With the increasing complexity of the international situation and considering the realistic conditions of high political mutual trust between China and Russia, there is great potential for high-tech cooperation between the two countries. This article is based on a survey and research conducted on the Russian citizen over 25 years old, combined with expert consultation, attempting to demonstrate the overall understanding of the Russian government, think tank community, and society towards high-tech cooperation with China under the new situation. The study found that the Russian society has a strong willingness to cooperate with China under the influence of national strategic choices and has a high overall evaluation, especially in the fields of digital and information technology, and has expectations for the Chinese market environment. Although the scale and intensity of Sino-Russian high-tech cooperation are not as strong as that of Russia-USA and Russia-Europe, China's strategic dominant position in Russia's foreign high-tech cooperation will continue under the impetus of the “common agenda” to counter Western technological sovereignty. Based on the perspective of endogenous Russia, this research conducts an exploratory investigation and research on Russia's awareness and concerns about high-tech cooperation with China under the new situation, which provides clues and basis for promoting the high-quality development of Sino-Russian cooperation in the field of high-tech, and also provides inspiration for decision makers to respond and predict corresponding Russian policies.
With the increasing complexity of the global research landscape, ensuring research security has emerged as a crucial element in international scientific and technological cooperation. This article critically examines the policy instruments employed by the United States in strategically addressing research security concerns, offering insights for China's own approach. The article begins by tracing the evolution of the U.S. research security strategy, delving into its underlying logic and motivations. It then focuses on key polar policies that shape the trajectory of this strategy, providing a detailed analysis of various policy instruments such as institutionalization construction, policy measures, and pilot mechanisms. Furthermore, it explores the impact on both the global research ecosystem and China's science and technology enterprise while proposing implications that underscore the strategic significance of research security: enhancing existing policy systems, strengthening management mechanisms for research security, and striking a balance between safeguarding national interests and fostering international cooperation. Finally, drawing upon an overview of U.S. research security strategic layout studies to date, this article presents future prospects for further investigation in this field. By offering valuable perspectives and strategies to comprehend and respond effectively to emerging trends in international research security issues.
With the intensification of global scientific and technological competition, developed countries have imposed stricter blockades and restrictions on various innovation organizations in developing countries in key core technologies in order to maintain technological leadership. The development dilemma faced by the latter in key core technological innovation is becoming more complex, which is compared to "stranglehold" in academia and even industry.
As the problem of "stranglehold" becomes increasingly severe, the academic community has conducted a lot of research on the "stranglehold" technologies (only at the technical level) of developing countries, focusing on why their innovation organizations are "stranglehold" in trying to acquire key core technologies such as chip manufacturing, but ignoring that the "stranglehold" implemented by developed countries is not limited to restricting the export of their own key technologies, but after the innovation organizations of late developing countries are forced to develop independently controllable key core technologies, developed countries will also curb the key core technologies independently developed by the latter in terms of technology ecology, business ecology and even market access. The "stranglehold" context encountered by the latter has extended to the ecological and market levels, but the academic community has paid insufficient attention to this. This leads to the lack of pertinence of research conclusions and the lack of matching between strategy suggestions and situations. In view of this, based on the specific practice of innovation organizations in China's chip industry encountering and breaking through the "stranglehold" situation, this paper systematically combs and summarizes the "stranglehold" situation from three aspects: connotation characteristics, evolution logic and breakthrough path.
The study finds that: Firstly, the "stranglehold" context is that under the background of national competition, technology leading countries politicize economic, trade and scientific and technological issues, exceed the boundaries of national normal economic behavior in terms of technology, ecology and market, dynamically evolve and implement economic coercion and political intervention, restrict the export of domestic advanced technologies and products to late developing countries, prevent innovation organizations in late developing countries from obtaining complementary assets from the innovation ecosystem dominated by technology leading countries, and prevent technology products with comparative advantages in late developing countries from entering the international market, so that late developing countries and their various innovation organizations fall into a passive controlled, sluggish development situation and commercial disadvantage. Secondly, interest competition and mutual game between countries are the internal motivation for the existence of the "stranglehold" context. The catch up of key core technologies of late developing countries is the external condition that triggers the emergence of the "stranglehold" context. Politicizing, weaponizing and instrumentalizing economic and trade science and technology issues is the essential connotation of the "stranglehold" context, and claiming market rights beyond the boundaries of normal economic behavior is the boundary of the "stranglehold" context. It shows a differentiated mechanism of action according to time, and is the development law of the "stranglehold" context. Therefore, The "stranglehold" context has five significant characteristics: national competitiveness, inevitability of latecomers, political intervention, economic coercion, and dynamic evolution. It can be logically deconstructed into three categories: technological "stranglehold" context, ecological "stranglehold" context, and market "stranglehold" context. Thirdly, under the guidance of the top-level design of self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology, building innovation consortia, and developing new quality productivity, various innovative organizations in latecomer countries can implement breakthrough innovation, integrated innovation, and disruptive innovation in stages through three breakthrough modes as dualism, inclusiveness, and collaboration. They can sequentially master advanced technologies, possess complementary assets, expand overseas markets, and achieve "made out", "used well", and "sold well" in key core technology products with the help of a proactive government, effective market, and strong governance. They can sequentially break through the technological "stranglehold" context, ecological "stranglehold" context, and market "stranglehold" context.
Innovation performance is an important metric for evaluating the contributions of researchers. As a strategic technology propelling the new wave of technological transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping research paradigms across disciplines. However, prior studies have primarily focused on the direct impact of AI adoption on research activities, neglecting the role of individual differences among researchers in shaping Innovation performance. This study adopts the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theoretical model to explore the relationship between AI adoption and researchers' Innovation performance. The SOR framework posits that external stimuli influence internal psychological states, leading to specific outcomes. In this context, AI adoption acts as a stimulus that influences researchers’ psychological perceptions, which in turn affect their innovation performance. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the study incorporates three key psychological factors—research autonomy, research competence, and research relatedness—as mediators to capture individual differences in how researchers experience AI adoption and to provide a deeper understanding of its effects on innovation. Based on empirical data from 252 researchers, this study provides three principal findings. First, AI adoption positively influences the Innovation performance of researchers. Second, the positive relationship between AI adoption and innovation performance is mediated by research autonomy, competence, and relatedness, demonstrating the critical role of these psychological factors. Third, the organizational innovation climate moderates the impact of AI adoption on research competence and relatedness, underscoring the importance of a supportive environment for maximizing the benefits of AI in research. This study makes three key theoretical contributions. First, it extends the theoretical boundaries and application scope of the SOR model, revealing the underlying mechanisms—previously a “black box”—through which AI adoption influences researchers’ Innovation performance. Second, it offers an explanation for the divergences in research on AI technology and Innovation performance at the micro level. Third, it elucidates the mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions between AI adoption and the Innovation performance of researchers. This study provides three practical insights for exploring AI-driven research management. First, it emphasizes actively embracing AI technologies in research while adhering to research ethics and integrity standards. Second, it highlights the importance of fostering an innovative organizational climate that encourages originality and exploration, with particular attention to researchers’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Third, it recommends promoting the development of researchers' AI-related skills to apply them in major scientific studies and technological innovations. Future work could examine the mechanisms through which different organizational structures and modes impact Innovation performance. Additionally, the relevance of AI technologies varies across research fields, it could focus on specific subfields to provide deeper insights.
Trust is regarded as one of the important factors to reduce individual perception. However, for artificial intelligence technology, there are still insufficient discussions on whether trust?affects differently?and how trust affects risk perception. A quota sampling survey based on a national sample found that: trust in scientists and the government can significantly reduce the Chinese public's risk perception of artificial intelligence, while trust in engineers and relatives tends to amplify risk perception; the influence of scientists on reducing public risk is greater than that of the government; the Chinese public only shows an overall sense of trust in the government, while the intention credibility, process credibility and behavior credibility of scientists have a negative predictive effect on public risk perception. To address modern risks of artificial intelligence, it is necessary to?establish diversity?risk communication channels, build a benign interaction mechanism among scientists, the government and the public, and adopt differentiated strategies to strengthen the trust characteristics of different groups.
Local intelligent manufacturing policies serve as a crucial lever for governments to promote the transformation and upgrading of regional manufacturing industries. As industrial development constitutes a systematic project, it imposes higher requirements on the formulation of intelligent manufacturing policies. Existing literature primarily focuses on analyzing the impact effects and antecedent factors of policies. While these studies provide important perspectives for understanding the implementation effects of local intelligent manufacturing policies, they fail to clearly elucidate the essential elements of policy formulation and their underlying logical framework. Furthermore, most scholars emphasize national-level policy analysis, neglecting the specific challenges encountered at the local level in practical implementation. LDA (latent dirichlet allocation) enables comprehensive identification of thematic keywords within extensive policy texts, assisting researchers in discerning the focal priorities of local intelligent manufacturing policies. Meanwhile, ISM (interpretive structural modeling) facilitates analysis of both direct and indirect interrelationships among various elements, thereby revealing the operational mechanisms of policy components.
This study systematically collects and analyzes 45 intelligent manufacturing policy documents issued by 31 provincial-level administrative regions across China. By employing the LDA topic modeling technique, we identify key policy elements embedded within these documents. Subsequently, the ISM approach is utilized to systematically examine the hierarchical relationships and interdependencies among these elements, thereby uncovering the integrated framework and foundational logic underpinning local intelligent manufacturing policy formulation. The research yields three primary findings: (1) Local intelligent manufacturing policies are composed of eight critical elements: Intelligent Manufacturing Goal Setting, Intelligent Manufacturing Policy Pathways, Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Spatial Planning, Intelligent Manufacturing Open Integration, Intelligent Manufacturing Development Engine, Intelligent Manufacturing Service Support, Intelligent Manufacturing Innovation Initiatives, and Intelligent Manufacturing Demonstration Leadership; (2) Based on driver-dependency analysis, these policy elements can be categorized into driver elements, self-regulating elements, and dependent elements, which respectively play roles in guiding, supporting, and coordinating policy implementation; (3) Based on the analysis of policy content, this study constructs a fundamental logical framework for local intelligent manufacturing policies characterized by "top-level design - practical exploration - support mechanisms", while clarifying the policy-making priorities at each stage. The elements of top-level design serve as the starting point and foundation for policy formulation, providing guidance for the establishment of intelligent manufacturing policies, leading the support mechanisms and paving the way for practical exploration. Support mechanisms constitute critical components in policy-making, simultaneously reinforcing both top-level design elements and practical exploration initiatives. Practical exploration elements represent the most direct implementation approach for intelligent manufacturing policies, relying on support mechanisms while responding to the directional guidance of top-level design.
Based on this, this paper proposes that when formulating local intelligent manufacturing policies, local governments should improve the top-level design of such policies. Local governments should fully recognize the guiding role of top-level design in the development of intelligent manufacturing policies and formulate policies accordingly. It is essential to strengthen the supportive mechanisms for local intelligent manufacturing policies. In policy formulation, local governments need to translate macro-level visions into concrete, actionable policy measures and implementation pathways to ensure effective policy execution. Furthermore, it is crucial to guide practical explorations of local intelligent manufacturing policies. For targeted development areas, policies should leverage their guiding function of "pooling resources, piloting initiatives, and scaling up successful practices" to drive progress.
The global expansion of algorithmic power has made its international governance an urgent priority. This study analyzes the necessity of addressing this issue and proposes relevant measures for the international community. However, significant challenges persist, including the boundless expansion of algorithmic power, the difficulty of breaking monopolistic structures dominated by a few tech giants, and the alienation of power, where algorithms evolve beyond human oversight and societal values. To address these issues, it is essential to clarify principles for data collection and algorithmic ethics, focusing on privacy, fairness, and transparency while ensuring algorithms are accountable and free from discrimination. Establishing coordinated supervision mechanisms that involve governments, international organizations, technology companies, and civil society can create a multi-stakeholder governance framework. Context-specific transparency standards should also be defined, adapting to the needs of various domains, such as healthcare or justice, where higher accountability is required. Enhancing the explainability of artificial intelligence algorithms is another key measure, as it ensures algorithmic decisions can be understood and justified, increasing trust and mitigating risks. Active participation in the establishment of global algorithm standards is necessary to set technical, ethical, and operational benchmarks that ensure fairness and consistency while preventing domination by a few entities. Simultaneously, countries must strengthen their domestic legal protections by enacting laws that address issues like algorithmic bias, data misuse, and automated decision-making accountability. These efforts, however, face structural obstacles due to the monopolistic nature of the algorithmic landscape and the difficulty of reforming entrenched power dynamics. Despite these challenges, a coordinated international approach that clarifies ethical principles, fosters collaboration, enhances transparency, and reinforces legal frameworks can create a more equitable governance system for algorithmic power, ensuring it serves humanity’s collective interests.
Against the background of the scientific research reproducibility crisis, preprint culture, as an emerging paradigm of scholarly communication, is rapidly spreading in the field of scientific research and exerting far-reaching influence. Using structural equation modeling, we conducted an emprical analysis on the questionnaire data of 761 researchers to investigate the mechanism of preprint culture in alleviating the crisis of scientific research reproducibility. The study found that a higher level of preprint culture promotes the enhancement of research reproducibility and helps to correct the potential bias of research; openness and social capital in scientific research play a mediating role between preprint culture and research reproducibility, i.e., the open scientific practice and the construction of academic networks play a key role; the culture of disciplines positively moderates the relationship between preprint culture and research reproducibility, and scientificity and rigor of academic research are affected by the culture of different disciplines. The conclusions of this study are of great significance for academia to rethink the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge in the digital era, and to promote the construction of an open and transparent scientific research evaluation system.
In contrast to other studies, our paper primarily presents three theoretical contributions: (1) By integrating the culture of preprints into the framework of research reproducibility, it enriches the theoretical perspective of research reproducibility. Conventional research reproducibility studies predominantly focus on statistical methods and research designs. However, this study investigates the influence of emerging academic communication modalities on research reproducibility, furnishing empirical support and disclosing the specific mechanisms through which the preprint culture enhances research reproducibility by elevating the levels of research openness and research social capital. (2) By combining the culture of preprints with the theories of research reproducibility, open science, and social capital, it expands the theoretical depth and breadth of preprint culture research. Existing studies typically concentrate on the impact of preprints on the efficiency and efficacy of scientific dissemination. Nevertheless, this study systematically explores the role of the preprint culture in enhancing the quality of research. Through constructing and validating a theoretical model of the impact of the preprint culture on research reproducibility, this study offers theoretical support for future policy design. (3) By integrating the theoretical viewpoints of open science and research social capital, it achieves an innovative integration of theories in scientific management. It not only verifies the practical significance of the open science concept and initiatives in enhancing research reproducibility but also extends the theory of knowledge networks and applies it to the studies of preprints and research reproducibility. This theoretical integration provides a more comprehensive perspective for comprehending the production of knowledge and quality control in the modern scientific ecosystem.In addition to the theoretical contributions mentioned above, this paper also provides practical implications, including strengthening the construction and management of preprint platforms, reforming scientific research culture and systems, and implementing discipline-specific strategies.
As a strategic tool to achieving high-quality economic development, innovation policy plays an important role in integrating technological innovation resources, leading the innovative allocation of production factors, and accelerating the formation of new quality productive forces. Innovation policy has a direct effect in reallocation and utilization of innovative production factors, while in the meantime cities are gathering places for innovative factors. Therefore, it is essentially important to examine the impact of innovation policy on urban total factor productivity from the perspective of formation of urban new quality productivity.
Since 2008, under the strategy of Innovative Country Building Plan in China, Shenzhen was approved to be the first innovative city pilot. After that, the city government paid more attention in technological and industrial innovation as well as received huge resources investment from central government. The huge success of Shenzhen has led the central government to decide to continue diffusing this pilot policy in other cities. By the end of 2023, a total of 103 cities have become pilot cities, and have been included in the monitoring and evaluation of urban innovation capabilities by central government. However, there is little empirical literature to systematically study whether this policy can promote the growth of urban total factor productivity, its mechanism of action, and whether there are regional differences.
Regarding the national innovative city pilot policy as a quasi-experiment, the paper evaluates the impact of innovative policies represented by the construction of innovative city pilot policy on the growth of urban total factor productivity. Research has found that pilot policies can promote the formation of urban new quality productive forces in with a significant increase in total factor productivity as the core. Mechanism analysis shows that an increase in the proportion of government research and design expenditure, economic agglomeration, and improvement of the business environment are important mechanisms for pilot policies to promote the development of new quality productive forces in cities. Heterogeneity analysis shows that pilot policies have a stronger promoting effect on the new quality productive forces in middle and northern cities, but it turns out that the effect on improving the total factor productive forces in western cities is not significant. This indicates that pilot policies are conducive to promoting economic convergence between the north and south, but it still has a long way to go as to boosting developing in western cities and coordinating and narrowing the development of East-Middle-West gap.
This paper evaluates the impact of innovation policies on the growth rate of urban total factor productivity, and makes new knowledge contributions to the generation of new quality productive forces theory under the framework of innovation economics and high-quality development. Besides, the government expenditure effect, economic agglomeration effect, and high-tech enterprise innovation effect that promote the formation of urban new quality productivity, as well as the improvement of the business environment, are included in a common analytical framework to clarify the mechanism by which the construction of innovative cities drives the formation of urban new quality productive forces. In conclusion, this paper not only deepens the policy effect evaluation of innovative cities, but also systematically reveals the meso mechanism of innovation policies promoting the development of new quality productivity, providing empirical evidence support for the expansion of new quality productive forces theory under the framework of innovation economics and high-quality development.
The innovation efficiency of university research supports high-level scientific and technological development, and promotes the integrated development of education, science and technology, and talents. After measuring the innovation efficiency of university research using the super-efficient DEA-Malmquist method, the study evaluates the impact of China's higher education policy of merit-based support on the innovation efficiency of university research using the double-difference method in a quasi-natural experiment on the “Double First-Class” initiative. The study shows that the higher education meritocracy policy significantly improves innovation efficiency and passes a series of robustness tests. The reallocation of innovation resources and the spatial spillover effect of economies of scale are the important mechanisms, and the supported universities can improve the mismatch of innovation resources and the level of human capital. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the higher education meritocracy policy will be more and more prominent if we can break down the institutional barriers and local protectionism. Even in regions that have not crossed the "middle-income trap" in terms of economic development or in regions with net population outflows, the integration of resources can still be promoted through merit-based higher education policies. In the future, the scientific research and innovation function of high-level institutions of higher education should be given full play to enhance the innovation efficiency of scientific research.
The strategic allocation of patents through inter-enterprise transactions is crucial for fostering and advancing new quality productive forces. The Chinese Standardization Comprehensive Reform Pilot policy is an important initiative promoting the interaction between standards and technology innovation. Using the construction plan of Chinese Standardization Comprehensive Reform Pilot promulgated by the provincial government as a quasi-experiment, this paper examines the impact of standardization on enterprise patent transactions by using a Staggered DID model, revealing the role of standardization in the allocation of patents at the micro level. The findings show that standardization construction significantly promotes enterprise patent transaction by reducing institutional transaction costs and enhancing enterprises' focus on innovation. Additionaly, the study finds that standardization construction can further improve innovation quality and financial performance following the promotion of corporate patent transactions, although it does not affect corporate market power. This paper quantitatively evaluates the patent allocation effect of standardization construction, offering valuable insights for enhancing the effectiveness of standardization governance and encouraging enterprises to reallocate patents.
In today's rapidly changing market environment, entrepreneurial firms must continuously iterate on their opportunities to respond effectively. However, not all entrepreneurial firms can agilely make these iterations, making it essential to explore how to achieve successful entrepreneurial opportunity iteration. Successful entrepreneurs, as role models, are believed to offer beneficial reference effects for observers, helping them refine and upgrade their entrepreneurial opportunities. Yet, the potential comparative effects of these role models have often been overlooked. Moreover, upward comparisons with successful entrepreneurs can serve as a unique type of pressure source, potentially triggering both challenge and hindrance evaluations among entrepreneurs. These evaluations can influence decisions and actions related to entrepreneurial opportunities in distinct ways. Thus, it is crucial to investigate the mechanisms through which upward comparison affects opportunity iteration, grounded in cognitive appraisal theory of stress.
Our study employs a social comparison perspective, based on cognitive appraisal theory of stress, considering two response modes—problem-focused and emotion-focused—entrepreneurs may adopt when faced with upward entrepreneurial comparisons. The model incorporates imitation learning and entrepreneurial anxiety to examine the differential impacts of upward entrepreneurial comparison on entrepreneurial opportunity iteration under contexts of general challenge and hindrance pressure appraisal.
To gather data, researchers conducted a survey utilizing both online and offline methods, collecting valid responses from 248 new ventures at three different time points. The analysis revealed two key findings: (1) When entrepreneurs hold a high general challenge appraisal of upward entrepreneurial comparisons, these comparisons enhance imitation learning, thereby accelerating entrepreneurial opportunity iteration; (2) Conversely, when entrepreneurs maintain a high general hindrance appraisal of upward entrepreneurial comparisons, these comparisons increase entrepreneurial anxiety, which inhibits opportunity entrepreneurial iteration.
This study contributes to the theoretical landscape in several ways. First, it integrates a social comparison perspective into entrepreneurship research, investigating the effects of upward entrepreneurial comparisons on entrepreneurial opportunity iteration. This not only expands the application of social comparison theory but also enriches the understanding of the antecedents of entrepreneurial opportunity iteration. Second, it constructs mediating pathways of imitation learning and entrepreneurial anxiety based on cognitive appraisal theory of stress, illustrating how upward entrepreneurial comparisons influence entrepreneurial opportunity iteration from both problem-focused and emotional-focused perspectives. This provides a concrete micro-level explanation for the process of entrepreneurial opportunity iteration while broadening the contexts in which cognitive appraisal theory of stress can be applied. Lastly, the research elucidates the different processes through which upward entrepreneurial comparisons can either facilitate or inhibit entrepreneurial opportunity iteration, depending on whether entrepreneurs adopt challenge or hindrance evaluations of upward entrepreneurial comparisons. This insight helps reconcile existing discrepancies in the literature regarding the influence of successful entrepreneurs on observers.
The practical implications of this study offer a conceptual framework for new ventures to iterate their entrepreneurial opportunities through a social comparison lens. According to the findings, entrepreneurs who perceive upward entrepreneurial comparisons as a challenge appraisal should actively engage with successful entrepreneurs to learn from their experiences and enhance their own opportunity iterations. Conversely, those with a hindrance appraisal should limit comparisons with successful entrepreneurs. Additionally, entrepreneurs are encouraged to participate in imitation learning while consciously monitoring and regulating their anxiety levels. Furthermore, entrepreneurial incubation institutions and regional management committees should provide resources and training to bolster entrepreneurs' confidence and efficacy, thereby fostering a challenge-oriented mindset in response to upward comparisons.
Since the initiation of the reform and opening-up policy, China has pursued a development strategy characterized by following the lead of advanced economies. This approach has resulted in China's long-term positioning at the lower end of the global value chain, which is dominated by developed countries. Consequently, China has faced significant challenges in achieving upward mobility within the value chain. Currently, many of China's industries are at a critical juncture of development and transformation, among these, the new energy vehicle industry stands out as the most dynamic sector, demonstrating considerable potential for China to achieve "Changing Lanes and Overtaking" development. Therefore, grasping the critical window period for "Changing Lanes and Overtaking" and ly identifying the extent of its realization are of vital importance for China to break through the path dependency of core technologies in traditional industries and to achieve high-quality development. Based on the INNOJOY patent database, this study selects two mainstream technological trajectories within the automotive industry as research objects: the technological trajectory of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles and that of lithium battery vehicles. A comprehensive three-dimensional analytical model, incorporating the dimensions of technology, economy, and law, along with its corresponding indicator system, is constructed to conduct a multidimensional analysis of the patent information related to these technological trajectories. The entropy weight method is employed to assign weights to each indicator, reflecting their relative importance. Subsequently, the TOPSIS method is utilized to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the value of each patent. This process results in the formation of a patent quality index for each country, which is then applied to compare the patent competitive advantages among different nations. The findings reveal that in the technological trajectory of traditional ICE vehicles, the gap between China and countries with high-quality ICE vehicle patents remains substantial. This gap is evident from multiple perspectives, including the overall and newly added key core patents, as well as from the aspects of total and valid patents. As a result, it appears unlikely that China will be able to achieve technological catch-up in the short term. In contrast, in the technological trajectory of lithium battery vehicles, China ranks third in the comparison of all key core patents, trailing only the United States and Japan. When considering the total index of patent quality for valid key core patents, China has surpassed Japan and now ranks second as of July 2024, notably, the annual increment of valid key core patents has consistently ranked second from 2012 to 2017. Furthermore, from the perspective of the patent quality index across the dimensions of technology, economy, and law, China consistently ranks in the top three, and the annual increment of valid key core patents has maintained a second-place position for 5-9 consecutive years from 2012 to 2017. These results indicate that China has preliminarily achieved "Changing Lanes and Overtaking" in the automotive industry. This study provides empirical evidence and reference for latecomer countries and their latecomer industries regarding the feasibility of "Changing Lanes and Overtaking" and potential future development directions.
State Key Laboratories (SKLs) include labs affiliated with universities and research institutes (hereinafter called ‘Academic State Key Laboratories’, ASKLs), and labs affiliated with enterprises (hereinafter called ‘Enterprise State Key Laboratories’, ESKLs). SKLs are important drivers of China’s scientific and technological innovation. This study investigates the relationship between the number of “top design” projects and “free exploration” projects undertaken by SKLs and their impact on the probability of achieving scientific breakthroughs. Additionally, it examines the moderating effects of the structure of disciplinary knowledge networks on this relationship. The results of this study provide a comprehensive understanding of how project types and organizational characteristics simultaneously influence scientific breakthroughs.
The empirical analysis was based on a dataset that came from annual laboratory reports and publication data from 185 SKLs spanning from 2010 to 2022. The dataset included 108 ASKLs and 77 ESKLs. The publication data was retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection, which included a total of 87,329 papers published by these SKLs, including 8,047 highly cited papers. The establishment of disciplinary knowledge networks was based on the co-occurrence relationships among the disciplines indicated by SKL publications. Ucinet software was used to create a dynamic network with a rolling three-year window, resulting in 1,499 disciplinary knowledge networks. Based on the above, we obtained a non-balanced panel dataset covering the years 2010 to 2022.
Our findings revealed that the number of “top design” projects was positively correlated with the probability of achieving research breakthroughs. In contrast, the number of “free exploration” projects had no statistically significant effect on breakthrough probabilities. This suggests that SKLs have more pronounced advantages in scientific research in the context of “top design” projects. Furthermore, the relationship between the number of “top design” projects and their breakthrough probabilities was moderated by two characteristics of disciplinary knowledge networks: betweenness centralization and cluster coefficient. These insights highlight that SKLs with strong interdisciplinary research backgrounds and deep engagement in specific fields are better able to leverage their “top design” projects to achieve scientific advancements. However, the influence of disciplinary knowledge networks on the breakthrough probability of “free exploration” projects is significant only for ASKLs, while no such effect is observed for ESKLs. This indicates that ESKLs' innovative capacities, particularly for “free exploration” projects, may rely more on the innovative capabilities of individual researchers than on their existing knowledge base.
The academic contributions of this study include: First, it is the first time that the influence of the number of "top design" projects and "free exploration" projects on the probability of scientific research breakthroughs has been empirically demonstrated, which enhances the understanding of the advantages of national scientific research breakthroughs. Second, it provides the first empirical evidence that scientific research breakthroughs depend not only on the knowledge base but also on the types of research projects. Third, it shows that the contribution of the knowledge base to scientific breakthroughs is related to the type of laboratories. For "free exploration" projects, the moderating effect of the disciplinary knowledge network exists only for ASKLs, not for ESKLs. This means that it is difficult for Chinese enterprises to improve the probability of "free exploration" scientific research breakthroughs by relying solely on their own knowledge base.
The practical suggestions of this study include the following: First, the evaluation of "top design" science and technology projects should consider the characteristics of the applicant's disciplinary knowledge network (such as betweenness centrality and clustering coefficient), and focus on its disciplinary accumulation and cross-disciplinary application experience. Second, labs with rich disciplinary knowledge bases should be encouraged to apply for "free exploration" projects, but the names of the labs should be anonymized to avoid potential biases from reviewers based on lab prestige. Meanwhile, the rules of the project application process should allow applicants to fully present their high-quality academic achievements. Third, national innovation strategies should emphasize the cultivation of a conducive knowledge environment, facilitate the formation of disciplinary knowledge networks, and promote interdisciplinary research through flexible talent policies and cross-disciplinary project funding.
Young faculty members constitute a vital component of China's burgeoning scientific and technological talent pool. Supporting their growth and enhancing their job satisfaction are paramount among the key tasks in current university talent development strategies. Existing research primarily focuses on examining the significant impact of university appraisal and hiring systems, job characteristics, psychological traits, and other factors on the job satisfaction of young faculty members, adopting perspectives from both the macro-level organizational system and micro-level individual psychology. However, research from a meso-level social network perspective remains notably absent. Young faculty members are embedded within academic communities, and comprehensively constructing and optimizing their academic social networks may serve as an effective path to achieving success and enhancing job satisfaction in the face of dual pressures from limited resources and intense competition. Based on survey data from young faculty members in western China, this paper empirically examines the characteristics of their academic networks and their impact on job satisfaction from a social network perspective.
Our findings reveal three main types of academic networks among Chinese young faculty members: the endogenous type, dominated by internal workplace relationships; the multi-source type, which combines both internal and external workplace relationships; and the scarce type, which lacks support sources. Notably, the proportions of these three types of networks are similar. Young faculty members with multi-source or endogenous networks exhibit higher job satisfaction than those with scarce networks. However, the mechanisms through which these two types of networks enhance job satisfaction differ. Multi-source networks influence job satisfaction through dual pathways of motivation excitation and stress buffering, whereas endogenous networks operate solely through the motivation excitation pathway. Additionally, multi-source networks are more effective in reducing work stress among faculty from non-985 universities, those with intermediate professional titles, and female teachers, thereby further enhancing their job satisfaction.
Our findings also offer valuable policy implications for the construction of academic networks and the enhancement of work well-being among young faculty members. Firstly, it is recommended that young faculty members adopt an action strategy of "interactive engagement with superiors and peers, and strengthening ties with various internal and external workplace relationships" to optimize their network structure. Specifically, they should strengthen daily communication with leaders and colleagues on one hand, and actively expand their academic exchange circles by establishing academic interactions with people from all sectors of society through industry-university-research cooperation projects, professional conferences, and other means on the other. Secondly, university administrators should gather forces from multiple parties, coordinate, and design an academic network system conducive to the development of young teachers, accurately matching corresponding resources to meet the prominent development needs of different types of young faculty members.
