The wave of digitization has swept in, and new breakthroughs have been made in digital technology innovation, represented by emerging technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence. The Chinese government is determined to build a number of new growth engines, such as new-generation information technology and artificial intelligence, and to create digital industry clusters with international competitiveness. Digital technology innovation is the key for countries to competing for a new round of competitive advantages in science and technology and the commanding heights of industrial development, and it also provides a key impetus for the high-quality development of China's digital economy under the new development pattern.
However, in the process of digital technology research and development, the inefficiency (or inefficiency) of individual digital technology innovation of an organization may cause the organization to rely on backward technology and form a digital technology reverse lock. Digital technology locking hinders the survival and high-quality development of the digital economy, and in-depth exploration of the unlocking mechanism of digital technology locking will be the key to leading enterprises to improve the quality and efficiency of digital technology innovation against the technology bottlenecks in the field of scientific and technological innovation. Thus, this paper identifies the digital technology invention patent application data of Chinese listed companies through the IPC classification number, measures the reverse locking effect of China's digital technology based on the input and output of digital technology, examines the "erosion effect" of the locking of digital technology on the development of the digital economy, and specifically analyzes the digital unlocking strategy in different situations. It also analyzes the digital unlocking strategy under different circumstances, providing experience and reference for understanding the connotation of digital technology reverse locking and breaking through the "digital locking cage".
Specifically, following technology path dependence theory , this study uses the digital technology patent application data of Chinese listed companies from 2011—2021,and adopts the non-radial super-efficient SBM method to measure China's digital technology lock-in.It then examines the erosion effect of digital technology locking on the development of the digital economy and analyzes feasible unlocking strategies under different circumstances. It is found that there is a significant erosion effect of digital technology locking on the development of the digital economy, and the effect follows the nonlinear trajectory of "significant erosion—convergence of erosion effect—strengthening of erosion effect". Influenced by the spatial diffusion of technology, digital technology locking on the development of the digital economy shows the phenomenon of "neighborhood erosion". The analysis of unlocking strategy shows that compared with internal technology introduction, external technology introduction significantly breaks the fixed evolution track of reverse digital technology lock-in, and regions in weak institutional innovation environments have higher marginal benefits by curbing digital technology lock-in through technology imitation and transformation. In addition, the curbing effect of technology digestion and absorption on digital technology lock-in is characterized by asymmetry between regions, and intellectual property protection provides a solid institutional guarantee for the absorption of knowledge and the quality transformation of digital technology achievements.
This study makes some novelties in two ways. First, considering the potential risk of technology reverse lock-in caused by the continuous self strengthening of digital technology in a backward framework,it measures the reverse lock-in effect of digital technology in China and examines its "erosion effect" from multiple perspectives. Compared to previous research on technology lock-in, the study enriches the new connotations generated by technology lock-in in China in the digital era and deepens the literature related to the development of digital technology. Second, the study explores the feasible paths for unlocking digital technology in China's realistic context, and specifically analyzes the diversified strategies for unlocking digital technology in different scenarios, expanding and deepening the relevant research content of technology unlocking, providing policy reference and empirical reference for China to shake off the shackles of digital locking.