| A high-quality growth path,as a logical embodiment of new thinking on development,is where China's economic structure heads towards.To fulfill that in the new era,it is a paramount issue to transform and upgrade industrial sectors.In a world featured with radical changes in technology and industry as well as intricacy in global politics and economics,China's industries are confronted with both the opportunities of "surpassing" other competitors at an unfavorable position and the challenges once they failed to catch up with the times.In the Mid-to Long-term Development Plan for the Automotive Industry promulgated by the state,it is pointed out that "the automobile industry is a crucial engine for a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation." The automobile industry,acting as an essential pillar industry of the national economy,is a fundamental driving force with tremendous influence and impetus on other industries.Its development injects vitality to the resilience of China's economics,in ways to ensure sustainable high-quality growth.Since the reform and opening up,especially after joining the WTO,China's automobile industry has built a complete industrial chain in cooperation with foreign industry giants through the pattern of "acquiring technologies by opening domestic markets to foreign enterprises".In 2009,China has emerged as one of the "Automobile Major Country" regarding production and sales volume.Nonetheless,the “ quantitative ” growth of the industry did not catalyze a “qualitative” leap.China has not yet transformed from an "Automobile Major Country" to an "Automobile Powerhouse".Such being the case,studies on how to upgrade the automobile industry faced by escalated pressures can provide references for China's industrial upgrading in the context of new technology and the industrial revolution.Drawing experiences from countries that have finished industrialization,it can be inferred that innovation-driven industrial upgrading is primarily achieved in two ways,namely,technological and institutional innovation.From the dual perspective of productivity and production relations,the major reasons accounting for China's automobile industry being "large in quantity instead of strength" are the lack of technological and institutional innovation: the lack of independent innovation ability is prominently manifested that key technologies and related parts are monopolized by foreign manufacturers who have long kept a “stranglehold” on the industry;the key crux is that the traditional patterns,including "acquiring technologies by opening domestic markets to foreign enterprises",did not dynamically gear to technological innovation and hence its support on industrial upgrading is insufficient.Under the trend of "green,connected,intelligent,and sharing" development,the technological intensity of automotive products is increasingly higher,and innovation will play a greater role in underpinning the long-term competitive advantages of the industry.Particularly,in the profound integration between new energy vehicles characterized by "electrical battery,motor,and control" and intelligent connected technologies,conventional vehicles are evolving into new mobile smart terminals,energy-saving ends,digital and storage spaces,etc.,with sweeping changes in product functional attributes,industrial manufacturing system and ecology.Upgrading the automobile industry and even "surpassing" other competitors at an unfavorable position entails us to break the old paradigm of scaling and employ innovation to propel the automobile industry to upgrade and move ahead.Great scientific and technological capacity is a must for China to be strong,while institutional foundations provide guarantees for sustainable development.Based on the interconnectedness in Marxist philosophy,General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward a series of new thinking,arguments and requirements,including that "technological and institutional innovation should serve as two wheels moving in the same direction to produce synergetic effects" to make the fundamental transformation in China's economic development strategy centered on implementing the innovation-driven development strategy.Employing Marxist standpoints,methods and perspectives,this paper probes into the upgrading of the automobile industry by referring to Western economic theories and methods.Under the law of "contradictory movement of productivity and production relations",the paper proposes that the key of innovation-driven upgrading of the automobile industry lies in technological and institutional innovation,that is,the current automobile industry upgrading entails not only breakthroughs in technological innovations such as those in new energy and intelligence but also dynamic and suitable institutional innovation to support the upgrading.Based on this,the paper analyzes in-depth and unfolds the new characteristics of the automobile industry's "productivity" under the technological and industrial revolution.It also summarizes the institutional and mechanism obstacles in China's automobile industry,after which recommendations to support the institutional designs and policies from the theoretical and practical levels are put forward.This paper is structured in the following sequence: "raising questions—expounding theoretical basis and ideas—historical review and analysis of status quo—institutional exploration—empirical analysis—path selection".The main research content and conclusions are as follows.First,define the research object and pinpoint the theoretical basis and research paradigm.First of all,it defines key concepts such as innovation-driven(mainly breakthroughs in technological and institutional innovation),the automobile industry,and industrial upgrading.Second,it clarifies the relationship between technological and institutional innovation based on the Marxist law of "the contradictory movement of productivity and production relations".According to the basic rules of long-term development,technological innovation determines institutional innovation,whereas institutional innovation,in turn,ensures that the functions of technological innovation are realized.This theory serves as the key theoretical guidance for this paper.In this sense,the theoretical framework of this paper is formulated—relying on technological and institutional innovation to bolster industrial upgrading("the current automobile industry upgrading entails not only breakthroughs in technological innovations such as those in new energy and intelligence but also dynamic and suitable institutional innovation to support the upgrading”),providing a theoretical basis and research paradigm for further analysis.Second,analyze the historical and current situation.First of all,approaching from the aspects of productivity and production relations,the paper comprehensively summarizes and delves into how technology and institution play their roles in the development of China's automobile industry as well as their current conundrums.In essence,the growth path of China's automobile industry can be depicted as an innovation process in which the “inadaptability” in the connection between productivity and production relations is constantly overcoming and ushering into a new state.After the founding of the People's Republic of China,especially after 40 years of reform and opening-up,China has adopted the pattern of "acquiring technologies by opening domestic markets to foreign enterprises",and secured high-speed industrial growth and expansion of scale by integrating selective industrial policies into the value chain of the international automotive industry.However,constrained by traditional fuel technology,China's productivity achievements have long been steered and even occupied by foreign auto companies.Under such circumstances,accumulating capital in the division of labor in the global value chain and meanwhile forging strong technological innovation capabilities are almost impossible tasks for China.This is due to,to a certain extent,drawbacks in institutional innovation,especially the failure to vigorously promote independent R&D and the absence of a national brand with international influences.Secondly,the paper plunges into analyzing the upgrading direction,competition pattern,opportunities and challenges of the automobile industry empowered by new technologies,and puts forward the urgency and necessity to carry out innovation-driven upgrading of China's automobile industry.At present,the global automobile industry is stepping up towards the "new four modernizations"(industrialization,informatization,new-type urbanization and agricultural modernization).Germany,Japan and other countries are increasing R&D investment in new technologies,with attempts to constantly adjust their systems to capitalize on new technologies into actual productivity.As China has established some foundation on the "new chain" led by new technologies such as new energy and intelligence,the automobile industry is facing the opportunity to shift from "dependent development"to "independent development",while the trend of the global automobile industry has turned from "transference” to "competition".In such a context,it is imminent and imperative to carry out innovation-driven upgrading of China's automobile industry centered on "technological and institutional innovation".The third part is the theoretical analysis.Focusing on the core propositions,this paper elaborates on how technological innovation leads to industrial upgrading,and how institutional innovation dynamically adapts to and matches with technological innovation,with a view to anatomizing the mechanism of innovation-driven upgrading of China's automobile industry.First,following the law of technological evolution,the paper probes into the mechanism of innovation-driven industrial upgrading.Technology is categorized as one of the productive forces in the Marxist political economy and is a revolutionary force in prompting changes in production methods and social progress.Marx has pioneered in analyzing technological innovations in laboring such as "production techniques and methods,technological advances,and machine improvements".The current new wave of the industrial revolution is triggering profound changes in global industries and industrial models.To seize the opportunities brought by the new technological revolution,we must follow the law of technological evolution and master the characteristics of new technologies and the process that affects industrial upgrading in an all-rounded way.This part of content includes: affected by key technologies such as new energy technology and intelligence,automobile products featured with traditional fuel injection engines will be replaced by those with EFI(electronic fuel injection)-driven systems and intelligent connected systems,so will their product life cycles;high-level data will nest or even substitute elements at the low-level,so as to achieve industrial upgrading;new technologies will change the way automobiles produced and form new connections within and between industries,for which the paper analyzes from three dimensions,that is,technology paradigm,value-form,and production organization.From the perspective of the value chain,industrial upgrading takes the form of aggregating to the two ends of the industrial chain with high-added value and new blocks in the value chain.Secondly,the paper thoroughly analyzes how institutional innovation impacts on technological innovation and industrial upgrading from the theoretical level.That's how a theoretical basis is configured to underpin further suggestions for institutional innovation.The internal changes in technology and productivity would result in the external inadaptability of the previous production relations,thereby remodeling the production relations.As industrial upgrading is always affected and restricted by the institutional setting,China's current automobile industry upgrading must also be deployed within the overall framework of socialism with Chinese characteristics,and in line with the scientific institutions,a strategic cornerstone for industrial upgrading.New technologies with brand-new features have posed a fresh ecological environment for the automotive industry.Institutional innovation is a process of tuning the unbalanced system to a balanced one,mainly crystalized that institutional innovation regulates technological innovation,inspires technological innovation,adjusts technological innovation and influences industrial upgrading.Fourth,the paper carries out empirical analysis on the dynamic response relationship among technological innovation,institutional innovation and automobile industry upgrading.First,it constructs a regression model based on panel data.Then,after reviewing the existing data,the paper selects the “R&D investment intensity ” of six major automobile production provinces and municipalities in Beijing,Shanghai,and Hubei from 2012 to 2018 as technological innovation indicators,and the contemporary "marketization index" compiled by Wang Xiaolu and Fan Gang as institutional innovation indicators.The results indicate that the intensity of R&D investment plays a significantly positive role in promoting the upgrading of the automobile industry,while the marketization index plays a negative role in the upgrading of the automobile industry.The results verify the core propositions of this paper,namely,we need to increase R&D investment and give full play of the leading role of technological innovation,and meanwhile,keep on boosting institutional innovation,including upholding the "competitive industrial policy" and enabling the government to act as an institutional vanguard.The empirical results not only support theoretical research but also offer a decision-making basis for "countermeasures and suggestions".Fifth,the paper puts forward countermeasures and suggestions.In order to leverage science and technology as a way to elevate productivity in the real world and realize industrial upgrading,as well as to consolidate the institutional reform of the automobile industry,the paper proposes a series of targeted countermeasures and suggestions from the institutional innovation dimension.Integrating the abovementioned technological and institutional issues,upgrading mechanism,and empirical analysis results regarding the upgrading of the automobile industry,the paper renders overall recommendations from the government,the market,and the consumer side in response to the current "new infrastructure" initiatives and the Covid-19.The measures incorporate issues,for instance,how to better utilize the power of the government to provide innovation support for the upgrading of the automobile industry;how to enable the market play the decisive role in allocating resources and motivating the innovation enthusiasm of auto companies;how to build an innovation system to lift the ability and efficiency of independent innovation in China's automobile industry;how to step up our efforts in innovating business models and translate science and technology into actual productivity.This part is an extension of the institutional innovation mentioned previously,aiming to contribute pragmatic suggestions for the upgrading of China's automobile industry.The major innovations of the paper are as follows.First,the paper incorporates the "upgrading" of the automobile industry,as a part of a whole,into the overall framework of "dynamically adapted productivity and production relations" to conduct research.Since the existing research usually approach from the micro-level perspective,the paper hence provides a wider view as it is based on the principle that "the contradictory movement of productivity and production relations is the overall driving force of industrial upgrading".In this way,the upgrading of the automotive industry is comprehended in all aspects.Furthermore,it proposes that the upgrading of the automotive industry is a process led by technological innovation,where the institution dynamically adjusts and adapts to technological innovation and hence push forward industrial upgrading.Second,the paper set up a theoretical framework for analyzing how technological innovation and institutional innovation affect the upgrading of the automobile industry,through which the relationship between technological innovation and institutional innovation is analyzed.Enlightened by the new characteristics and trends of technological innovation and industrial developments,the paper elaborates on the mechanism of technological innovation affecting industrial upgrading from the four dimensions of technological leap track,elements upgrading,production mode upgrading,industrial and value chain reshaping;it expounds how institutional innovation safeguards technological innovation and industrial upgrading.Third,the paper sorts out how China's automobile industry upgrades and evolves historically under the dynamic angle that technology and institutions influence mutually,summarizing innovations' effects in different stages.It then proposes that the growth path of China's automobile industry can be depicted as an innovation process in which the “ inadaptability ” in the connection between productivity and production relations is constantly overcoming and ushering into a new state,as well as the reasons why the pattern of "acquiring technologies by opening domestic markets to foreign enterprises" fails.It examines the development process and problems of the industry in a developmental vision and with reflective mindsets,which can be regarded as an improvement on the previous static analysis based on time or typical events. |
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