IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i3p2424-d1050752.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Innovation Incentive Policies Improve the Innovation Performance of Knowledge Workers? Evidence from Chinese State-Owned Enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Xiaoli Gao

    (School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
    Shanghai Electric Lingang Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201308, China)

  • Weiwei Zhang

    (School of Business Administration, Zhejiang University of Finance & Economics, Hangzhou 310018, China)

Abstract

Innovation by knowledge workers is the foundation of sustainable development within an organization. Chinese policy makers use various innovation incentive policies to improve the innovation performance of knowledge workers at state-owned enterprises, which is in line with China’s goal of becoming an “innovative country”. This study compares the impacts of incentive policies issued by the central government, by local governments, and at the enterprise level (vertical dimension) and examines the effectiveness of varying policy content (horizontal dimension). The mechanism by which policy supply influences the innovation performance of knowledge workers at state-owned enterprises is theoretically analyzed, and empirical tests based on 1857 samples from field research are then conducted. The results show that incentive policies at each vertical level and each horizontal content level have a significant positive effect on the innovation performance of knowledge workers at state-owned enterprises, although the effects vary. The findings indicate that, along the vertical dimension, local government incentive policies are most effective. Along the horizontal dimension, salary and honor incentive policies are the most impactful. Policy providers should consider the differences in the effects of various innovation incentive policies to formulate relevant incentive policies to improve the innovation performance of state-owned enterprise knowledge workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiaoli Gao & Weiwei Zhang, 2023. "Can Innovation Incentive Policies Improve the Innovation Performance of Knowledge Workers? Evidence from Chinese State-Owned Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-16, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:3:p:2424-:d:1050752
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/3/2424/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/3/2424/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Speckbacher, Gerhard & Wabnegg, Markus, 2020. "Incentivizing innovation: The role of knowledge exchange and distal search behavior," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    2. Hud, Martin & Hussinger, Katrin, 2015. "The impact of R&D subsidies during the crisis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1844-1855.
    3. Sabrina T. Howell, 2017. "Financing Innovation: Evidence from R&D Grants," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(4), pages 1136-1164, April.
    4. Tarnima Warda Andalib & Mohd. Ridzuan Darun & Noor Azlinna Azizan, 2019. "East Asian trends of human resource management: theories and practices," International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 19(2), pages 135-149.
    5. Hong Fan & Xiaofei Song, 2019. "Earnings management of Chinese central state-owned enterprises – the effects of state level incentives," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(6), pages 643-658, November.
    6. Beladi, Hamid & Hou, Qingsong & Hu, May, 2022. "The party school education and corporate innovation: Evidence from SOEs in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    7. Nientied Peter & Toska Merita, 2019. "Motivation of Knowledge Workers – the Case of Albania," Organizacija, Sciendo, vol. 52(1), pages 33-44, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huseyin Emre Sayici & Mehmet Fatih Ulu, 2023. "Economic Effects of R&D Supports," Koç University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum Working Papers 2308, Koc University-TUSIAD Economic Research Forum.
    2. Xing Gao & Ying Wang, 2023. "Competitive analysis of R&D investment with R&D budget constraint and R&D uncertainty," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 2438-2456, June.
    3. Stjepan Srhoj & Bruno Škrinjarić & Sonja Radas, 2021. "Bidding against the odds? The impact evaluation of grants for young micro and small firms during the recession," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 83-103, January.
    4. Haiyan Wang & Yasinjan Sawur, 2022. "The Relationships between Government Subsidies, Innovation Input, and Innovation Output: Evidence from the New Generation of Information Technology Industry in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-22, October.
    5. Giebel, Marek & Kraft, Kornelius, 2021. "Subsidies and innovation in the recent financial crisis," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-097, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    6. Thomas H. W. Ziesemer, 2021. "The Effects of R&D Subsidies and Publicly Performed R&D on Business R&D: A Survey," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 236(1), pages 171-205, March.
    7. Bellucci, Andrea & Pennacchio, Luca & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2023. "Debt financing of SMEs: The certification role of R&D Subsidies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. Kraft, Kornelius & Rammer, Christian, 2023. "Intended and unintended knowledge spillovers in innovation," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-015, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Stojčić, Nebojša & Srhoj, Stjepan & Coad, Alex, 2020. "Innovation procurement as capability-building: Evaluating innovation policies in eight Central and Eastern European countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    10. Xing Gao & Xifan Wang & Weijun Zhong & Ying Wang, 2023. "R&D subsidy and output subsidy in a duopoly: The role of technology spillover and R&D budget," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(3), pages 524-538, September.
    11. Sun, Yanyang & Chen, Yu & Wu, Wenruo, 2024. "Short-term success and long-term failure? The case of GDP growth targets and corporate innovation," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    12. Bottai, Carlo & de Rassenfosse, Gaétan & Raiteri, Emilio, 2025. "A new approach to measuring invention commercialization: An application to the SBIR program," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(9).
    13. Shan Lu & Peng Wu & Lei Gao & Richard Gifford, 2023. "Are State-Owned Enterprises Equally Reliable Information Suppliers? An Examination of the Impacts of State Ownership on Earnings Management Strategies of Chinese Enterprises," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-26, February.
    14. Josh Lerner & Ramana Nanda, 2020. "Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 237-261, Summer.
    15. Luo, Lianfa & Cheng, Zhiming & Ye, Qingqing & Cheng, Yanjun & Smyth, Russell & Yang, Zhiqing & Zhang, Le, 2024. "Nonmonetary awards and innovation: Evidence from winning China's Top Brand Contest," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    16. Matteo Aquilina & Giulio Cornelli & Marina Sanchez del Villar, 2024. "Regulation, information asymmetries and the funding of new ventures," BIS Working Papers 1162, Bank for International Settlements.
    17. Balila Acurio & Alessandro Tomarchio, 2024. "The Effects of Business Credit Support Programs: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," IHEID Working Papers 20-2024, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    18. Nuraddeen Abubakar Nuhu & Kevin Baird & Sophia Su, 2022. "The association between the interactive and diagnostic use of financial and non-financial performance measures with individual creativity: The mediating role of perceived fairness," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 371-402, September.
    19. Chen, Fenglan & Chen, Xing, 2025. "Mitigating pollution emissions of manufacturing firms: Does input servitization matter? Empirical evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    20. Grigorii Teplykh & Amal Galimardanov, 2017. "Modeling of innovative investment in Russian regions," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 46, pages 104-125.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:3:p:2424-:d:1050752. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.