网络基础设施建设、信息可得性与企业创新边界

Network Infrastructure Construction,Information Accessibility and the Innovation Boundaries of Enterprises

推进以网络基础设施为代表的数字基础设施建设,既是当前稳增长的重要举措,也为激发企业创新活力提供了“新基遇”。本文把研究维度进一步拓展到企业的异质性创新行为,探讨网络基础设施如何促进企业选择开发新技术,即拓展企业的创新边界。基于匹配整合的企业微观数据研究发现,网络基础设施建设显著促进了企业创新边界的拓展,在考虑内生性问题及各种稳健性检验后结论依然成立;同时,网络基础设施也促进了企业创新质量和创新效率的提升。从影响机制看,网络基础设施降低了市场信息不对称,提高了企业的市场信息可得性;网络基础设施使得企业获得更多的技术溢出,提高了技术信息可得性。并且,网络基础设施有利于技术溢出突破行政边界和地理距离的限制,相比于交通基础设施,能够更大程度地扩大企业获取技术溢出的范围。异质性分析发现,对于互联网化水平较高的企业和大型企业,以及处在技术变化较慢行业和企业分布密度较低的城市的企业,网络基础设施促进企业拓展创新边界的作用更强。本文的研究对如何利用新基建和数字技术赋能企业创新进而促进经济高质量发展具有重要启示。

Network infrastructure has increased information accessibility to enterprises,and how will this affect their choice to develop new technologies?Considering the development of new technologies in enterprises as changes in their innovation boundaries,this paper examines how network infrastructure facilitates enterprises to expand their innovation boundaries.This paper extends the research dimension to the heterogeneous innovation behavior of enterprises,which provides a new perspective for understanding the impact of network infrastructure on enterprise innovation.At the same time,this paper enriches existing literature by providing evidence that network infrastructure affects enterprise innovation through two channels:market information and technology information.In the era of the digital economy,the research in this paper helps to understand how network infrastructure and the digital technologies behind it will reshape the paradigm of enterprise innovation.This paper provides an incentive model of heterogeneous innovation to illustrate how network infrastructure affects enterprises’choice of innovation type.Based on the model,this paper analyzes the mechanisms by which network infrastructure influences enterprises’innovation choices to develop new technologies from the market and technology perspectives.By matching the China Industry Business Performance Database,the patent database of the China National Intellectual Property Administration,and the China Innovation Behavior and Performance Monitoring Database,this paper empirically investigates the role of network infrastructure on enterprises’expansion of innovation boundaries.Meanwhile,based on the construction of inter-enterprise technology spillover indicators,this paper further examines the role of network infrastructure in facilitating technology spillovers to break through the limits of administrative boundaries and geographical distance,demonstrating its advantages relative to transportation infrastructure.The findings of this paper are as follows.Network infrastructure has significantly contributed to enterprises’expansion of innovation boundaries.At the same time,network infrastructure also improves the quality and efficiency of innovation.In terms of the impact mechanism,network infrastructure reduces market information asymmetry and improves the accessibility of market information to enterprises.In addition,network infrastructure enables enterprises to obtain more technology spillovers and improves the accessibility of technological information.Moreover,network infrastructure makes the technology spillovers obtained by enterprises break through the limits of administrative boundaries and geographical distance,which expands the scope of technology spillovers to a greater extent than transportation infrastructure.The role of network infrastructure in facilitating enterprises to expand their innovation boundaries is stronger for those with a high Internet level and a large scale,as well as for enterprises in industries with a slow rate of technological changes and in cities with a low density of enterprise distribution.The research in this paper provides some policy insights on how governments can use network infrastructure to promote high-quality economic development.First,the government can accelerate the deployment of new information infrastructure,such as network infrastructure,and focus on serving the innovation needs of enterprises and empowering them for high-quality development.Second,the government should also provide programs,technologies,funds,and other support for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises,so as to better play the role of network infrastructure.Third,the government should improve the level of inter-regional connectivity of public infrastructure and services,further exploit the role of digital technologies in breaking the limits of administrative boundaries and geographical distance,and promote the diffusion of market information and technological knowledge.