How enterprises achieve technological progress through openness?

Authors

Yongnian ZHENG, The Institute for International Affairs, Qianhai, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518172, ChinaFollow
Lanmeng XU, School of Humanities and Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518172, ChinaFollow

Keywords

middle-technology trap, labor division, open enterprise system, technological progress

Document Type

Avoid Middle-technology Trap and Achieve Chinese Path to Modernization

Abstract

As the main body of a country’s economic activities, enterprises play an important role in transforming basic scientific research into applied technology to achieve technological upgrading of national industries. It is crucial to explore how Chinese enterprises can achieve rapid technological upgrading and industrial transformation in order to realize the transition from quantitative economic development to high-quality economic development. It is worth noting that in key technological fields such as chips, precision manufacturing, medical devices, and artificial intelligence, core technologies are still firmly controlled by enterprises in developed countries such as Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea. Currently, Chinese enterprises can only strive to make progress at the level of catch-up technology, and face severe challenges in realizing cutting-edge technological innovation. As the current external environment is deteriorating, Chinese enterprises are constrained at the middle-technology level, and have the possibility to fail into middle-technology trap. Therefore, it is particularly important to explore the technological progress mechanism of western enterprises and learn from the successful experience of them. In general, Chinese enterprises should learn from the opening feature of western enterprises, as the openness at the technology, system, and talent levels, as well as the specialized division of labor at the global level achieved through openness, are important factors for western companies to achieve rapid technological progress. This study put forward some suggestions for Chinese enterprises on how to help the country avoid failing into middle-technology trap through the comparison of Chinese and western enterprise systems and the analysis of the new energy automobile industry and the Internet industry. First of all, China should learn from the West to build an open enterprise system. While enterprises themselves remain open, they should cooperate with government legislation and public policy intervention to promote the establishment of a unified national market, in order to achieve three levels of openness at the supply chain and industrial chain levels, namely, openness between enterprises, openness between domestic regions, and openness towards the world. Secondly, the government should accelerate the establishment of a national unified market through legislation, public policy intervention and other forms of intervention. Finally, China needs to achieve three levels of openness in the supply chain and industrial chain, including the openness among enterprises, openness among domestic regions, and openness to the world.

First page

1675

Last Page

1684

Language

Chinese

Publisher

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences

References

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Recommended Citation

ZHENG, Yongnian and XU, Lanmeng (2023) "How enterprises achieve technological progress through openness?," Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version): Vol. 38 : Iss. 11 , Article 10.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.16418/j.issn.1000-3045.20230803005
Available at: https://bulletinofcas.researchcommons.org/journal/vol38/iss11/10