The integration of innovation chains and industrial chains in emerging industries is essential for aligning technological and industrial innovation. Digital platforms can effectively streamline this integration by serving as connectors and orchestrators of resources. Drawing on resource orchestration theory, this study examines the mechanisms of dual-chain integration in emerging industries empowered by the Qin Chuangyuan digital platform, with empirical cases from the hydrogen energy, intelligent connected vehicles, photonics, and new materials sectors. The findings reveal that: (1) dual-chain integration evolves toward technology breakthrough-oriented, industry cultivation-oriented, or chain-ecosystem integration-oriented pathways, shaped by each industry’s distinct resource endowments and contextual conditions; (2) under different integration pathways, digital platforms orchestrate resources through organizational, structural, and field-level empowerment, thereby generating three types of integration capabilities—linkage, interaction, and coordination; and (3) these capabilities lead to three integration patterns: single-point linkage, full-chain transformation, and chain-ecosystem integration. This study provides theoretical insights and decision-making implications for nurturing emerging industries, deepening dual-chain integration, and promoting sustainable development.

Collaborative R&D by agribusinesses to trigger knowledge recombination creation, thereby enhancing innovative entrepre- neurial opportunities, is a complex systems management issue. Accordingly, this study constructs a “motivation-capability-trigger” element framework for collaborative R&D in agribusinesses based on Fogg’s Behavior Model. Furthermore, drawing on absorptive capacity theory and incorporating a configurational perspective and a complex mediation model, it analyzes how different elements of collaborative R&D jointly configure to drive knowledge recombination creation within agribusiness. This study finds that high knowledge recombination creation can be achieved through three types of collaborative R&D configurations: orientation-driven, market-driven, and institution-driven. These configurations not only directly facilitate the realization of innovative entrepreneurial opportunities but also indirectly promote such realization through knowledge recombination creation; that is, knowledge recombination creation plays a complex mediating role between the three configurations and the realization of innovative entrepreneurial opportunities. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications for how agribusinesses can promote the realization of innovative entrepreneurial opportunities through collaborative R&D strategies.

As a minority and marginalized group long overlooked in mainstream entrepreneurship research, underdog entrepreneurs face distinctive and often difficult-to-change structural challenges in their entrepreneurial journey, that arise from their persistent disadvantaged positions. Investigating the entrepreneurial underdog status is not only crucial for providing targeted support to this group but also offers new theoretical perspectives for advancing inclusive and context-sensitive entrepreneurship research. Despite growing academic interest, the conceptualization and measurement of entrepreneurial underdog status remain underdeveloped, with most existing studies relying on fragmented theoretical discussions or secondary data proxies. To address this gap, this study adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative inquiry based on grounded theory with quantitative validation across three rounds of surveys, to systematically explore the content, structure, and predictive validity of entrepreneurial underdog status.

Drawing on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 27 representative underdog entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds across China, including individuals with disabilities, migrant workers, female entrepreneurs, and veterans, the study identifies four core categories of challenges that collectively define entrepreneurial underdog status: resource endowment deficits, physiological constraints, cognitive limitations, and external environmental barriers. Through open, axial, and selective coding procedures, these dimensions are further refined into a coherent theoretical framework. An initial 22-item scale was developed and subsequently administered to two independent samples (N?=191; N?=425). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yield a robust four-factor, 14-item scale with satisfactory internal consistency, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. The four dimensions are respectively conforming to the classical theoretical perspectives, such as resource-based view, human capital theory, social cognition theory, and institutional theory, thereby ensuring the conceptual grounding of the measurement tool.

To further evaluate criterion-related validity, the study draws on self-regulation theory and examines the nonlinear relationship between entrepreneurial underdog status and entrepreneurial exit intention using two-wave data from 317 entrepreneurs. Results reveal a significant U-shaped relationship: at low levels of underdog status, individuals tend to adopt approach-oriented self-regulation strategies, such as persistence and resilience, which reduce exit intentions; at high levels, however, defensive mechanisms dominate, leading to increased withdrawal intentions. This curvilinear pattern remains robust after controlling for demographic characteristics, firm characteristics, and fear of failure. Further dimensional analyses show that the U-shaped effect is primarily driven by resource endowment and cognitive challenges, whereas physiological constraints and external environmental barriers exhibit linear positive effects on exit intentions, reflecting their distinct proximal versus distal roles in the entrepreneurial process.

Taken together, this study makes three key contributions. First, it clarifies the multidimensional structure of entrepreneurial underdog status, providing a systematic analytical framework for future theoretical development. Second, it develops and validates a reliable measurement scale, thereby enabling empirical research to move beyond conceptual discussions. Third, it uncovers a nuanced U-shaped mechanism linking entrepreneurial underdog status to exit intentions, challenging conventional linear assumptions and extending the application of self-regulation theory in entrepreneurship research. Practically, the findings offer actionable insights for underdog entrepreneurs to reframe their disadvantages and for policymakers to design targeted, inclusive support systems. The study also acknowledges limitations regarding self-reported data, cultural specificity, and cross-sectional design, while outlining promising directions for future research, including dynamic, cross-cultural, and longitudinal investigations.

The paradigm of enterprise technological innovation is undergoing a significant transition from a traditional "value chain" framework to a more complex, multi-stakeholder "value network". This transition is driven by the rise of global trade protectionism, accelerated by the urgency for domestic technological self-sufficiency, particularly in critical sectors like the semiconductor industry, where "chokepoint" technologies pose severe national security and economic stability risks. The semiconductor industry’s innovation ecosystem is shifting toward dense regional networks, demanding collaborative and non-linear approaches to value creation, contrasting sharply with the sequential and linear nature of the traditional value chain model. This paradigm shift exposes enterprises to new challenges, including cognitive limitations, technological uncertainty, high coordination costs, and capability obsolescence, which exacerbate the risk of falling into the "valleys of death" across the innovation lifecycle. These valleys manifest as critical breaks in the network nodes from basic research through application development to industrialization and scaling.

This study systematically investigates how enterprises can effectively navigate these challenges, focusing on the six distinct types of innovation valleys of death that emerge within this value network context. Adopting the "Awareness-Motivation-Capability" (AMC) perspective, which is highly suited for analyzing enterprise responses to external changes and strategic challenges, we conduct a multi-case study on eight semiconductor subsidiaries of the Changguang Group, an enterprise group integral to China's high-tech development. We track their archival records, patent portfolios, and financial data between 2014 and 2024 to provide robust longitudinal evidence.

Our empirical findings reveal two distinct strategic paths for overcoming innovation valleys, contingent on the type of core technology being pursued.

First, for "chokepoint" technologies (those significantly lagging behind international leaders and facing external restrictions), the most effective strategy follows the path of "social-expectation-based awareness—developing intrinsic motivation—cultivating core capabilities". Social expectation awareness, driven by comparison to industry benchmarks, compels the enterprise to adopt a differentiation strategy to break free from "chain"-based path dependency. Intrinsic motivation, rooted in a sense of mission and long-term commitment, facilitates continuous learning and the tacit knowledge accumulation necessary to overcome network monopolies and master crucial know-how. Finally, cultivating core capabilities allows the firm to achieve rapid product transformation, scale production efficiently, and realize sufficient network benefits, thereby securing the autonomous control and industrialization of critical core technologies.

Second, for "game-changer" technologies (asymmetric technologies originating from internal, primary innovation that are difficult to imitate), the successful approach is "self-expectation-based awareness—developing extrinsic motivation—cultivating dynamic capabilities". Self-expectation awareness, based on the enterprise’s past performance, provides a stable internal anchor for sustained investment in basic research, mitigating the risk of divergent goals among multiple stakeholders (such as government, research institutes, and market-driven firms). Extrinsic motivation, often triggered by external pressures (e.g., policy support, competitive attacks), facilitates the coordination of diverse actors and the infusion of external resources, thereby resolving the challenges of adoption network delays in the transition from application to product. Crucially, dynamic capabilities (sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring) enable the enterprise to quickly adapt to market changes, integrate resources, and reconstruct business models, effectively addressing diffusion network delays and ensuring the rapid dissemination of asymmetric technologies and successful business model innovation.

This study contributes to the literature on innovation management by extending the AMC framework into the context of innovation valleys of death in value networks and providing a differentiated strategic response mechanism for "chokepoint" and "game-changer" technologies. Practically, the findings offer vital guidance for enterprises in critical industries to proactively respond to paradigm shifts, successfully commercialize R&D outcomes, and enhance national competitiveness.

Since its introduction, the theory of National Innovation System (NIS) has become an important theoretical basis for the Chinese government to formulate innovation policies, and has had a wide impact on China's scientific and technological economic development. However, NIS theory typically treats government as an actor alongside firms and universities. This perspective is insufficient for explaining the coordinating and organizational functions that the Chinese government has played in building the NIS. To address this limitation, this article argues that the Chinese government occupies two structural positions within the NIS. First, as architectural role (Type I), it operates outside the system to design rules and define the division of responsibilities. Second, as interventionist role (Type II), it enters the system to mobilize resources and correct operational deficiencies. By examining five stages in the development of China’s NIS, this study finds that the relative importance of these two roles has shifted dynamically in response to changing national objectives, and the two roles have evolved into a governance pattern characterized by a clear distinction between external design and internal intervention. Based on this experience, the article offers three contributions to the NIS literature. First, the role of government should transcend its conventional positioning as merely an institutional provider; second, the government’s role is closely intertwined with national objectives; and third, the governance of latecomer NIS requires a stronger emphasis on dynamic adaptability.

In the context of fiscal constraints faced by local governments, it is an imperative issue to improve the allocation of science and technology (S&T) expenditure and enhance the efficiency of regional innovation systems. Research and development activities can be divided into basic research, applied research, and experimental development. Based on the resource-based view, extant studies suggest that the structure of local S&T expenditure as a critical resource endowment, directly shapes innovation performance. Beyond the resource-based view, local governments must weigh central mandates and peer competition—rather than efficiency alone—when setting S&T budgets, owing to multidimensional performance metrics.

Extant literature shows that local governments exhibit two distinctive traits when allocating S&T expenditure under the institutional pressure. First, local government complies the S&T strategies of central government. Within China’s centralized political system, subnational governments consistently align their fiscal priorities with those of the central government. When a national S&T initiative is announced, local governments rapidly mobilize resources to establish similar projects—such as provincial-level science parks, key laboratories, and engineering research centers—that closely reflect the central policy blueprint. Second, there is a convergence in S&T expenditure across local governments. As fiscal S&T expenditure has become a key performance metric in governmental evaluation systems, competition among local governments in the S&T domain has significantly intensified. In pursuit of competition advantage, local officials routinely benchmark their S&T expenditures against peer regions and recalibrate their budgetary allocations in response. This strategic behavior results in a noticeable homogenization of S&T funding patterns across local governments.

Although existing studies indicate that local governments align their fiscal S&T expenditures with both central and peer governments, few studies have examined the impact of such conformity on regional innovation performance. Furthermore, while prior research has mainly examined convergence in the scale of S&T expenditure, little attention has been given to structural conformity in fiscal S&T expenditure. Under the current fiscal constraints, how local governments choose the structure of S&T expenditures to improve regional innovation performance is a critical issue.Based on organizational legitimacy theory, this study examines the relationship between compliance, convergence of local government of S&T expenditure structure and regional innovation, as well as the moderating role of local official turnover. Using an unbalanced panel dataset from 31 provinces (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) from 2013 to 2022, we employ a fixed-effects ordinary least squares (OLS) model.

The findings reveal that compliance with central government in fiscal S&T expenditure structure is positively associated with regional innovation. That is, when local governments align their S&T expenditure structure with that of the central government, they gain access to central S&T resources and policy support, thereby fostering regional innovation. Conversely, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between convergence with peer governments and regional innovation. The moderate level of conformity in S&T expenditure structure among local governments helps accumulate R&D resources and facilitates innovation; however, beyond a certain threshold, the costs of homogenization outweigh the legitimacy benefits, ultimately hindering regional innovation. Furthermore, the local official turnover weakens the positive relationship between compliance and regional innovation but does not significantly affect the relationship between convergence and regional innovation.

Against the backdrop of global economic integration and rapid technological advancement, small and medium-sized industrial enterprises (SMEIs) have emerged as a crucial force in the national economy, with technological innovation serving as the core driving force for their development. Exploring the driving effects between the two is of great significance for policy formulation and enterprise development. This study constructs an indicator system for evaluating the technological innovation and development level of SMEIs. It employs classical cycle theory and the growth rate cycle composite index to quantitatively assess their capabilities and levels, and utilizes impulse response function analysis and variance decomposition to dissect the driving mechanisms. The findings are as follows: (1) In the classical cycle, both the technological innovation input and output indices exhibit an overall upward trend, with the output index growing at a faster pace. After a brief decline in the enterprise scale index from 2017 to 2018, growth resumed due to policy support. (2) The growth rate cycle reveals that there is a lag effect in the fluctuations of the growth rate cycle indices for input and output. The fluctuation trends of enterprise scale and innovation capability are consistent, but the scale fluctuations are more pronounced. (3) Impulse response analysis indicates that the initial impact of technological innovation input is moderate. An initial increase in the output index leads to a temporary fluctuation in enterprise development followed by an upward trend and can promote the formation of a virtuous cycle in the input index. (4) Variance decomposition shows that both the input and output indices have a four-period lag effect on enterprise development. The variance contribution rate of the output index (approximately 28%) is higher than that of the input index (6%), indicating a more significant driving role of output. Both governments and enterprises should attach great importance to technological innovation. While increasing investment, they should strengthen the monitoring of technological achievement transformation, promote technological innovation output, and drive the steady development of SMEIs.

Manufacturing single champion firms (MSCFs), as industrial “bellwethers,” are pivotal in fostering the virtuous development of upstream and downstream industrial chains through their coopetition behaviors. An increasing number of MSCFs are shifting from the traditional “zero-sum game” competitive mindset to a “positive-sum game” coopetition mindset. However, translating this coopetition mindset into sustained practice remains challenging. A key difficulty lies in identifying and sequencing the driving factors of coopetition within differentiated scenarios. Given the limited prior research on this issue, it is of significant theoretical and practical value to explore the key drivers and their action paths for MSCFs’ coopetition behaviors across different scenarios, using simulation methods to uncover the underlying logic of how these driving factors transform as scenarios change.

This study draws on 7931 unbalanced panel observations from 103 MSCFs spanning the years 2017 to 2024. Employing bibliometric analysis and keyword co-occurrence networks, we identify the driving factors of coopetition behaviors and construct a 2×2 “technology-market” scenario matrix. Using the entropy weight method and DEMATEL-NK techniques, we systematically examine scenario-specific driving factors and their implementation paths. The findings reveal that: (1) Innovation Advantage Empowerment (IAE), Strategic Orientation Change (SOC), Network Relationship Construction (NRC), Organizational Risk Control (ORC), and Key Resources Development (KRD) constitute the fundamental drivers of coopetition behaviors in MSCFs. (2) Through 100000 simulations conducted in MATLAB 2016b across four scenarios, the realization paths for coopetition behaviors are identified based on the highest frequency of element occurrence. The paths vary by scenario: under the conservative-maintenance scenario, the path is ORC→IAE→SOC; under the technology-driven scenario, it is NRC→SOC→IAE→KRD; under the market-driven scenario, it is NRC→SOC→ORC; and under the radical synergy scenario, it is NRC→ORC→IAE→SOC. Case analyses further validate these differentiated paths. (3) The study identifies two transition logics for key driving factors when scenarios change: SOC acts as a “transformation hub” when shifting from a conservative-maintenance scenario to an adjacent (market- or technology-driven) scenario, while ORC serves as the “transformation hub” in the transition from a market-driven to a radical synergy scenario.

The study contributes to coopetition theory and offers practical guidance for MSCFs to effectively prioritize and coordinate key drivers in sustaining coopetition relationships. Theoretically, by integrating a randomly generated fitness landscape with functional computation, this approach mitigates limitations inherent in the traditional NK model, enhancing the objectivity and robustness of the results. The multi-method research design enriches methodological diversity in coopetition research and expands the conceptual framework for understanding how MSCFs’ coopetition drivers adapt to differentiated scenarios. Practically, managers should activate key driving factors and optimize their allocation sequence according to the specific scenario in which the firm operates. Moreover, MSCFs need to dynamically adjust to scenario changes, reallocating resources promptly and transitioning to new implementation paths to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of coopetition. From a policy perspective, targeted support should be provided to facilitate coopetition in different scenarios. Governments should also focus on establishing a fair, open, and institutionally supportive environment that encourages coopetition, helping MSCFs adapt key drivers in response to scenario shifts and thereby promoting the sustainability of coopetition relationships.

The new wave of technological revolution is driving a paradigm shift in scientific research toward organized research models. The key to translating organized research from theoretical exploration to practical efficacy lies in the allocation and synergy of innovation elements. The Regional Innovation and Development Joint Fund as a typical practice of scientific funds under organized research, serves as an important benchmark for evaluating the transition from theoretical exploration to practical application in organized research. This study takes the Shandong Regional Joint Fund as an example and uses Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to investigate how different configurations of factors influence project effectiveness from a configurational perspective. The study aims to explore how scientific funds drive the improvement of their effectiveness through the configuration matching of multiple elements under organized scientific research. We try to open the 'black box' of improving the efficiency of organized scientific research. The study finds that: (1) The improvement of scientific fund efficiency depends on the coordinated matching of multiple elements, and a single element does not constitute a necessary condition for high efficiency. We found that among elements such as the project leader's (PI) ability, PI age, team heterogeneity, team collaboration, disciplinary foundation, and institutional reputation cannot individually serve as necessary conditions for the high efficiency of regional joint funds. The effective way to improve the efficiency of scientific funds is the complex combination of multiple conditions. (2) Disciplinary foundation is a key factor affecting project effectiveness and play a rigid supporting role. With the advancement of Double First-Class Initiative in China, first-class disciplines have strengthened their core position in resource aggregation and innovation ecosystems. The finding that disciplinary foundation serves as a critical support for project effectiveness not only empirically validates the "Matthew Effect" in scientific research but also demonstrates the rationality of the Double First-Class Initiative in China being discipline-based from the perspective of performance. (3) There are multiple configurational pathways to enhance the effectiveness of regional joint scientific funds: Resource-driven young leader type, Discipline-supported team growth type, Government-Industry-academic collaboration type. Among these, the Resource-driven young leader type is the most common. We also found that there is a certain substitution effect between different elements. For example, under a strong discipline, elastic factors such as PI capabilities, team collaboration, and institutional reputation can be substituted through combination and replacement. This finding provides an important basis for the allocation of scientific research resources. These elements can be reconfigured through combinatorial optimization to enhance project efficacy. This paper breaks through the limitations of traditional single-factor analysis of project efficiency. It reveals the impact of the combination and matching of scientific research elements in organized scientific research from a configurational perspective, providing a new paradigm for scientific research management under the complex system perspective. The conclusion that "disciplinary foundation is a rigid support for enhancing efficiency, and elastic elements exhibit conditional substitution effects" demonstrates that organized scientific research is the result of the synergistic matching between rigid resource support and elastic elements. This not only provides an important basis for optimizing the allocation of scientific research resources in practice, but also solves the "paradigm code" of organized scientific research from theoretical exploration to practical verification.

The digital economy has become a core area of strategic competition between the United States and China. In recent years, the United States has continuously intensified its strategic deployment in digital competition with China, escalating related competitive tactics and leveraging its influence to exert pressure on third countries and regions, attempting to comprehensively contain Chinese companies globally and thereby weaken their competitiveness in the international market. However, even under such immense external pressure, Chinese companies have consistently gained widespread recognition in overseas markets due to their inherent strengths and unique characteristics. This resilience of Chinese companies is largely due to their ability to engage in disruptive innovation. This article systematically reviews the theory of disruptive innovation. Two representative companies, Huawei and Alibaba, are selected as case studies for in-depth research. This article traces the growth journeys of these two companies from marginalized small enterprises to global technology leaders, analyzing the strategies and driving factors that shaped their disruptive innovation capabilities during this development process. This paper further discusses how Huawei and Alibaba leveraged the unique advantages of disruptive innovation to effectively resist Western isolation and containment in Southeast Asia, earning the trust and support of local markets and securing market positions in smart cities and 5G communications, respectively, that are difficult for Western companies to replace. This paper hopes to provide valuable theoretical guidance and practical insights, helping Chinese companies achieve steady growth amidst increasingly severe suppression and containment, and a complex and volatile international competitive environment.