Improve the overall efficiency of industrial Internet innovation chain.
Not long ago, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out during his inspection tour in Wuhan, Hubei Province that China is the second largest economy in the world, but there are still many shortcomings. The foundation of some industries is not very solid, and further development must rely on innovation. Innovation is a decisive factor in building a socialist modern country in an all-round way and realizing the goal of the second century. Industrial Internet is a new type of infrastructure, application mode and industrial ecology, which is deeply integrated with the new generation of information and communication technology and industrial economy. Grasping the changing trend of industrial Internet in innovation chain and improving the overall efficiency of innovation chain will help China firmly seize the historical opportunity brought by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation and promote the high-quality development of manufacturing industry.
Grasp the trend change
At present, a new round of global scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation are developing vigorously, and industrial Internet technology is constantly breaking through. The combination of the two promotes the profound changes of industrial Internet innovation chain. This profound change requires that the overall efficiency of innovation chain should be improved in a more important position, which will have an all-round, deep-seated and revolutionary impact on the future industrial development.
First, the new technological revolution has promoted the diversification of the main body of industrial Internet in innovation chain. With the help of the new technological revolution, digital technology has greatly expanded the industrial Internet innovation ecosystem. The Internet of Everything and the efficient flow of data resources promote all kinds of innovation subjects to form all kinds of innovation consortia in a more flexible and agile way. The government, universities, scientific research institutions, enterprises and even users in innovation chain participate in the shaping process of the whole industrial Internet innovation ecology through physical or virtual space, and carry out collaborative innovation across time and space and fields to jointly promote the overall leap of the industrial Internet innovation chain.
Second, the new technological revolution promotes the digitalization of innovation chain elements of industrial Internet. Data has increasingly become an important strategic resource and a key force driving the industrial Internet innovation chain to improve quality and efficiency. Digital technology has opened up the innovation chain of the entire industrial Internet, such as basic research, applied research, product development, process improvement and commercialization, and formed a new data-driven innovation paradigm, effectively supporting the collaborative innovation of the entire industrial Internet chain.
Third, the new technological revolution has promoted the networking of industrial Internet innovation chain organizations. In previous technological revolutions, subject to the boundary restrictions of economies of scale and scope, as well as the constraints of transaction costs, resource endowments and incomplete information, the allocation scope and organizational boundaries of innovative resources are usually confined within enterprises or between the upstream and downstream of industrial chains and within industrial clusters. Under the condition of the new technological revolution, digitalization has significantly expanded the scope of innovation resources allocation and the boundaries of innovation organizations, amplified the effects of economies of scale, scope and network economy, accelerated the speed of cross-border convergence, circulation and allocation of innovative elements such as talents, capital and knowledge, reduced the cost of cooperation among various innovation entities, and promoted the organization of industrial Internet innovation activities to be ubiquitous, open-source and collaborative.
Fourthly, the new technological revolution promotes the innovation chain node of industrial Internet to become more platformized. In the wave of new technological revolution, platformization is an important trend, and the industrial Internet platform has become the core of the industrial Internet and even the whole manufacturing innovation chain. By realizing the deep interconnection of all industrial factors, the whole industrial chain and the whole value chain, the industrial Internet promotes the overall platform trend of the whole industry, which also drives the key nodes of the industrial Internet in innovation chain to become more platform-oriented.
Fifth, the new technological revolution promotes the industrial Internet innovation chain to be more circular. In the traditional mode, the whole process from the beginning of basic research to the end of industrialization or commercial application in innovation chain is a linear mode, and there is a lack of interaction and collaboration between innovators and end users. At present, innovation chain, an industrial Internet, is more and more distributed, collaborative and demand-driven. The new generation of digital technology enables the core industrial Internet platform enterprises, many small and medium-sized enterprises and end users in the whole chain to interact with each other efficiently, which makes all kinds of subjects in innovation chain widely participate in the development, promotion and application of new technologies and new products, and promotes the industrial Internet innovation chain to become more circular.
Sixth, the new technological revolution has promoted the industrial Internet innovation chain to be more inclusive. With the widespread popularity of the Internet and mobile intelligent terminals, on the one hand, all groups in the whole society can rely on industrial Internet and other carriers to acquire knowledge and upgrade innovative skills at low cost, participate in, promote and implement specific innovative activities, and play a role and create value in the innovation process; On the other hand, all kinds of innovative subjects in innovation chain can meet all kinds of personalized needs efficiently by digging deeply into personalized needs and innovating products, services and processes, so that the innovation results can be shared by all, and everyone can benefit from the innovation activities.
Seventh, the new technological revolution has promoted the industrial Internet innovation chain to be more scene-oriented. Under the condition of the new technological revolution, the new generation of information technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and big data have penetrated the physical space and cyberspace with universality, permeability and integration, forming a digital world and intelligent space with the interconnection of everything and human-computer interaction, which not only provides a new innovation carrier and experimental space for industrial Internet innovation, but also greatly reduces the cost of promoting the diversified and dynamic integration of innovation chain and the industrial chain. Industrial Internet innovation chain tends to be more scene-oriented, which is conducive to continuously enriching the innovation ecology of the deep integration of industrial Internet and Industry-University-Research, continuously improving the radiation-driven and transformation-empowering ability of technological innovation of innovation chain entities of industrial Internet to the whole industry and the whole process of manufacturing, and continuously enhancing the innovation ability of various entities in innovation chain.
Seize strategic opportunities
At present, the global industrial Internet is still in the stage of accelerating innovation breakthrough and application promotion, and the competition pattern of technology and innovation has not yet been finalized. China should seize the strategic opportunity brought by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and strive to improve the overall efficiency of industrial Internet innovation chain.
First, give full play to the advantages of the system and improve the efficiency of tackling key core technologies of the industrial Internet. Industrial Internet platform is the key subject of independent innovation and application expansion of industrial Internet. In promoting the construction of industrial internet platform, China has initially formed a multi-level and systematic industrial internet platform system of "comprehensiveness+particularity+professionalism", but the problem of insufficient accumulation of core technologies of industrial internet still exists, which is not conducive to the continuous iteration and functional evolution of core technologies of industrial internet platform. It should be noted that industrial software is an important part of the industrial Internet platform and innovation chain, and it is widely used in all aspects of industrial production along with the product innovation cycle from basic research, application development to marketization. In recent years, although China’s industrial software has developed rapidly, the problem that key core technologies are controlled by people and high-end industrial software mainly depends on imports has not been fundamentally solved. Therefore, China needs to give full play to the advantages of the new national system, comprehensively apply science and technology legislation, strategic planning, fiscal and taxation policies, financial support, talent policies, etc., systematically promote the construction of industrial Internet innovation chain, promote the integration of innovation chain with industrial chain, information chain, financial chain and policy chain, and build an industrial Internet innovation system that is intertwined, mutually supportive, multi-level and three-dimensional.
The second is to optimize the innovation cooperation mechanism and improve the transfer and transformation efficiency of scientific and technological innovation achievements of industrial Internet. Judging from the global industrial Internet patent applications, China has achieved global leadership in many technical fields. However, judging from the main body of patent applications, China is still dominated by scientific research institutes, with a low proportion of enterprises applying for patents and a small number of high-quality patents. To this end, China should strengthen the protection of industrial internet patent technology and intellectual property rights, optimize the mechanism of achievement transfer and transformation, support industrial enterprises and industrial internet enterprises to carry out collaborative research on core technologies, break through a number of key core technology bottlenecks and realize the transformation of achievements; Promote the integration of next-generation information technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and blockchain with industrial software; Encourage leading and platform enterprises to join upstream and downstream enterprises, research institutes and universities in the industrial chain to jointly build industrial innovation centers; Encourage enterprises, research institutes and universities to innovate systems and mechanisms, and jointly set up new scientific research and innovation subjects with technology sharing and market sharing.
The third is to strengthen the construction of application scenarios and improve the efficiency of industrial Internet innovation and ecological cultivation. China’s industrial Internet innovation chain and innovation ecological construction are still in the initial stage, and the interaction between innovation subjects, the coupling between innovation chain and the synergy between industrial chain and innovation chain are relatively insufficient. Strengthening the construction of application scenarios can quickly discover requirements, realize technical iteration at low cost, efficiently match requirements and supply, and achieve collaboration among heterogeneous agents, which is conducive to promoting the emergence of subversive technologies and diversified technologies. China should further promote the integration and interaction between industrial chain and innovation chain by applying scenario innovation, and efficiently cultivate a good ecology for industrial Internet innovation. In this process, it is necessary to encourage Internet companies and other leading enterprises in the industry to unite, give play to the leading enterprises’ driving effect, and promote the digital transformation of industrial Internet-enabled enterprises and extend along the industrial chain layout; Support industrial clusters to make use of industrial internet, and promote the transformation of high-end, intelligent and green clusters; Encourage all localities to create a number of industrial Internet demonstration zones based on regional industrial characteristics, and promote the precise docking of platform supply and demand and collaborative innovation.
(This article Source: Economic Daily Author: Zhang Qizai Wang Lei The authors are respectively the deputy director of the Institute of Industrial Economics of China Academy of Social Sciences and the researcher of the Institute of Market and Price of China Macroeconomic Research Institute)