Institutions and Innovation in China

Management scholars have been increasingly interested in how institutional factors, especially the government, affect innovation in emerging markets. This symposium brings together a unique set of papers exploring different ways governments contributes to firm and scientific innovation in the important emerging market of China. Specifically, the first paper investigates how government-led innovation policies can affect patent growth, including the absolute number of patents and patent novelty, and how policies can yield different results across the country. The second paper describes the effect of government industrial priorities on firm innovation, including targeted firms that lie in prioritized industries as well as non-targeted firms. The third paper examines the effect of talent returnee programs on scientific innovation and explains the performance gaps between returnee scientists and their overseas peers. The last study builds on the institutional view to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affects change in innovation between SOEs and non- SOEs and considers the contingent roles of regional R&D funding and firm digitalization. As a set, the papers offer new insights into how institutional factors contribute to the firm and scientific innovation in an emerging market, which can inform organization and management theories and strategic management research. The Limits of State-Led Innovation: Evidence from Chinese Patents Presenter: Yuen Yuen Ang; - Presenter: Nan Jia; U. of Southern California Presenter: Bo Yang; U. of Southern California Presenter: Kenneth Guang-Lih Huang; National U. of Singapore Government priorities and firm innovation in China Presenter: Christopher Marquis; Cambridge Judge Business School Presenter: Qian Wang; Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Can Brain Drain of Elite Scientists be Reversed? Evidence from China’s Young Thousand Talents Presenter: Dongbo Shi; Shanghai Jiao Tong U. Presenter: Weichen Liu; Shanghai Jiao Tong U. Presenter: Yanbo Wang; U. of Hong Kong COVID-19 Pandemic and Innovation of Chinese SOEs and non-SOEs Presenter: Kevin Zheng Zhou; U. of Hong Kong Presenter: Meitong Dong; HKU