技术创新与中小企业雇佣需求——基于员工技能结构的再审视

The effect of innovation on employment in SMEs: A review based on the skill structure of employees

创新是经济持续增长的动力,企业雇佣需求是维护社会稳定的基石.本研究结合中国经济发展转型的背景,在区分产品创新与工艺创新的基础上,通过数理模型推导,分离出技术创新对中小制造业企业雇佣增长影响的直接途径与间接途径,并利用2012年世界银行对中国中小企业运营环境的调查数据,实证考察了中小企业技术创新对其雇佣增长的影响.研究结果表明,技术创新不仅会通过工艺创新的"价格效应"与"生产率效应"以及产品创新的"市场效应"与"替代效应"四种直接途径影响中小企业雇佣增长,还会通过"员工技能结构高级化"的间接途径影响中小企业雇佣增长.与国外研究不同的是,对中国中小制造业企业而言,工艺创新的"生产率效应"与产品创新的"替代效应"是阻碍其雇佣增长的主要途径;与国内研究不同的是,"员工技能结构高级化"是技术创新促进中国中小企业雇佣增长的重要途径.进一步研究发现,技术创新对中低技术制造业企业雇佣增长的影响更为敏感.本研究从微观层面证实了技能偏向性技术进步对中国中小企业雇佣需求的重大影响,同时也为缓解中国"就业难"与"招工难"的结构性问题提供了政策依据.

Innovation is the driving force for sustainable economic growth. The employment of enterprises is the cornerstone of maintaining social stability. Under the background of Chinese economic development and transformation, the paper distinguishes product innovation from process innovation, and uses a mathematical model to separate the mechanisms of both direct and indirect effects of innovation on employment growth in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. By using the World Bank’s survey data, which focus on the operating environment of small and medium-sized enterprises in China, this study empirically examines the impact of SMEs' technological innovation on their employment growth. The results indicate that technological innovation will not only affect the employment growth of SMEs through four direct ways--which are referred to as “price effect” and “productivity effect” of process innovation and “market effect” and “substitution effect” of product innovation, but also through an indirect route which are referred to as “advancement of employee skill structure”. The difference of our study from foreign studies is that, for small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in China, the “productivity effect” of process innovation and the “substitution effect” of product innovation are the main ways to hinder their employment growth. At the same time, unlike domestic research, the “advancement of employee skill structure” is an important way for technological innovation to promote the growth of employment in Chinese SMEs. The paper further finds that the impact of technological innovation on employment growth in low-tech manufacturing companies is more sensitive. From the micro level, the results of this study confirm the influence of skill-biased technical progress on the employment in Chinese SMEs and provide a policy basis for alleviating the structural problems of “employment difficulties” and “recruitment difficulties” in China.