A Study On The Impact Of Innovation On Firms’ Export Competitiveness In The Perspective Of Heterogeneity

Exports are an important driving force in the development of China’s economy,expanding the domestic market and driving the progress of local enterprises in technology and management.In recent years,the low-cost advantage of China’s goods is gradually disappearing as the aging population and rising human capital come to the fore.Affected by the downturn in international market demand,the rise of trade protectionism and other issues,enterprise export growth has slowed down.China urgently needs to carry out industrial transformation and upgrading,improve the quality and added value of export products,and enhance the core competitiveness of enterprise exports.Innovation,as an important driving force for enterprise development,has a key role in promoting industrial transformation and upgrading and enhancing export competitiveness.Based on the export data of Chinese enterprises from 2001 to 2007,this thesis explores the role played by innovation in the process of enhancing the export competitiveness of enterprises.First,by establishing a mediating effect model,we explore the transmission mechanism affecting export competitiveness and calculate the contribution of innovation to enhance export competitiveness under the conditions of different capital intensity levels of enterprises.Second,based on the moderating effect model,we explore the impact of differences in firm productivity on firm innovation.The impact of firms’ export behavior on innovation under different productivity levels is analyzed.Finally,the robustness of the model is tested based on the panel threshold model and instrumental variables regression.The empirical findings show that(1)innovation plays a partial mediating effect in enhancing firms’ export competitiveness,explaining 20%-40% of the increase in firms’ export competitiveness.(2)The marginal contribution of innovation to the export competitiveness of capital-intensive firms is greater than that of labor-intensive firms.(3)Productivity gains promote firms’ innovation,and the higher the productivity,the more pronounced the export promotion effect on firms’ innovation.At the same time,the innovation behavior of firms will be inhibited at lower productivity levels.(4)The results of the endogeneity test indicate that the role of innovation in enhancing firms’ export competitiveness is robust for capital-intensive and high-productivity firms.Based on the analysis of the results of the empirical test,the study provides some insights for enhancing the export competitiveness of enterprises.The thesis gives improvement paths for different types of firms and gives relevant suggestions for government policy formulation as a way to promote the export competitiveness of Chinese firms.