TY - JOUR

T1 - Low-cost innovation and technology-driven innovation in China’s machinery industry

AU - Liefner, Ingo

AU - Losacker, Sebastian

N1 - Funding Information: Ingo Liefner is professor of economic geography at Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. His research interests include theories and methods in economic geography, innovation, local and global knowledge networks, and innovation in developing and newly industrialising countries, with a particular focus on China. He has carried out and directed many research projects on innovation and regional development, funded by institutions including the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Humboldt Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation. He has published and edited books, book chapters and journal articles, and has published in journals such as Technovation, Environment and Planning A, Higher Education, Scientometrics, Journal of Informetrics, Research Policy, Applied Geography, and many others. He has also organized/chaired numerous sessions at professional conferences and has served as advisor/panelist to various professional organisations and administrative bodies.

PY - 2020/8/20

Y1 - 2020/8/20

N2 - The political concept of indigenous innovation in China sets out a guiding principle for the country’s major transformation towards becoming an innovation nation. However, firms’ innovation strategies and capabilities in middle-income countries are usually heterogeneous, making a uniform response to this concept at the company level highly unlikely. The paper’s empirical contribution is based on analysing survey data on technologically advanced machinery firms in China. It uses a multinomial model approach to establish which drivers of innovation go hand-in-hand with the different innovation strategies. This paper identifies different innovation strategies and forms of innovation that co-emerge as part of this transformation, leading to four firm groups: low-cost producers, technology-oriented producers, user-oriented innovators and technology-oriented innovators. It thus contributes to a more differentiated view of the effects of China’s innovation-focused transformation. We find that R&D investments, governmental R&D support and scientific collaborations are key factors to distinguish between the above-mentioned groups.

AB - The political concept of indigenous innovation in China sets out a guiding principle for the country’s major transformation towards becoming an innovation nation. However, firms’ innovation strategies and capabilities in middle-income countries are usually heterogeneous, making a uniform response to this concept at the company level highly unlikely. The paper’s empirical contribution is based on analysing survey data on technologically advanced machinery firms in China. It uses a multinomial model approach to establish which drivers of innovation go hand-in-hand with the different innovation strategies. This paper identifies different innovation strategies and forms of innovation that co-emerge as part of this transformation, leading to four firm groups: low-cost producers, technology-oriented producers, user-oriented innovators and technology-oriented innovators. It thus contributes to a more differentiated view of the effects of China’s innovation-focused transformation. We find that R&D investments, governmental R&D support and scientific collaborations are key factors to distinguish between the above-mentioned groups.

KW - China

KW - Innovation

KW - novelty

KW - price

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071260556&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/09537325.2019.1656333

DO - 10.1080/09537325.2019.1656333

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85071260556

VL - 32

SP - 319

EP - 331

JO - Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

JF - Technology Analysis and Strategic Management

SN - 0953-7325

IS - 3

ER -