| 宋晴,余典范,贾咏琪.数字技术复杂度与企业市场价值——基于策略性创新的视角[J].数量经济技术经济研究,2026,(3):129-153 | | 数字技术复杂度与企业市场价值——基于策略性创新的视角 | | Digital Technology Complexity and Firm Market Value: A Strategic Innovation Perspective | | | | DOI： | | 中文关键词: 数字技术复杂度 市场价值 策略性创新 技术封锁 技术许可 | | 英文关键词: Digital Technology Complexity Market Value Strategic Innovation Technology Blocking Technology Licensing | | 基金项目: | | | 中文摘要: | | 数字创新的外溢性和重组性使专利价值获取方式逐渐从保护知识产权向策略性运用知识产权转变。本文通过构造数字技术复杂度指标，捕捉企业专利组合结构的多样性与稀有性特征，研究发现，复杂数字技术通过技术封锁带来的价值保护效应与技术许可带来的价值创造效应，显著提升了企业市场价值。异质性分析发现，在专利组合内部，稀有性是复杂数字技术释放市场价值的关键前提；在行业层面，较长的研发周期会带来先发劣势，抑制企业从事策略性创新的动机；在城市层面，作为知识产权服务的关键环节，专利代理服务有效缓解了复杂数字技术向市场价值转化存在的摩擦。进一步研究发现，技术封锁仅在大型企业中发挥价值保护效应，而技术许可能够赋能不同规模企业的价值创造。本文从策略性创新视角出发，揭示了微观层面数字创新动机的底层逻辑，为推动高质量发展提供了政策启示。 | | 英文摘要: | | The rapid development of the digital economy has reshaped how firms capture value from innovation. Digital technologies weaken the effectiveness of patents as purely defensive instruments due to strong spillover effects and high recombination potential. Therefore, firms increasingly rely on patent portfolios as strategic tools not only to protect existing technological rents but also to create new sources of competitive advantage. This study examines how digital technology complexity affects firm market value from a strategic innovation perspective.Using a comprehensive dataset of more than 500,000 digital technology patents filed by Chinese A-share listed firms from 2009 to 2020, spanning 135 four-digit IPC subclasses, we construct a firm-level index of digital technology complexity. Building on the method of reflections from the economic complexity literature, this index captures the structural characteristics of firms’ digital patent portfolios along two dimensions， diversity and rarity. Diversity reflects the breadth of a firm’s technological advantages across different digital domains, while rarity captures the relative scarcity and imitation difficulty of the advantages in the broader technological landscape.The empirical analysis finds a robust and economically meaningful positive relationship between digital technology complexity and firm market value. To uncover the mechanisms underlying this relationship, we identify two strategic innovation channels through which complexity enhances value capture. First, complex digital technologies strengthen firms’ ability to restrict competitors’ freedom to operate, thereby protecting existing innovation rents from eroding. By expanding and densifying patent coverage around core technologies, firms reduce the feasibility of substitution and delay competitors’ technological entry. Second, digital technology complexity facilitates value creation through technology licensing. Rare and structurally embedded digital technologies enhance firms’ bargaining power in licensing negotiations, generate licensing income, and foster long-term cooperative relationships that support open innovation and strategic partnerships.We further explore the boundary conditions of these effects through a series of heterogeneity analyses. At the patent-portfolio level, rarity emerges as the primary driver of market value. Although diversity contributes to technological breadth, diversity without rarity does not generate a significant valuation premium, highlighting the importance of nonsubstitutable digital capabilities. At the industry level, the positive effect of complexity is more pronounced in sectors with shorter research and development cycles, where rapid technological iteration magnifies the strategic role of patent portfolios. At the regional level, the presence of professional intellectual property service institutions significantly mitigates frictions in translating technological complexity into market value, underscoring the importance of the innovation service ecosystem.Additional analyses reveal that firm size shapes the choice of strategic instruments. Large firms tend to combine restrictive strategies, such as limiting rivals’ freedom to operate, with cooperative strategies based on licensing. In contrast, smaller and more specialized firms primarily rely on technology licensing to accelerate commercialization and overcome resource constraints. Moreover, the value-enhancing effects of strategic innovation are amplified in regions with stronger intellectual property protection, while antitrust enforcement does not weaken these effects. This implies institutional complementarity between intellectual property protection and competition policy in incentivizing high-quality digital innovation.This study contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it moves beyond patent quantity and average quality measures by highlighting the structural attributes of digital patent portfolios as a key determinant of firm market value. Second, it challenges the prevailing view that strategic innovation primarily reflects low-quality or opportunistic patenting by indicating that strategies rooted in technological complexity can protect existing value and create new value simultaneously. Finally, by distinguishing between value protection and value creation mechanisms, the study provides a unified framework for understanding how firms navigate innovation and competition in the digital era. The findings offer important implications for firms and policymakers seeking to foster sustainable, high-quality innovation. | | 查看全文 相关附件： 下载数据代码附录 |
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