The metaverse, which represents the comprehensive integration trend of the most advanced information technology, has three main characteristics: the fusion of the virtual and the real, the autonomy and the sociality. The emergence of the metaverse will trigger a linkage change in social production structure, operating mechanism, and relationship status. During the transformation, it will also lead to social risks such as the leakage of user's data privacy, the abuse of power of the metaverse platform, the manipulation of individual consciousness, the increased risk of discrimination, and the ideological Safety cannot be guaranteed . Governance schemes of the social risks should follow the principle of systematization and the concept of multi-governance. In the ethical plans, we should adhere to people-oriented, establish an ethical review organization within the metaverse community, and carry out value sensitive design and value circuit breaker design; In terms of the rule of law plans, legislation should be made timely to clarify legal disputes, and the power of metaverse platform should be regulated by means of public power supervision and protection of user's rights; in terms of technical plans, we could optimize the embeddedness and feasibility of risk responses by means of regulating code by code and govern technology by technology.
Accelerating the development of science-based industries and cultivating emerging industries and future industries based on breakthroughs in scientific theories are the key to fight the battle of core technologies and transform to high-quality development. It is urgent to clearly define and screen industries and deeply explore the innovation law of industries. However, the academic research on "science based industry" is not deep enough, and the existing screening method of "industry science correlation index" has many limitations. Therefore, it is very necessary to expand the index dimension of quantitative screening of science-based industries. This study expanded the quantitative screening dimension of science-based industries on the basis of "industry science correlation index". On the basis of theoretical research, we introduced several indicators, and determined the rationality of the selected indicators through the analysis of the differences between the two typical industries (science-based industry and technology-based industry), and finally formed a quantitative screening paradigm of science-based industry.
According to the existing research of scholars, we selected five sub industries from the typical "science-based industry" and "technology-based industry". From the Incopat patent database, we have obtained 29521 patents from 10 sub industries in the past five years, and carried out a detailed calculation of the data to explore the differences in indicators between the two types of industries.
Finally, we determined three indicators, i.e. "ISPI（Industry Science Participation Index）", "ISTI（Industry Science Time interval Index）" and "ISSI（Industry Science Scientist Participation Index）", and in these indicator dimensions, there are significant differences between"science-based industry" and "technology-based industry". The results shows that "science based industry" tends to have a high degree of integration of industry and science subjects, and public institutions are important sources of innovation; It has a short time interval between industry and science, the transformation from basic science to technology patent is faster, and the ability to absorb knowledge is stronger; "Science based industry" tends to have a high degree of industry science subject transformation, scientists possess both scientific achievements and patent outputs. On this foundation, we expanded the quantitative screening method of science-based industry, and constructed a set of "four-level tendency" industrial quantitative discrimination paradigm, which provided a theoretical basis for subsequent industry research and had certain theoretical contributions.
This study can provide theoretical reference for subsequent scholars to study on "science-based industry", and simplify data operation to a certain extent, so as to avoid the lack of rigor of the research conclusion due to the deviation of industry definition. Therefore, it has certain theoretical contributions. Meanwhile, the research conclusions can provide management enlightenment for the development of "science-based industry" in China.
Talents are the primary resource of science and technology innovation. Research on domestic and overseas scientific and technological talents has made some achievements and promoted the development of related fields. Based on the Web of Science and CNKI databases, this paper conducts a visual analysis and comparative study on the literature related to the topics of domestic and overseas scientific and technological talents from 2010 to 2021 by using the methods of bibliometrics, knowledge map and strategic diagram analysis in order to explore the characteristics and development trend of current scientific and technological talents research and further promote the development of scientific and technological talents research field in China. It is found that, in terms of the number of papers, the number of publications of overseas researchers keeps rising, while the number of publications of domestic researchers remains stable. In terms of cooperation network, foreign scholars cooperate in a rather close and tight manner, forming a cooperation network centered on key scholars; while domestic research teams appear rather scattered, which suggests less research exchanges and cooperation. In terms of research topics, the phenomenon of homogenization in the overseas scope is serious and appears less novelty and hot spots in the publications, while for domestic research papers, topics indicate a higher level of novelty and hot spots. In terms of research methods, overseas researchers have started to actively carry out interdisciplinary research and use artificial intelligence and big data technology to make forward-looking judgments, while domestic research methods still lack of innovation.
Hidden champion manufacturing enterprises are important engines for the steady operation and high-quality development of manufacturing industry and economy of China. Digitalization and complex environment at home and abroad pose new challenges to their technology competitive advantages. In this paper, the technology ladder theory is used to deconstruct the technology advantages of hidden champion manufacturing enterprises in China, and the length advantage, incremental advantage and discontinuity advantage are put forward, and the granularity and improvement order of the technology competitive advantages of hidden champion manufacturing enterprises in China are described under the digitalization context. Based on the springboard theory, it is proposed that enterprises under digitalization context can enhance technology ladder advantage by virtue of digital capability springboard and alliance networks through complex adaptation and interaction among them. Technology alliance includes homogeneous or heterogeneous alliance with constructing edgeties and centerties. Digital capability includes four types: integrated digital extractive capability; decoupled digital extractive capability; leading digital coordination capability; and self-consistent digital coordination capability. Firstly, based on the theoretical framework of technology alliance network - digital capability springboard - technology ladder advantage, this paper takes Shuanghuan Driveline as the research object and carries out longitudinal case analysis to explore how hidden champion manufacturing enterprises develop technology ladder advantage with the help of technology alliance and digital capability springboard, as well as the evolution and improvement path of each element. The research finds that according to the development characteristics of hidden champion, the Shuanghuan Driveline properly divides the dimensions of technology advantages, launches sequential promotion strategies, and adapts to technology alliances and digital capabilities, and finally forms the core technology advantages of “advanced + three-dimensional + complexity”. Secondly, based on the data of 158 hidden champion manufacturing enterprises in China, combined with Elastic Net and MMHC hybrid algorithm, this paper firstly screened out the important influencing variables of each ladder advantage, and then calculated the influence relationship among each important variable to verify the internal mechanism and adaptation relationship of the factors linkage in each dimension. The results show that the enterprises evolve from the homogeneous technology alliance of constructing edgeties to the centerties, and use the integrated & decoupled digital extractive capability and leading digital coordination capability to realize the leading technology development and enhance the technology length advantage; Enterprises build heterogeneous technology alliances, gradually evolve from edgeties to centerties, match the two digital extractive capabilities and self-consistent digital coordination capability, so as to realize multi-level and dimensional technology innovation, and then enhance the incremental advantage. When enterprises cooperate with various technology alliances and use digital capabilities interactively, they can obtain the technological discontinuity advantage. This study has important implications for the improvement of technology advantages and survival & development of hidden champions in the era of VUCA. First, the hidden champion enterprise needs to dynamically judge the ladder of technology advantage and determine the target of the segmentation stage, so as to accurately control the path of technology advantage improvement. Second, it is necessary to make full use of the positive role of technology alliance to promote digital capability building and enhance technology advantages. Third, it is necessary to strengthen the digital awareness of hidden champions, give full play to the role of digital capability springboard, and cultivate the digital extractive and coordination capability to drive the improvement of technology advantages of enterprises. Finally, attention should be paid to the adaptive relationship between different types of alliances and digital capabilities in order to effectively enhance technology ladder advantages.
The Government Guiding Fund is set up by the Chinese government to alleviate the financing constraint of firms, especially in the early stages of the development of small and medium-sized high-tech enterprises. However, in reality, the Guiding Funds have been criticized in the market for not investing in high-tech companies, but focusing on traditional industries. Taking the data of 174 Guiding Funds, this paper considers the fundraising ability and investment frequency of the Government Guiding Fund as scenarios and uses the fsQCA method to examine how the different configurations of top management team members' gender, overseas study or work experience, STEM background, and political connection conditions affect the Guiding Funds investment decision. Thus, from the perspective of configuration, this paper investigates what kind of Government Guiding Funds' top management teams tend to invest more in high-technology firms. The results show that a single characteristic element of the top management team of the Government Guiding Funds does not constitute a necessary condition for investment in high-tech firms. There are four configurations for the Government Guiding Funds to invest in high-tech enterprises, namely female management member-driven configuration, local management member-driven configuration, fundraising & investment-driven configuration, and STEM member & political connection-driven configuration. The female management member-driven configuration indicates that the Guiding Funds with a high proportion of female executives and high investment frequency tend to invest in high-tech companies. The local management member-driven configuration supports the Guiding Funds with a low proportion of executives with overseas working or education experience and a low proportion of executives with political connections as well as high investment frequency to invest more in high-tech companies. Fundraising & investment-driven configuration explains the fact that as long as the Guiding Funds raise enough funds and the investment frequency is high enough, the composition of the top management team will not affect the funds' investment decision in high-tech enterprises. The political connection-driven configuration shows that the political connections also affect the investment decision of Guiding Funds. The funds with a high percentage of STEM background members and political connections have a high tendency to invest in high-tech target firms. The results remain robust after several robustness checks. After adjusting the frequency threshold, consistency threshold, and PRI consistency threshold, respectively, and taking the fundraising ability as a major condition in all configurations, the four final configurations remain robust. The four different driving configurations show that different from the result of traditional linear regression analysis, the combination of multiple elements can achieve the same result, and there is not only one way to promote the Guiding Funds to invest more in high-tech enterprises. When the investment frequency of the fund is high enough, various executive configurations can drive the Guiding Funds to invest in high-tech target enterprises. The research results support the idea that different characteristic configurations of the Guiding Funds’ top management team can all have a tendency to invest in high-tech enterprises and thus provide a new research perspective and decision-making basis for the construction of the Guiding Fund top management team.
In the context of global carbon neutrality, the world's major economies have successively issued carbon neutrality strategies and actively promoted the research and development of clean energy technologies. Based on the clean energy database of the International Energy Agency, this paper conducts research and analysis from five dimensions: technology field, technology maturity, importance of net zero emissions, major technology countries and technology leaders in different fields, in order to explore the key R&D areas and technology leadership of clean energy technology. nation. The research findings: (1) The ten key R&D areas of clean energy technology in the context of global carbon neutrality are identified. (2) The technology leaders in different fields of construction, energy transition, transportation, CO2 infrastructure and industry are sorted out. (3) Locked in the areas of advantages and disadvantages of my country's clean energy technology. On this basis, combined with the development status of clean energy technology in my country, policy recommendations are put forward from the perspectives of R&D layout, R&D model, and international cooperation. The research results provide reference and enlightenment for my country's clean energy technology research and development layout and science and technology policy formulation.
Clearing the fast track connecting scientific research and industrialization, and promoting the accurate connection between the innovation chain and the industrial chain are important ways to achieve scientific and technological self-reliance and high-quality economic development. Taking the projects of National Natural Science Foundation of China as an example, to better play its mission of scientific and technological revolution in the new era in promoting basic research, application research and important innovation, and strengthen the supporting effect of scientific and technological innovation on economic development from the innovation chain source effectively, after a questionnaire survey of 126 experts from the Department of Engineering and Materials Science of the Natural Science Foundation of China, through a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data, a linking mechanism of scientific problem formation and scientific achievement transformation from the perspective of the whole process is proposed and conducted. The study analyzes the whole process of management, from scientific problem formation, scientific projects evaluation, scientific research achievement output and application mechanism, the whole process of the interaction mechanism cycle between the forward formation and reverse formation of scientific problems, and the whole process effect of scientific research paradigm transformation and interdisciplinary integration, and the feasibility of the linking mechanism is verified by case study. Consequently, the study puts forward the strategies and suggestions to ensure the efficient operation of the linking mechanism for the scientific problem formation and scientific achievement transformation in the perspective of the whole process.
Currently, the international situation is undergoing complex and profound changes, and geopolitical tension and the deglobalization has spread through the international community in some extent. Global climate change is the most complex scientific problem and the common challenge faced by the mankind. International collaboration is the effective way to tackle the climate crisis. However, the art-of-state of international scientific collaboration (ISC) of this field under rising deglobalization and how geopolitics affect the ISC remain unclear. In this study, the trends and geopolitical pattern of the ISC are mined using a large number of publications related to climate change, and the policies and suggestions for deepening the ISC in this field will be discussed. The geopolitical regions including Maritime Europe and the Maghreb (MEM), North and Middle America (NMA), the East Asia Geostrategic Realm (EAGR), the Asia-Pacific Rim (APR), Heartlandic Russia and Periphery (HRP), Southern Asia (SAs), Southern America (SAm), the Middle Esat Shatterbelt (MES), and the Sub-Saharan African Shatterbelt (SSAS) which are introduced by Saul Bernard Cohen are used in this study. The differences and spatial distribution patterns of the ISC among different geopolitical regions are analyzed to explore the effect of geopolitics in ISC. Our results demonstrated that there is a down trend in increasing rate of the share of collaborative documents in the whole studied period. Meanwhile, the whole period can be divided to three subperiods, such as 1991-2004 (Subperiod I), 2005-2017 (Subperiod II), and 2018-2021(Subperiod III). There is an observed stagnation of the ISC of this field in the subperiod III. Moreover, the level of the ISC integration has regressed in the subperiod II and III. MEM, NMA, EAGR, and APR are the main geopolitical regions of the ISC in this domain because of their huge scientific system. The level of science and technology controls the global pattern of the ISC among different geopolitical regions. The countries/regions from SAs, SAm, SSAS cooperate with the countries or regions with advanced scientific ability from the four main geopolitical regions to develop their science and technology. The geopolitical tensions significantly affect the ISC between HRP and NMA in the subperiod II and III, and between HRP and MEM in the subperiod II, and between EAGR and NMA in the subperiod III. In addition, there is an uptrend of the degree of the integration intra-geopolitical regions after 2006, that is to say, increasing trends of ISC between counties from same geopolitical region in subperiod II and III. To tackle climate change and alleviate geopolitical tension, China should deepen ISC in this field by increasing the proportion of the ISC in European Union and North America, strengthening the ISC among other countries from EAGR and with other near geopolitical regions, increasing the proportion of the multilateral ISC, actively creating global ISC platforms. This study can provide useful information for climate change policymakers and managers, and servicing the needs of state major strategic issues related to climate change.
The “Enlisting and Leading” is a major strategy in the field of science and technology in China. The “list” and “leader” are the key elements for the “Enlisting and Leading” to play its role and achieve its goals. In practice, what characteristics the two show and how to match are very important to the effectiveness of the system and scientific and technological innovation. However, the academic community has not yet involved this. Therefore, based on the micro data composed of the information of 1217 lists and 252 leaders, this paper analyzes the characteristics of list, leader, and their matching. Result shows that: (1) the list in the “Enlisting and Leading” focuses on economic and social development, and has some differences in regional distribution, and its subject is mainly from the government and enterprises; (2) the leader in the “Enlisting and Leading” is mainly composed of young small and medium-sized enterprises, high-level universities and scientific research institutes with a long history, and their innovative ability is remarkable; (3) the matching of “list” and “leader” is characterized by insufficient diversity of regional matching, diverse types of subject matching and strong technical matching. These conclusions provide useful enlightenment for the improvement of the “Enlisting and Leading” and the construction of national innovation system with Chinese characteristics.
Opportunity is the core element of digital entrepreneurship. Under the influence of digital technologies, the iteration of opportunities is particularly obvious. However, few scholars explore and examine the continuous iteration mechanism after the implementation of initial opportunities in the context of digital entrepreneurship. In the digital economy, customer feedback is an important driver of opportunity iteration, so customer orientation is an important strategic direction for digital new ventures, but whether it helps digital new ventures to iterate their opportunities needs to be further tested. Based on the perspective of social constructivism, this paper aims to explore the influence mechanism of customer orientation on the opportunity iteration in digital new ventures. Empirical data were collected from 241 digital new ventures in China through a survey. Mediation and moderation model assessment procedures are used to analyze the data. The empirical data analysis results show that customer orientation has a positive impact on opportunity iteration in digital new ventures, and entrepreneurial learning plays a fully mediating role in the above relationship. Moreover, market turbulence positively moderates the influence of customer orientation on entrepreneurial learning and strategic consensus positively moderates the impact of entrepreneurial learning on opportunity iteration in digital new ventures. Our findings provide important management implications for digital new ventures to realize opportunity iteration effectively.
Our research has significant theoretical implications in three aspects. Firstly, this study systematically constructs and empirically tests the opportunity iteration mechanism model of digital new ventures, which promotes the theoretical development of opportunity iteration in the digital context. With the rapid development of digital technology, the boundary of digital opportunities is more blurred and the iteration of digital opportunities is significantly enhanced. However, the mechanism of opportunity iteration in digital context needs to be further explored and empirically tested. This paper introduces the perspective of social constructivism to reveal the mechanism of customer orientation and entrepreneurial learning on opportunity iteration. The research inspires more scholars to focus on the mechanisms of digital opportunity iteration.
Secondly, this study reveals the mechanism of customer orientation on opportunity iteration in digital new ventures, which fills the research gap of the influence of customer orientation on digital entrepreneurial activities. Existing studies mainly focus on the impact of customer orientation on enterprise innovation and performance in traditional entrepreneurial contexts. This paper enriches our understanding of how customer orientation plays a role in digital entrepreneurship by exploring the impact of customer orientation on opportunity iteration and the mediating role of entrepreneurial learning in digital contexts.
Finally, this paper provides new insights into the antecedents and effectiveness of entrepreneurial learning in digital contexts. Although some scholars find that digital technology provides more new space for learning, few studies focus on the antecedents and effects of entrepreneurial learning in the digital context. This paper verifies the effect of customer orientation on entrepreneurial learning and opportunity iteration of digital new ventures, and reveals the moderating effects of market turbulence and strategic consensus. The research helps to provide an empirical basis for research on entrepreneurial learning in digital contexts.
Bridging scientists have both academic and industrial R&D work experience and are valuable in addressing conflicts between academia and industry and promoting technological innovation. This study examines the unique impact of bridging scientists on the technological innovation performance of firms when they are founders. A unique dataset with a sample of Specialized, Fined, Peculiar and Innovative(SFPI) private listed SMEs was constructed for empirical analysis and found that: (1) Compared to other scientist founders, bridging scientist founders have a stronger impact on the technological innovation performance of firms, especially on the quality of technological innovation; (2) bridging scientist founders promoted the technological innovation quality by influencing scientific knowledge search and technical knowledge search, while increasing the firms' technological innovation quantity through technical knowledge search only.
This paper constructs a model of R&D policy mix, heterogeneity R&D (research and development) investment and innovation(breakthrough innovation and incremental innovation),and presents three effects of R&D policy mix affecting firm’s innovation choice：hurdle effect, entry deterring effect and stealing effect. Using the panel data of 1194 listed enterprises in China from 2011 to 2018,this paper assesses the extent to which R&D policy mix has contributed to enterprise innovation. Empirical estimates indicate that, First, R&D subsidy significantly promotes firm’s incremental innovation, while tax incentive has no significant impact on firm’s innovation. Second, there is significant heterogeneity in the policy effect：R&D subsidy significantly raises state-owned enterprise’s incremental innovation, while the effect of tax incentive on incremental innovation is stronger in non-state-owned enterprise. Compared with non-high-tech enterprises, R&D subsidy is more beneficial to high-tech enterprise’s both breakthrough and incremental innovation, while tax policy has no significant incentive effect on incremental innovation of high-tech and non-high-tech enterprises. Third, in terms of subsidy policy, when the hurdle effect dominates, R&D subsidy can effectively reduce the R&D cost of enterprises and promote breakthrough innovation by increasing firm’s research investment. When stealing effect is dominant, it can stimulate firm’s research investment, due to the innovation profit cannot be fully occupied, it urges enterprises to choose incremental innovation. If entry deterring effect dominates, it can stimulate firm’s development investment, and then promotes the incremental innovation. As for tax policy, it can effectively reduce the entry cost of enterprises, when tax incentive can promote incremental innovation by increasing firm’s development investment, entry deterring effect is more prominent. These results show that different R&D policy toolkit has several channels on breakthrough and incremental innovation, which provides reference for the government to identify innovation policy instrument combinations.
In recent years, technological progress and industrial development have accelerated the integration of factors, and various industries and fields are seeking new growth points. In a highly dynamic and changing environment, from competition to cooperation has become the basic context for enterprise strategy formulation and implementation. More and more enterprises are realizing that it is difficult to maintain sustainable innovation capabilities solely through internal research and development, and are beginning to access and acquire heterogeneous knowledge resources through boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions. At the same time, the rapid development of technology and cross domain integration have made various industries generally face disruptive innovation, causing anxiety about whether enterprises can maintain competitive advantage, while also bringing new opportunities to them. As a strategic response to the environment of cross domain technology integration and the inherent need to maintain competitive advantage in the context of disruptive innovation, latecomers in the field of disruptive innovation have set off a wave of boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions. Therefore, as a new phenomenon of technology mergers & acquisitions, how can boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions promote the disruptive innovation capabilities of latecomers? What are the configuration effects of different boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions conditions on improving the disruptive innovation ability of latecomer enterprises? These issues have attracted significant attention and require in-depth exploration at multiple levels and dimensions.
In order to further open the "black box" between boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions and the disruptive innovation capabilities of latecomers, this study, based on resource dependency theory and resource capability theory, adopts the dynamic Two-step fsQCA research method, and selects 163 boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions events that occurred during the "12th Five Year Plan" and "13th Five Year Plan" periods in 18 AI latecomers in China as research objects, exploring the situation from competition to cooperation, The common role of different conditions and factors in boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions in promoting the disruptive innovation capabilities of AI latecomers, as well as the adequacy and necessity of various conditions and factors. The research finds that: (1) There are differences in the configuration of conditions for boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions to promote the disruptive innovation capabilities of AI latecomers in different periods. (2) The approximate factors that promote the disruptive innovation ability of AI latecomers through boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions under different remote factors have different effects. (3) There are significant differences in the paths for boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions to promote the disruptive innovation capabilities of AI latecomers in different external environments.
This study constructs a TOE theoretical model for boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions to promote the disruptive innovation capabilities of AI latecomers from a configuration perspective, effectively solving the practical problems faced by latecomers in promoting disruptive innovation development, and providing theoretical reference and inspiration for the development of many latecomers in related disruptive innovation fields. At the same time, this study breaks through the traditional static perspective and introduces the time dimension into the study of configuration effects. It proposes that boundary-spanning technology mergers & acquisitions need to combine real situations to promote AI latecomers to enhance disruptive innovation capabilities, providing useful reference and reference for research related to configuration effects. Finally, this study uses the Two-step fsQCA research method to identify the relative contributions of a subset of variables that have been identified as important in the process of changing local contexts in China, construct and test causal statements that are more insightful and persuasive based on local contexts in China, alleviate the potential problems of traditional fsQCA methods in research related to local contexts in China, and have important reference value for studying the disruptive innovation capabilities of local enterprises in China, It is beneficial to draw management practices that are more in line with China's national conditions.
