| Countries rely on a portfolio of advantageous industries rather than a single advantageous industry to participate in international competition,and the advantageous industrial portfolio(AIP)with rich intellectual capital is the core of a country's competitiveness.How to design and upgrade this kind of AIP to improve a country's competitive advantage in the international market is the interest of this research.In view of existing problem of insufficient theoretical explanation in the current literature,on the basis of Hidalgo and Hausmann(2009)discussing about different country capabilities,this study constructs the “Country Capabilities View”with its core logic and influence path,and takes the AIP of intellectual property(IP)intensive industries as the main research object.The study innovatively creates the Country Space based on the existing Product Space,and tests the “Country Capabilities View” with social network analysis in the competitive space composed of these two spaces,and then deeply explores the mechanism of complexity improvement and structural upgrading of the AIP of IP intensive industries.The research has six chapters:The first chapter includes literature review and theoretical construction.For the discussion of national competitiveness,there has always been a dispute between Comparative Advantage and Competitive Advantage on the theoretical level.With the continuous development of the evaluation methods of industrial international competitiveness,the explanatory power of the two theories gradually become limited,which brings an opportunity for the formation of new theoretical viewpoints.Based on discussion of Harvard research,this chapter follows the rule of Vertical Theory Borrowing to construct “Country Capabilities View”,extending the theoretical logic of Resource-based Theory at the firm level to the discussion of national competitiveness,and providing an explanation for the structural issues of AIP together with social network analysis.“Country Capabilities View” follows the core logic of Resourcebased theory and proposes that a country's unique core competence will create a unique AIP,thus forming a differentiated sustainable competitive advantage,which in turn affects economic performance.The essence of core competence is intellectual capital,and AIP with rich intellectual capital is an effective carrier of the core competence.The influence path of “Country Capabilities View” is reflected in the complexity and structural upgrading of this AIP in the Country Space and Product Space.This Chapter lays the theoretical foundation for the whole research.The second chapter reveals the evolution and comparision of AIP of IP intensive industries.AIP with rich intellectual capital is identified from the perspective of intellectual property,and international comparisons are conducted from both aspects of “quantity” and “quality”.The results show that China is far ahead in terms of “quantity”,but the advantage of “quality” is concentrated in the low-end manufacturing sector with less intellectual capital,resulting in a gap behind “all-round” Germany and “featured” America.The evolution study in the competitive space shows that,the upgrading path of China's AIP of IP intensive industries in the Product Space is mainly based on “proximity law” supplemented by jumping mechanism;in the Country Space it has continuously moved to the central area and now belongs to the very competition group of developed countries.The third chapter is to explore the "consequences" of “Country Capabilities View”,that is,the relationship between the complexity of AIP of IP intensive industries in the Country Space and the economic performance.This chapter divides complexity into intensive complexity and extensive complexity,respectively reflecting the depth and breadth of technical capabilities.This chapter improves intensive complexity indicator and newly builds extensive complexity indicator.The empirical results show that the intensive complexity increase will have a positive impact on economic growth,while the extensive complexity increase has an inverted “U” effect on economic growth.This chapter provides a possible explanation from the perspective of the yield curve and the cost curve,and proposes a development suggestion that coutries need to switch between improving the technical quality and improving the diversity of IP intensive industries according to different development stages.The fourth chapter is to explore the "antecedents" of “Country Capabilities View”,that is,the relationship between intellectual capital acquisition,intellectual property protection and the complexity of AIP of IP intensive industries.Access to intellectual capital includes internal approaches of research and development(R&D)activities and human capital,and external approaches of foreign direct investment(FDI).The empirical results show that R&D activities significantly promote the intensive complexity and extensive complexity,human capital significantly promotes the extensive complexity,and FDI significantly promotes the intensive complexity.At the same time,intellectual property protection is appropriate for the intensive complexity.In consideration of China's urgent need to improve the status quo of the intensive complexity,this chapter proposes a development strategy that China needs to lay importance on independent R&D supplemented by foreign investment,and needs to strengthen intellectual property protection to provide benign incentives for technological innovation.The fifth chapter discusses the structural upgrading of AIP of IP intensive industries.The research scope shifts from Country Space to Product Space,from the overall perspective of complexity to the upgrading path of individual industries,thus resulting a systematic study of the core logic and influence path of “Country Capabilities View”.Existing research focuses on the influence effects of adjacent products in Product Space,which cannot provide a powerful explanation for cases of jumping upgrade.However,according to “Country Capabilities View”,products can be upgraded as long as they are processed by specific advantageous capability,which can not only grow out of advantageous capabilities of adjacent products,but can also come from the country's entire set of advantageous capabilities.The empirical results show that the lower the level of capability required by the product and the more the accumulation of capabilities in adjacent products,the higher the possibilities of product upgrading.As the level of capability required by a product increases,the likelihood of a jumping upgrade will diminish,but the accumulation of capabilities in adjacent products can effectively slow down this decline.This chapter proposes that China's current cultivation of key potential IP intensive advantageous industries should follow the “advantageous agglomeration and moderate jumping” rule.The sixth chapter is the summary and outlook of the whole study.It summarizes the research results of the previous five chapters,including the general conclusions about the complexity of AIP of IP intensive industries and the targeted conclusions considering China's current situation,and proposes development suggestions accordingly.Strategically,China should actively promote the access of intellectual capital from external reliance to internal creation,and improve our own capacity of independent innovation and accumulation of intellectual capital;the implementation of the strategy should lay importance on industrial relevance,and allocate resources to encourage moderate innovation,thus reasonably selecting potential IP-intensive industries to upgrade. |
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