In the current challenging international landscape with rising anti-globalization trends, both internal and external factors are impeding the progress of our economy towards high-quality development. Specialized, refined, unique, and innovative (SRUI) enterprises are distinguished by their focus on specialization, refinement, uniqueness, and innovation. These enterprises excel in niche markets with strong innovation capabilities and market competitiveness, playing a vital role in overcoming industrial chain weaknesses and achieving key technological breakthroughs. The development of new quality productive forces, characterized by efficient, green, and intelligent production capacities, is a critical measure of the core competitiveness of SRUI enterprises. This development relies not only on internal technological innovation and management optimization but also on external support, such as a robust financial service system, a fair market competition mechanism, strong intellectual property protection, and supportive policies. However, factors like uneven regional development, imperfect policy support systems, and the "digital divide" in digital transformation are hindering the growth of new quality productive forces in SRUI enterprises. Addressing how to enhance the new quality productivity of these enterprises is crucial for promoting China's innovation-driven development.
This paper employs a complex systems perspective, integrating organizational ecosystem theory with dynamic qualitative comparative analysis (panel dynamic QCA). It examines the configurational effects of internal and external environmental factors on the development of new quality productivity in China's specialized and innovative enterprises between 2017 and 2022, using 242 national specialized and innovative enterprises as case studies. By conducting an empirical analysis of the development pathways of new quality productive forces in these enterprises and systematically analyzing the influence of internal and external environmental factors on their development mechanisms, this study provides a decision-making reference for fostering a new development model of new quality productive forces in China. This, in turn, contributes to promoting high-quality economic development.
The findings are as follows. Firstly, it concludes that individual enterprise environmental factors are not sufficient as the essential conditions for the development of high-tech productive forces in these enterprises. However, improvements in the financial environment and the degree of digitalization are increasingly crucial, highlighting the importance of a stable capital chain and digital technology during innovation and R&D phases. Secondly, the study identifies three configuration models: "external boost","internal drive" and "collaborative development co-push." The "external boost" model demonstrates the synergy between proactive government and effective markets, where both the "invisible hand" and "visible hand" can efficiently allocate resources. Enterprises leverage unique technical advantages and proprietary resources to enhance productivity. The "internal drive" model reflects the enterprise's own motivation, where factors like human capital, institutional support, and technology work together to boost productivity through organizational flexibility and innovation. The "collaborative development co-push" model involves the government, market, and enterprises working together to form a system that optimizes resource allocation, innovation incentives, and execution efficiency, creating a virtuous cycle for the development of productive forces. Thirdly, the inter-group analysis reveals that the consistency of the five configurations decreased significantly in 2020 due to disruptions caused by the global pandemic, such as supply chain issues and market demand declines. However, in 2021, increased policy support and digital advancements helped promote new quality productive forces. There was also a notable shift in configuration evolution around 2020, with enterprise-driven models dominating before 2020 and collaborative development models taking precedence afterward, emphasizing the role of government, markets, and enterprises in driving change. Lastly, the intra-group analysis shows that the consistency within groups is more significant than that between groups, indicating that the case effect of configurations is stronger than temporal effects. Additionally, regional differences were observed in the intra-group coverage of the "external boost" and "collaborative development co-push" types, with most cases concentrated in China's central and eastern regions.
This paper contributes some novelties by (1) integrating exogenous and endogenous theories to analyze the combined impact of internal and external factors on specialized enterprises' new quality productive forces; (2) applying organizational ecology theory to study configuration and case studies, advancing complex systems views and enterprise development factor research; and (3) using dynamic QCA and statistical tests to address limitations in traditional QCA, highlighting synergistic effects and variable coverage analysis.