary channels. In addition, due to the influence of the COVID-19 and changes in the domestic and international situation, China′s economic is facing great difficulties and challenges. The government should cautiously implement the economic stimulus policies and measures to prevent a large amount of capital from flowing to traditional pollution and overcapacity industries, guide capital to invest in advanced manufacturing, emerging and environmentally friendly industries, and promote the development of "new infrastructure", "new services", improve production efficiency, advocate a green economy, and achieve high-quality economic growth.  References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Why do user′s innovative behaviors appear and disappear in brand communities?——A study based on the perspective of sense of power Wang Li, Xia Xuan 2023, 44(2): 176-183.  Abstract ( 117 )       A brand community is an online community led by a company, which can effectively promote information exchange and interaction among community members, and is of great significance to user innovation. However, users′ characteristics are very different, and their impacts on innovative behaviors are not the same, bringing both opportunities and challenges to brand communities. Therefore, if companies want to effectively promote user innovation, it is very important to study the generating mechanism of user innovation behavior in brand communities.Many scholars have explored many driving factors of innovative behavior, mainly focusing on environmental and personal factors. However, few studies have explored user sense of power from the perspective of subjective psychological characteristics and its boundary conditions. In fact, individuals with high sense of power have high cognitive flexibility and freedom of behavior, which are highly adapted to innovative behavior′s challenging and adventurous characteristics, showing that sense of power may also affect innovative behavior. Previous studies mainly focus on sense of power′s influence on consumption behavior (consumer′s in-role behavior), while ignoring the innovative behavior (consumer′s extra-role behavior). Since brand communities have become an important platform for corporate innovation, studying the relationship between user′ sense of power and innovative behavior in the community has become particularly important, but related research is extremely scarce.This study builds an influence mechanism model to illustrate user′s sense of power′s impacts on innovative behavior in brand communities. Based on proactive motivation model, self-efficacy, community identification and harmonious passion are introduced as mediators between sense of power and user innovative behavior in brand communities. Moreover, according to situated focus theory of power, this study proposes perception of community support as the important boundary condition.This study selects user members from Xiaomi community to conduct surveys. This community has more than 10 million registered and active users, who are external knowledge contributors to enterprise product innovation and suitable for survey. A total of 371 valid questionnaires were collected through forum messages and QQ groups.Based on the empirical research, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) user′s sense of power has a significant positive effect on innovative behavior. This conclusion further introduces sense of power from psychology to marketing, and brings sense of power′s effects from in-role consumption behaviors to extra-role innovative behaviors. Meanwhile, this conclusion explains individuals′ innovative behavior′s influencing factors from objective personal resources to subjective sense of power. (2) Self-efficacy, community identification and harmonious passion play as a partial mediator between sense of power and innovative behavior. This study uses proactive motivation model to explore the mediating effect between power and innovation, which establishes a strong connection between proactive characteristics of users and sense of power. In addition, proactive motivation model has been used to explain employee behavior in the field of organizational behavior, while this study uses proactive motivation model to explain user innovation behavior in the field of consumer behavior, expanding its research boundaries. (3) Perceived community support positively moderates the relationship between users′ sense of power and self-efficacy, community identification, and harmonious passion. Different from previous scenarios mainly focusing on traditional environment, this article explores the moderating effect of perceived community support in brand communities on Internet. The introduction of perceived community support as community context echoes situated focus theory of power, and also expands the theory.This research provides practical suggestions for companies to manage brand communities and stimulate user innovation. First, companies can take measures to stimulate more self-efficacy, community identification and harmonious passion of users with a high sense of power. Second, when companies build and operate brand communities, they should not only pay attention to the basic functions of brand community, but also encourage users to share their daily life to strengthen emotional connection between users and enhance community support perception. References | Related Articles | Metrics

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Rural financial exclusion, agricultural technological progress and food supply security Zhang Zhixin, Li Cheng, Jin Yue, Cui Zhaocai 2023, 44(2): 184-192.  Abstract ( 102 )       Given the continuous spread of the impact of the new crown epidemic and the tightening of foreign restrictions on China's food imports, can rural financial exclusion and agricultural technological progress become important variables to alleviate China′s food supply dilemma? In this paper, the panel data of 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2000 to 2018 are used, and we use the entropy method to measure the rural financial exclusion index, and use the DEA-Malmquist method to measure the agricultural technology progress index, and the two-way fixed effect model, the mediating effect model and the threshold regression model are used to answer the above questions. The paper draws two main conclusions through theoretical analysis and empirical analysis. First, the excessive level of rural financial exclusion will not only directly inhibit China′s food supply security, but also indirectly affect food supply security by affecting agricultural technological progress. Agricultural technological progress has an intermediary effect between rural financial exclusion and food supply security, and this intermediary effect accounts for about 26.6% of the total effect of rural financial exclusion on food supply security. On the one hand, the central bank should encourage rural financial institutions to provide more financial services to food producers through these institutional innovations, such as interest reduction or exemption, issuing more favorable loans, and providing guarantees for the risks necessary for food production. In addition, the central bank must set limits on financial institutions that provide financial services to farmers to regulate the minimum support limits for financial institutions. The second conclusion drawn by the thesis through the above analysis is that the impact of agricultural technological progress on food supply security has a non-linear threshold characteristic. When the rural financial exclusion index is greater than or equal to the threshold value of 0.679, the role of agricultural technological progress in promoting the security of food production and supply will be reduced. Therefore, we should adopt various policies and measures to reduce the level of rural financial exclusion. We should also use various means to improve the efficiency of agricultural technological progress. Through the above measures, we should ensure the overall food supply security of our country. Firstly, relevant government departments should reduce the restriction of "infiltration of industrial and commercial capital into rural areas" through institutional innovations, encourage and guide private capital to invest in grain production and business activities, and especially encourage them to invest in the development of high-quality grain seeds. And the transformation of agricultural machinery and tools. Secondly, we must give full play to the R&D advantages of universities and agricultural research institutes, and actively promote industry-university-research cooperation on food supply security in accordance with the requirements of the upper limit of the rural financial exclusion threshold verified in this paper to alleviate the negative impact of rural financial exclusion on agricultural technology advancement. In addition, it is necessary to introduce market mechanisms into food supply, build a mechanism that includes benefit sharing and risk sharing, to encourage food suppliers to engage in technological innovation, and to enhance the applicability and practicability of food production technology.  References | Related Articles | Metrics