Research on high-quality development path of strategic emerging enterprises enabled by innovation

Promoting the high-quality development of strategic emerging enterprises is an inevitable approach to building a strong nation, and innovation serves as the critical engine providing core momentum for such development. From the perspective of complex causal effect analysis, this article selects 176 A-share listed companies in strategic emerging industries from 2012 to 2023 as samples and employs a combination of methods including NCA, multi-period fsQCA, and empirical regression analysis to distill practical pathways for innovation-driven high-quality development in these enterprises. The research findings are summarized as follows: (1) There is no single necessary condition for achieving high-quality development in strategic emerging enterprises; rather, it is the result of the synergistic interaction among technological innovation, talent innovation, and policy innovation. (2) Technological innovation has consistently played a pivotal role across all periods, with R&D investment identified as a key factor driving high-quality development. Other contributing factors also exhibit heterogeneous effects within the configurations of each period. (3) Four distinct configuration paths for high-quality development emerge across the three periods: the technology-dominant type, the “technology and talent” dual-driven type, the “technology and policy” dual-driven type, and the comprehensive innovation type. This study leverages complex causal effect analysis to offer scientific insights to relevant policymakers and enterprise managers, thereby facilitating the high-quality development of strategic emerging enterprises.