Innovation Input Research Articles

Novel hybrid classifier based on fuzzy type-III decision maker and ensemble deep learning model and improved chaos game optimization

This paper presents a unique hybrid classifier that combines deep neural networks with a type-III fuzzy system for decision-making. The ensemble incorporates ResNet-18, Efficient Capsule neural network, ResNet-50, the Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) for feature extraction, neighborhood component analysis (NCA) for feature selection, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) for classification. The innovative inputs fed into the type-III fuzzy system come from the outputs of the mentioned neural networks. The system’s rule parameters are fine-tuned using the Improved Chaos Game Optimization algorithm (ICGO). The conventional CGO’s simple random mutation is substituted with wavelet mutation to enhance the CGO algorithm while preserving non-parametricity and computational complexity. The ICGO was evaluated using 126 benchmark functions and 5 engineering problems, comparing its performance with well-known algorithms. It achieved the best results across all functions except for 2 benchmark functions. The introduced classifier is applied to seven malware datasets and consistently outperforms notable networks like AlexNet, ResNet-18, GoogleNet, and Efficient Capsule neural network in 35 separate runs, achieving over 96% accuracy. Additionally, the classifier’s performance is tested on the MNIST and Fashion-MNIST in 10 separate runs. The results show that the new classifier excels in accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, and F1-score compared to other recent classifiers. Based on the statistical analysis, it has been concluded that the ICGO and propose method exhibit significant superiority compared to the examined algorithms and methods. The source code for ICGO is available publicly at https://nimakhodadadi.com/algorithms-%2B-codes.Graphical abstract

Mobilizing social transformation with technology. The shaping of social processes since the development of industrial society and beyond: innovation input and social processes

Technological development is a key factor for shaping social life, transforming the ways in which societies organize their production, mobility and communication processes. Since the beginning of industrialization, the pace of the transformations brought about by technological change has increased dramatically, and has further accelerated since the advent of the new digital technologies. These development processes has also impacts in terms of social, economic and environmental costs, a fact that has been addressed in the past few decades by various social movements as well as theoreticians, becoming a key issue in political and social discussion agendas. In this paper, we outline a historical perspective of these changes and their effects, from pre-industrial, industrial, post-Fordism and network societies, and we focus on the mobilizing potential of technological change. We analyze the role that technological interfaces play today in social transformation, as well as the implications for our present day that our interactions become increasingly intermediated by digital technologies. Finally, we discuss digital technologies and their impacts on social inequity. We argue that a public and democratic agenda comprising both development and technological issues should be put in place for guaranteeing social development processes.

Corporate Risk-Taking, Innovation Efficiency, and High-Quality Development: Evidence from Chinese Firms

Facing the increasingly complex and uncertain external environment, the reasonable control of investment risk is the key to realizing the sound operation and high-quality development of enterprises. Based on the innovation perspective, this paper takes A-share non-financial listed companies from 2007 to 2021 as the research sample to explore the impact of the corporate risk-taking level on the high-quality development of enterprises and examines the transmission mechanism of the relationship between the two from the perspectives of innovation efficiency, innovation input, and innovation output. It is found that enterprise risk-taking significantly inhibits the high-quality development of enterprises, by reducing innovation efficiency; innovation efficiency plays a mediating role in the influence of the relationship between the two, which is mainly due to the fact that enterprise risk-taking increases the innovation inputs of enterprises but reduces the innovation outputs of enterprises, and then reduces the innovation efficiency of enterprises and inhibits the high-quality development of enterprises. This heterogeneity study finds that the inhibitory effect of corporate risk-taking on the high-quality development of firms is more pronounced among manufacturing firms, small-scale firms, and firms with higher capital intensity. The findings of this study provide both guidance to help enterprises to reduce risky investment decision-making behaviors and experience for regulators to effectively promote the formulation of policies related to the high-quality development of the real economy.

The US–China trade war and corporate innovation: Evidence from China

AbstractThis study investigates the effect of the US–China trade war on corporate innovation in the context of China. We find that the first‐order effect of the trade war on corporate innovation is significantly negative. That is, Chinese firms exposed to the US–China trade war have lower numbers of patent applications and invention patent applications. Underlying mechanisms include reductions in market expansion and innovation input. Our findings are more pronounced for firms connected to the United States and those suffering financial distress and for non‐state‐owned enterprises. We further contribute to the literature by showing that firms with developed managerial ability, more confident managers, and better corporate social responsibility performance tend to increase innovation for competitiveness in response to the trade war. Finally, we explore the effect of Chinese retaliatory tariff shocks on corporate innovation and find that US tariffs and Chinese retaliatory tariffs hinder corporate innovation in China.

Earnings pressure and corporate carbon emissions: Empirical evidence from listed firms in China

Based on the perspective of externality theory, this paper takes Chinese listed firms from 2006 to 2020 as the research object, and empirically investigates the impact of earnings pressure on corporate carbon emissions and its intrinsic mechanism through ordinary least squares regression, and finds that: earnings pressure has a significant positive impact on corporate carbon emissions. Faced with earnings pressure, firms tend to prioritize short-term interests, which will lead to an increase in carbon emissions through the mechanism of reducing green innovation inputs and increasing the level of financing constraints. Additional analysis demonstrates that when the CEO of an enterprise has greater power and the firm is a local state-owned enterprise (SOE), earnings pressure has a significant boosting effect on carbon emissions; and when the firm refers to non-policy-focused industries and faces a lower litigation risk, the earnings pressure has a significant positive effect on carbon emissions as well.

The impact of environmental protection tax on corporate performance: A new insight from multi angles analysis

This study investigates the practical effects of adopting the environmental protection tax (EPT) policy on corporate performance in China. The analysis uses the Difference in Differences (DID) approach based on a quasi-natural experiment scenario. The findings indicate there is a negative impact of implementing the EPT policy on the financial performance of corporations, and the conclusion remains unchanged despite exhaustive robustness testing. The negative impact can be partly attributed to corporate technology innovation inputs. Meanwhile, enterprise property rights, pollution, and technical levels also substantially influence the implementation effect of the legislation. However, implementing this policy has improved corporations’ environmental performance and established its efficacy in enhancing their sustainable capabilities. This study comprehensively explores the impact of environmental control legislation on business performance, spanning financial, environmental, and social dimensions. Corresponding findings offer valuable insights into how firms react to environmental legislation and adjust to the external environment. Meanwhile, it also provides an objective reference for the comprehensive green transformation.

Location-Oriented Policies in China: Establishment of State-Level Development Zones and Enterprise Innovation Behaviors

The impact of state-level development zones on company innovation behaviors—specifically, innovation input, output, and quality—is examined in this research. This study utilizes the establishment of state-level development zones as a quasi-natural experiment and employs a Staggered Difference-In-Difference model to systematically evaluate the actual effects. Furthermore, this research focuses on the heterogeneous effects of state-level development zones on enterprise innovation, taking into account different functional positionings, such as the Economic and Technological Development Zone (ETDZ), the High-Tech Industrial Development Zone (HIDZ), and the Special Customs Supervision Zone (SCSZ). The results of previous research indicate that the establishment of state-level development zones may effectively foster company innovation and have a noteworthy effect on the input, output, and quality of innovation. The establishment of ETDZs and HIDZs can significantly encourage enterprises to increase their investment in innovation. The innovation incentive effect of HIDZs is stronger than that of ETDZs. On the other hand, the establishment of SCSZs is more beneficial for improving the output and quality of innovation in enterprises. ETDZs can promote innovation output by adjusting industry agglomeration in the region. HIDZs can encourage enterprises to increase their innovation input by intensifying tax preferences and reducing the level of industry agglomeration. SCSZs can effectively promote the innovation input, innovation output, and innovation quality of enterprises by increasing government subsidies and the intensity of tax preferences.

An empirical study of executive research backgrounds on enterprise innovation - the moderator of internal and external institutional environments on physics -reason - human methodology

This study explored the mechanism of executive research backgrounds on enterprise innovation and the moderator of business environment and executive incentives based on the physics -reason - human (Wuli-Shili-Renli, WSR) methodology, used the data of Listed Companies in CSMAR database from 2017 to 2021. It found that every 1% increase in executives with scientific research backgrounds will lead to an increase of 0.016%, 0.160% and 0.010% in innovation input, innovation output and innovation quality respectively in enterprises; every 1% increase in executives with research and development (R&D) backgrounds will decline innovation input by 0.013%, while innovation output and innovation quality in enterprises will increase by 0.257% and 0.026% respectively. Optimizing the business environment can not only stimulate executives' innovation input, but also stimulate their high-quality and efficient innovation output. Salary incentives is easy to induce innovative output of executives with research backgrounds, which is heavy on quantity rather than quality, while equity incentives is the opposite. This study helps enterprises carry out innovation decision-making and practice considering “physics", “reason" and “human ".

The interdependence of R&D, innovations, and productivity: case of Polish manufacturing companies

Motivation: The structural model proposed by Crepon, Duguet, and Mairesse (the CDM model) in 1998 has been the workhorse of the empirical analysis of the relationship between firms’ innovation input and output and performance. Most research applying the CDM methodology shows a positive relationship between firms’ R&D, innovation, and productivity, primarily in highly developed countries. However, some studies do not confirm the universal nature of these relations, pointing to possible differences between countries, sectors, firm characteristics, sources of knowledge, types of innovation, or performance indicators. Aim: The study aims to explore the relationship between R&D expenditures, patent applications, and labour productivity among Polish manufacturing firms. The study applies a four-stage analysis of the innovation-performance relationship based on the CDM model. The method enables us to track the transformation of innovation input into output and its impact on the performance of companies. The analysis is based on the survey conducted in 2018 on a random sample of 1049 Polish manufacturing firms. Results: The results reveal interesting insights into the analysed relationship. Firstly, initial results confirm the vital role of cooperation, being an exporter, and functioning in specific markets for deciding to invest in R&D. Secondly, state aid, employees’ education, and being part of the capital group are crucial for the R&D intensity. The analysis confirms a statistically significant positive relationship between Polish manufacturing firms’ innovation input and output. However, the results of the last stage of the analysis indicate that the performance of manufacturing firms is unrelated to the innovation output.

The internationalization of capital market and corporate innovation capabilities: A quasi-natural experiment on the inclusion of China's A-shares in the MSCI index

The capital market serves to link capital with the real economy. This study examines the long-term effects of capital market internationalization from the perspective of real economy corporate innovation capabilities. To do so, a quasi-natural experiment is conducted in which China's A-shares are included in the MSCI index to construct a time-varying PSM-DID model and study the impact of capital market internationalization on corporate innovation inputs and outputs. The results show that bringing China's A-shares in the MSCI index significantly improves corporate innovation capability through signaling and supervisory effects. Specifically, the internationalization of the capital market reduces corporate financing costs, increases corporate risk-taking, improves long-term institutional investors' shareholding, and alleviates managerial myopia. Furthermore, these effects were found to be more significant for both high-management shareholding enterprises and low-industry competition enterprises. The research conclusions support the proposition to further unleash corporate innovation, and as such, they have important implications for promoting the internationalization of the capital market.

Assessing The Level of Manufacturing Value Added of G-20 and Its Relation to Innovation Inputs and Outputs

The primary objective of this study is to forecast the manufacturing value added levels of G-20 countries by leveraging the fundamental dimensions extracted from the Global Innovation Index and ascertain the extent to which innovation indicators contribute to variations in manufacturing value added. The Random Forest algorithm, known for its versatility and precision in dealing with complex datasets, has been employed as a prominent machine learning technique to predict the manufacturing value added levels of G-20 countries during the period 2013-2022. The MVA levels of G-20 countries, obtained using average and standard deviation, were predicted with a 54.14% error rate through the assistance of innovation input and output indicators. The level predicted with the highest accuracy is the one closely aligned with the average. This study's uniqueness lies in its utilization of the Random Forest algorithm to predict value added levels based on innovation inputs and outputs, which constitute the fundamental dimensions of the Global Innovation Index.

Does culture moderate the innovation input–output relationship? A two-stage configurational analysis

PurposeThis study analyses configurations of national culture as boundary conditions of countries’ national systems of innovation (NSI). Drawing from the NSI approach, we argue that culture’s role is that of a contingency factor shaping the relationship between investments in innovation and national innovation outputs.Design/methodology/approachWe assessed the moderation effect of national culture through a systematic, two-stage approach using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), which allows the analysis of changes induced by the moderator variables. Analyses were conducted with a diverse sample of 61 countries over a period spanning 12 years, from 2011 to 2022.FindingsFindings reveal that investments in innovation, but not individual cultural dimensions, is a necessary condition for high innovation outputs. Furthermore, several configurations of cultural dimensions were identified as moderators of the relationship between investments in innovation and innovation outputs.Originality/valueThis study provides insights into cross-national innovation research by exposing the role of cultural configurations, rather than just individual cultural dimensions, as boundary conditions involved in the achievement of high levels of innovation.

Enterprise innovation and audit pricing: An evidence study from China's A-share listed companies.

Driven by innovation strategy, Chinese enterprises' innovation investment, and research and development capability have been continuously improved, and the audit risk caused by this has attracted widespread attention from the academic community. This study takes China's A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2021 as samples to empirically test the relationship between innovation input and audit pricing of Chinese enterprises. Research shows that the higher the innovation investment, the higher the audit cost. High-quality corporate governance, sufficient research and development personnel, research and development subsidies, and operating cash flow can all play a negative moderating role. A good innovation environment will weaken the positive influence between innovation input and audit fees. This study theoretically confirms the risk-oriented audit pricing mechanism, which is of great significance for optimizing enterprise innovation risk management and improving audit service levels.

Stock liquidity, financial constraints, and innovation in Chinese SMEs

This study investigates the relationship between stock liquidity and firm innovation for publicly traded growing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China using both innovation input and output. We collected samples of 785 SMEs from China’s Shenzhen Growth Enterprises Market without the financial industry from 2010 to 2020. The empirical findings demonstrate a significant positive relationship between stock liquidity and both innovation input, as measured by R&D investments, and innovation output, as proxied by patenting activities. A series of robustness tests demonstrate the reliability of our results. Increased liquidity enhances SMEs' innovation mainly by alleviating financial constraints, whereas the mediating effect of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is not apparent at the firm level. Furthermore, the inhibitory effect of blockholder ownership on firm innovation is weak. Further analysis reveals that this favorable impact can last for at least four years, with manufacturing SMEs benefiting the most. Our study shows that the innovation abilities of SMEs can be enhanced by improving stock liquidity, which is mainly driven by tackling financial constraints.

Research on collaborative innovation cooperation strategies of manufacturing digital ecosystem from the perspective of multiple stakeholders

The digital ecosystem has hastened the fusion of manufacturing and digital technology in realizing product and service value. However, due to the coordination dilemmas within the digital ecosystem such as risk sharing, competition and cooperation among stakeholders, this study aims to explore the collaborative innovation cooperation strategies of multiple stakeholders, and to investigate the interaction effects of differential incentives on each other's strategies. By constructing a dynamic differential game model, this study solves the optimal innovation efforts, digital servitization levels and innovation benefits under different cooperation intensities, and analyzes the influence of various factors on the total innovation benefits of the digital ecosystem. It is found that under different decision-making modes, the influence of incentive subsidy coefficient and cost-sharing coefficient on the innovation efforts and innovation benefits of multiple stakeholders is different. Under the decentralized decision-making mode, the incentive mechanism positively promotes the innovation efforts of both parties of cooperative enterprises, while the local government is not affected, while under the centralized decision-making mode, the incentive mechanism positively affects the innovation efforts and innovation benefits of all three parties. Specifically, under the Stackelberg game, both the innovation efforts and innovation benefits achieve Pareto improvement, while under the cooperative game, the total system innovation benefits reach Pareto optimality and the optimal strategy is realized. In addition, an optimal range exists for the benefit distribution coefficient and the policy guidance coefficient. Furthermore, factors like the cooperative benefit impact coefficient, innovation capability coefficient, and policy guidance coefficient have a positive effect on the total system innovation benefits. Conversely, factors like the discount rate, technology decay coefficient, and innovation input coefficient inhibit the growth of the total system innovation benefits. The value provides theoretical support for collaborative innovation cooperation in the digital ecosystem, thus facilitating the progress of digital transformation in manufacturing.

Environmental protection tax collection, financing constraints, and corporate green technology innovation

The article empirically examines the relationship between environmental protection tax levy and enterprises’ green technology innovation and the moderating effect of financing constraints between the two with a sample of heavy polluters listed in A-share companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2015 to 2021. It is found that the levy of environmental protection tax significantly promotes the green technology innovation investment of heavily polluting enterprises. It is further found that enterprise financing constraints have a negative moderating effect in the process of environmental protection tax stimulating enterprise innovation input. The article proposes to continue to strengthen the reform of environmental protection tax to form a collection model with both incentives and constraints and at the same time, to improve the financing efficiency of enterprises through green digital finance to alleviate the impact of financing constraints on enterprise technological innovation.

CEO turnover shock and green innovation: Evidence from China

Green innovation requires sustainable input. However, a tradeoff exists between long-term sustainable inputs of green innovation and the short-term perspective of CEOs who desire improved financial performance. This tension is amplified when CEOs are newly appointed. Using a sample of listed Chinese firms, we find that newly hired CEOs have a short-term focus, leading to a significant decrease in green innovation in the year of CEO replacement (CEO turnover shock). When newly hired CEOs take over, such firms shift their research and development (R&D) investments toward mergers and acquisition (M&A) activities. Moreover, the adverse impact of CEO turnover shock on green innovation is stronger in non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and firms without family CEOs but weaker for firms with good internal and external monitoring. Our findings provide theoretical insights into innovation research and agency issues and practical insights into CEO recruiting policy.

Determining the drivers of global innovation under COVID-19: An FSQCA approach.

During the COVID-19 epidemic, national innovation faced the challenges of high-risk research and development and intensified trade competition. How to allocate resources reasonably to promote national innovation has become a problem that must be solved. Based on the global innovation index (GII) framework, this study analyzes the influence of national innovation input elements (such as human capital resources, infrastructure, business maturity, etc.) on innovation output from the perspective of configuration, combining with the necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis (FSQCA). The research results show that:(1) A single innovation input constitutes the necessary condition and serves as a bottleneck for high innovation output;(2) ITT, HCR, IFT, MS and BS are all "multiple concurrent" and form different configurations, namely, two high-innovation and four nonhigh innovation configurations, that drive national innovation governance is characterized by "different roads leading to the same goals." (3) As innovation is limited by the income levels of various countries, there are obvious differences in innovation drive paths between high- and low-income countries. Moreover, the configuration of asymmetric relationships with low-innovation output that occurs in high-income countries has unique characteristics. In this study, the influence of the coupling of national innovation input elements on innovation output is explored.

The interplay between innovation, standards and regulation in a globalising economy

To examine the different roles of regulation and standards in the age of globalisation, we hypothesize and investigate the relation of regulation and national and international standards on the one hand with innovation input (R&D expenditure) and innovation output (patents) on the other hand. The analysis is based on data of 26 high-income countries between 1998 and 2018. There are two main results. Firstly, international standards outperform both de-regulation and national standardisation as they are positively associated with R&D expenditure and patenting. On the other hand, national standards – once believed a source of competitiveness – are negatively related to patents and hence seem to localize economies and slow-down innovation. Secondly, de-regulation does not correlate positively with R&D expenditure, but with increased patenting. We argue the former suggest businesses did not – as assumed – spend freed up resources on R&D, but instead strategically used patenting to replace lost regulation-based protection with patent fences. This casts doubts on the added social value of de-regulation induced innovation.

Can stakeholders’ attention to innovation promote corporate innovation?

PurposeGiven the significance of innovation in enabling firms to maintain a long-term competitive edge and secure excess profits, this paper aims to investigate whether and how stakeholders’ attention to innovation (SATI) influences corporate innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper introduces a novel variable, SATI, which is achieved by segmenting stakeholders’ attention into two categories: attention to innovation and attention to other facets, using textual analysis methods. Subsequently, this paper empirically examines the influence of SATI on corporate innovation.FindingsThis paper finds that SATI positively affects corporate innovation input, and the result remains true after addressing possible endogeneity issues using instrumental variable regression. Furthermore, the positive effect of SATI on corporate innovation is stronger in firms facing greater financing constraints, thus verifying the financing constraints hypothesis. The positive effect is also stronger in firms with lower risk-taking levels, thus confirming the innovation failure tolerance hypothesis. Further analysis suggests that SATI increases both corporate innovation output and efficiency, thus ruling out the catering hypothesis.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the importance of SATI in driving corporate innovation. It enriches the literature on the repercussions of stakeholders’ attention and determinants of corporate innovation. In addition, it provides practical suggestions for further implementing China’s national innovation-driven development strategy.