Research On The Impact Of Digital Transformation On The Innovation Of "Specialized,Fined,Peculiar And Innovative" SMEs

The innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs)drives the country’s high-quality and self-reliant development,which not only consolidates the foundation of common prosperity,but also highly reflects the essential requirements of socialism.Report to the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out that it is necessary to create an enabling environment for the growth of micro,small and medium-sized technological enterprises and promote the deeper integration of the innovation,industrial,capital and talent chains.In July 2013,the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology officially issued the qualification identification policy of “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative”,aiming at promoting the innovation and development of SMEs by giving play to the leading role of qualified enterprises.In the era of digital economy and the background of "Great Wisdom Propelling Clouds",digital transformation has become the development trend of most enterprises by reconstructing the innovation model of enterprises.Report to the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly stated that it is necessary to accelerate the development of the digital economy,further integrate it with the real economy.In November 2022,the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Digital Transformation Guide for SMEs" to promote SMEs to carry out digital transformation scientifically and efficiently and achieve high-quality innovative development.Therefore,it is important to explore the impact of digital transformation on the innovation of “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” SMEs and its mechanism to further optimize the qualification policy of “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” and enhance the core competitiveness of SMEs.This paper integrates Schumpeterian innovation theory,digital economy theory and information asymmetry theory on the basis of a review of domestic and international literature.Based on the background of digital economy,the relationship between digital transformation and innovation of “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” SMEs is studied using the related data listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares in China from 2012 to 2021 as a sample,and the influence mechanism is constructed.The results show that:(1)On the whole,digital transformation can significantly promote the innovation level of “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” SMEs in terms of R&D investment,innovation output and innovation efficiency,and the effect is mainly driven by the level of artificial intelligence.(2)The mechanism analysis shows that digital transformation promotes the innovation level and development of “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” SMEs by strengthening the application of information technology,improving the quality of information disclosure and restraining the concentration of supply chain.(3)Heterogeneity analysis shows that the promotion effect of digital transformation on innovation of “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” SMEs is more obvious among non-state enterprises,municipal and provincial qualification level enterprises,and enterprises with high digital capital investment intensity.(4)Further analysis shows that the positive impact of digital transformation on the innovation of“Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” SMEs is reflected in the “increment” rather than “quality improvement”.Based on the above findings,this paper makes the following targeted recommendations:(1)Further promote the practical application of digital transformation in China’s enterprises and vigorously develop blockchain,cloud computing and big data technologies to accelerate the development of digital China and promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy.(2)Optimize the threshold setting conditions for “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” SMEs,emphasize market leadership instead of market share,and strengthen the follow-up supervision and review of“Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” SMEs,emphasize the transformation of innovation results,and continuously improve the innovation level of enterprises.At the same time,strengthen the guidance and the corresponding policy guarantee for the innovative development of SMEs,and guide them to focus on the expansion of scale and innovation development in parallel,so as to promote SMEs to continuously follow the path of innovative development.(3)Deepen the reform of innovation assessment objectives,improve the patent acceptance system,enhance the ability to identify high-quality technological innovation,guide enterprises to focus on exploratory patents to win future development with high-quality technological innovations.The possible innovations of this paper are as follows:(1)On the basis of previous research and related theories,the influence of digital transformation on the innovation of“Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative” SMEs is innovatively discussed,and the theoretical analysis framework and influence mechanism are constructed,which expands the research on the motivation of innovation of SMEs and enriched the relevant theory.(2)Compared with previous studies,this paper has new findings that the promotion effect of digital transformation on the innovation of “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative”SMEs is different at different qualification levels,and the effect is “increment” rather than“quality improvement”,which provides empirical support for the further optimization of China’s qualification identification policy of “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovative”and empirical evidence for the development direction of digital transformation of SMEs.