Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.5, 2020

Evolution of the Industrial Innovation System in the Deepening of System Reform: A Case Study of China’s Catch-up in the World Highspeed Rail Industry

(Abstract)

Huang Yanghua and Lü Tie

Against the background of China’s economic system reform and the innovative development of high-speed rail industry, by using the survey data of eighteen core institutions and more than 300 person-times in the industry, and adopting an industrial innovation analytical framework, we explain, from the perspective of the unity of history and logic, the phenomenon of China’s catch-up in the high-speed rail industry in a historical and logical way. We found that the way railway adjustment shaped incentives for the technological innovation of micro-bodies is the key to explaining China’s catch-up in high-speed rail technology; the upgrading of market demand has played a fundamental and decisive part in this process and is also a necessary condition for industrial policy to play an effective role; and the product development platform has been essential for the upgrading of technology in the high-speed rail equipment manufacturing industry. Both introduced and independent innovations are mutually complementary means of improving the product development platform. The generality and particularity of experience in the catch-up of high-speed rail technology provide pertinent theoretical and empirical stimulus for building up major power in manufacturing.