Research on the innovation mechanism and process of China's automotive industry

Abstract

This paper launches a study on the innovation mechanism and process of China's automotive industry based on the theory of Sectoral System of Innovation (SSI). To explore the influence of innovation mechanism and process on the industrial innovation capability, a theory model is proposed, in which the innovation mechanism is divided into three parts consisting of forcing mechanism, management mechanism and learning mechanism, and the innovation process being divided into three phases including accumulation process, transformation process and diffusion process. The innovation capability is evaluated from input, output and collaboration side. Further/empirical tests are conducted to support the analytical model, adopting the method of questionnaire survey and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings show that the forcing mechanism plays the dominant role in stimulating innovation input, the management mechanism mainly supports the industry innovation for China's automotive industry, and the learning mechanism is a long-term process, which could promote innovation inputs fundamentally. Innovation process considered, the accumulating process contributes most to the effective organizing and collaborating of automotive industry, the transforming process is the core element of industry innovation, which is the necessary condition for high quality innovation input and output. Taking into account of the conclusions above, some policy recommendations from the sight of innovation mechanism and process are put forward in the end.