Navigating the innovation curve: Insights from science-technology convergence in emerging industries

Scientific knowledge plays a pivotal role in driving technological advancement, while the convergence of science and technology (S&T) furnishes tools and benchmarks for technological innovation. This study adopts a knowledge network perspective to empirically investigate how S&T convergence influences the quantity and quality of technological innovation. Leveraging Chinese and international publications and patent data from the ICT industry in China between 2000 and 2022, our results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between S&T convergence and both the quantity and quality of technological innovation, albeit with varying degrees of impact. Technological endogeneity capability moderates this relationship by flattening the inverted U-shape, whereas scientific endogeneity capability intensifies the slope between S&T convergence and innovation quantity. A negative binomial regression at a distance ‘a’ from the inflection point was conducted to test this intricate moderating effect. This research provides micro-level evidence on how S&T convergence impacts both the scale and quality of innovation, uncovering patterns of knowledge integration in the development of emerging industries. It also offers theoretical insights into the role of scientific knowledge in fostering technological innovation, thereby informing enterprises on the effective allocation of knowledge resources.