MEANS OF TECHNICAL INNOVATION OF CHINA'S MIDDLE-AND-SMALL-SIZED INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES——The Case Study of Lanzhou
CHANG Gen-ying
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems of Ministry of Education, College of Earth & Environmental Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Abstract：Technical progress may be defined as new and improved processes and products and it can be only new to the organization under study. Based on such definition, the paper investigates to what degree and how the main techniques of small and medium-sized industrial enterprises (SMIEs) in Lanzhou has changed since their establishment by using enterprise questionnaires and interviews. Totally 77 SMIEs in Lanzhou are questioned and/or interviewed. Investigation shows that great technical improvement has been achieved by most of local SMIEs, but original or first innovations are absent in local SMIEs. Although "second in novations" could be observed in many SMIEs, they concentrate on secondary and supplementary processes, in stead of core techniques and main processes. Technical introduction is the main channel of technical improvement, which is followed by learning by doing and higher quality of employees leading to digestion and absorption of more advanced techniques. The most important form of technical introduction is equipment introduction. Mother enterprises, universities and research institutes are also important sources for technical introduction of local SMIEs. No typical industrial clusters constituting SMIEs are found in Lanzhou, neither are obvious interactive innovations. The author argues that economic power and technical gaps can influence means of technical innovations of enterprises and differentiated regional technical policies should be adopted with regard to their economic power and technical advancement. In case of an underdeveloped economy with great technical gap between local and non-local enterprises, technical introduction, diffusion and followed improvement may be main means of technical improvement of most of enterprises since local enterprises are short of funds, brain resource and knowledge for autonomous innovations. But patent introduction should be preferred to equipment introduction and at the same time risk funds should be available for a small number of high-tech enterprises.
常跟应. 我国中小工业企业技术创新途径的实证研究——基于兰州中小企业的调查[J]. 人文地理, 2007, 22(5): 69-71,98.
CHANG Gen-ying. MEANS OF TECHNICAL INNOVATION OF CHINA'S MIDDLE-AND-SMALL-SIZED INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES——The Case Study of Lanzhou. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, 2007, 22(5): 69-71,98.
