Since it embarked on its economic opening and reform path in the late 1970s, the Chinese government has assigned a central role to science, technology and innovation for the country’s economic development. In the phase of ‘economic catch-up’, China has pursued a top-down innovation policy, characterized by targeted investments in science and technology. Recently, a significant shift in China’s innovation policy can be discerned, with government increasingly acknowledging the importance of markets, private enterprises and favorable institutional conditions as determinants of a well-functioning innovation system. This shift is concurrent with the realization that the transition from middle- to high-income country, and hence the avoidance of the ‘middle income’ trap, might require different innovation policies than in the past. In this article, we analyze and assess China’s initial innovation policy as well as its emerging reorientation. Finally, we identify some remaining challenges in China’s efforts to escape the middle income trap.

The primary purpose of this article is to explore how public research and development (R&D) subsidies influence firms-level exploratory innovation, as well as the internal organizational contingencies that moderate the impact of R&D subsidies. By employing panel data of a group of manufacturing firms in Jiangsu Province from 2010 to 2014, we find a dual effect of R&D subsidies on firms’ exploratory innovation, which is shown as an inverted U-shaped pattern. This suggests that R&D subsidies within an appropriate range can facilitate firms’ exploratory innovation. Additionally, we propose that firm-level technological capabilities positively moderate this curvilinear effect; however, firms’ R&D collaborations with universities and public research institutes do not have such a moderating effect. The results of this article enrich our understanding of the impact of R&D subsidies, especially on firm exploratory innovation. Based on the findings of this article, we contribute implications on government policymaking and firm strategic technological practices.

The global market for Additive Manufacturing (AM) is expected to grow, which may increase the prominence of sustainability aspects in the manufacturing process. A growing number of AM academics and practitioners have started to pay attention to the environmental and societal impacts of AM instead of only focusing on its economic aspect. Yet, AM is still not widely adopted, and the research on AM sustainability is still at the nascent stage. This paper aims to better understand AM’s sustainable adoption and seeks to address three questions: what the sustainability implications of AM are; what challenges may prevent the broad adoption of AM; and what opportunities can enable AM sustainability. The research adopts a multiple case study method to investigate six AM companies that play different roles in the AM ecosystem, including AM design, AM machine, AM material, AM service, AM education, and AM consulting. The results from these studies reveal that AM has the potential to reduce environmental and social impacts; however, it might also cause negative consequences and lead to some rebound effects. We identified 43 categories (synthesized from 199 examples) of key challenges for AM adoption and proposed 55 key solutions in moving AM towards sustainability. It is evident that AM acts as a promising digital technology for manufacturing and has the potential to pave the way for a new era of sustainable manufacturing.