加入大企业供应链网络如何影响中小企业创新？

李瑞敏¹　李雪松²

（1.中国社会科学院大学；2.中国社会科学院）

内容提要：本文在知识溢出理论与交易成本理论的框架下，利用2014—2022年中国A股上市公司数据，实证检验了加入大企业供应链网络对中小企业创新的影响与作用机制。研究结果显示，总体上，加入大企业供应链网络提升了中小企业的创新水平，经过一系列稳健性检验后结论仍然成立。机制研究发现，大企业对中小企业沿供应链的创新溢出效应作用渠道主要为促进数字化转型、增加创新投入与缓解融资约束。拓展研究发现，加入大企业供应链网络对中小企业创新存在非线性影响，以及在不同创新产出水平下溢出效应先增大后减小。此外，大企业的创新溢出效应对高吸收能力与出口型的中小企业影响更大。本文的研究为实践中促进大中小企业融通创新提供了依据与思路。

关键词：中小企业；供应链网络；企业创新；非线性影响；数字化转型

作者简介：李瑞敏，中国社会科学院大学应用经济学院博士研究生，通信作者，北京，102488；李雪松，中国社会科学院经济研究所研究员、博士生导师，北京，100836。

基金项目：国家社会科学基金重大项目“实现高质量发展和高水平安全良性互动研究”（2024MZD026）；国家社会科学基金项目“增强国内大循环内生动力和可靠性与提升国际循环质量和水平研究”（22VRC082）

引用格式：李瑞敏,李雪松.加入大企业供应链网络如何影响中小企业创新?[J].经济与管理研究,2025,46(1):109-123.

How does Joining a Large Enterprise's Supply Chain Network Affect the Innovation of SMEs?

LI Ruimin¹, LI Xuesong²

(1. University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 102488;

2. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100836)

Abstract: Stimulating the innovative vitality of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is crucial for driving China’s economic transformation and upgrading, and promoting the innovation integration among large, medium, and small enterprises is beneficial for driving innovation and upgrading across the entire industrial and supply chains. Based on knowledge spillover theory and transaction cost theory, this paper provides a theoretical explanation for the relationship between joining the supply chain network of large enterprises and SME innovation. Using panel data from A-share listed companies in China from 2014 to 2022, it constructs a fixed effects model to empirically examine the extent to which joining the supply chain network of large enterprises influences SME innovation and its mechanism.

The findings indicate that, overall, joining the supply chain network of large enterprises can enhance the innovation level of SMEs. This conclusion remains valid after a series of robustness tests. Additionally, the innovation spillover effects of large enterprises along the supply chain are sustainable.

Mechanism analysis reveals that the innovation spillover effects of large enterprises on SMEs along the supply chain primarily occurby promoting digital transformation, increasing innovation investment, and alleviating financing constraints. First, the siphoning effect of joining the supply chain network of large enterprises on SMEs’ digital transformation outweighs the diffusion effect, resulting in a positive net effect on SMEs’ digital transformation. Second, joining the supply chain network of large enterprises increases SMEs’ investment in technical personnel, benefiting their internal research and development activities without causing significant technical or resource dependency on large enterprises. Furthermore, joining the supply chain network of large enterprises provides SMEs with stable orders and continuous financial resources, and facilitates recognition and investment from markets and financial institutions, thereby alleviating financing constraints and exerting a deleveraging effect.

Further analysis identifies a nonlinear impact of joining the supply chain network of large enterprises on SME innovation. Specifically, SMEs with larger employee sizes benefit more from the integration of large, medium, and small enterprises. Additionally, the innovation spillover effects from large enterprises exhibit a pattern of increasing and then decreasing for SMEs at different levels of innovation output and have a greater impact on export-oriented SMEs and SMEs with a high absorptive capacity.

The findings extend the literature on the determinants of SME innovation and the innovation spillover effects of large enterprises from the perspective of industrial and supply chains, providing a basis for the innovation integration among large, medium, and small enterprises and offering insights for implementing the innovation-driven development strategy.

Keywords: small and medium-sized enterprises; supply chain network; enterprise innovation; nonlinear effect; digital transformation

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