Understanding the Influencing Factors of Enterprise Transformation and Upgrading Capability: A Case Study of the National Innovation Demonstration Zones, China

Being at the forefront of China's regional innovation and development, enterprises in the National Innovation Demonstration Zones must take the lead in completing high-quality transformation and upgrading. In this study, we use data from 1770 manufacturing companies from China's 21 National Innovation Demonstration Zones. Based on the multi-factor influence model, we quantitatively study a series of factors that affect enterprise transformation and upgrading capability in terms of innovation-driven input, economically beneficial output, regional high-quality development, and the enterprise's basic environment. The research results show a good trend in enterprise transformation and upgrading capability, and 45% of the enterprises have higher capabilities than the average of these zones. There are significant differences in these capabilities across the different National Innovation Demonstration Zones. Economically beneficial output has a relatively large impact on enterprise transformation and upgrading capability, while innovation-driven input, regional high-quality development, and the enterprise's basic environment all have a relatively small impact. We suggest that the National Innovation Demonstration Zones and relevant departments should provide policy guarantees for enterprise transformation and upgrading in terms of regional systems, industrial chain layout, and soft environment optimization, so as to fully enable policy benefits from top-level design.