Talent agglomeration serves as a vital pathway for achieving high-quality economic development. This paper, based on provincial panel data from China spanning 2011–2020, first analyses the impact of talent agglomeration on high-quality economic development from two dimensions: the talent agglomeration scale and effectiveness. Second, with innovation activity as a threshold variable, this paper explores the nonlinear impact of the talent agglomeration scale and effectiveness on economic efficiency improvement and economic structure optimization. This study finds that (1) the main driving force for high-quality economic development within the sample period comes from the talent agglomeration scale, while the promoting role of talent agglomeration effectiveness has not yet passed significant tests. (2) Under different levels of innovation activity, the talent agglomeration scale has a diminishing marginal utility impact on economic efficiency improvement and economic structure optimization; talent agglomeration effectiveness also has different nonlinear effects on economic efficiency improvement and economic structure optimization.

The green transformation of heavily polluting companies is essential for sustainable development. This study investigated the direct effects of environmental regulation on two types of green technology innovations at the microlevel and explored the moderating effects of three levels of firm supervision—government, public, and internal. Analyzing a panel of China’s heavily polluting companies during 2011–2020, we find that environmental regulation inhibits both types of green technology innovation. However, the degree of such inhibition varies with different moderators. Specifically, lower environmental pressure and better internal corporate controls can weaken or even reverse the inhibition of green invention innovation, while higher media attention can weaken the inhibition of green utility-model innovation. Our findings thus extend the literature on the scenarios of environmental regulation by revealing the heterogeneous moderating effects of government-, public-, and firm-level factors on two types of green innovation. Moreover, our findings have practical implications for promoting the green transformation of heavily polluting companies.

The green technology innovation system is a fundamental method for China to achieve its goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Clarifying the relationship between two-way foreign direct investment (FDI) synergy and regional green technology innovation is key to the green transformation and sustainable development of regional innovation systems. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2020, a threshold-panel-regression technique is used. Command-controlled environmental regulation (CER), market-incentive environmental regulation (MER), and public-participation environmental regulation (PER) are taken as threshold variables, and the threshold effect of two-way FDI synergy on regional green technology innovation under heterogeneous environmental regulation is empirically explored. The results show the following. (i) The effects of two-way FDI synergy on regional green technology innovation exhibit significant threshold characteristics with heterogeneous environmental regulation as a double threshold. (ii) As the threshold values of CER and PER increase, the promoting effect of two-way FDI synergy on regional green technology innovation first increases and then decreases. (iii) As the MER threshold value increases, the promoting effect of two-way FDI synergy on regional green technology innovation continues to increase. (iv) Under the medium-threshold condition of PER, the promoting effect of two-way FDI synergy reaches its greatest value. (v) The intensity of intellectual property protection, the number of regional innovation institutions, and the level of transportation infrastructure all have significant positive effects on regional green technology innovation, and the number of regional innovation institutions exhibits the greatest promoting effect. This study provides new insights into two-way FDI synergy and methods to promote green technology innovation, and these findings can help the government formulate future policies and strategies to promote regional green technology innovation.

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the formation mechanism of technology innovation network in new energy automobile industry based on the stimulus-response model and to analyze the dynamic interaction process among innovation subjects, platform and government under the market mechanism, platform participation and government regulation. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts static regression analysis to study the formation mechanism of technology innovation network in new energy automobile industry. Multiagent simulation model is used to explore the dynamic evolution mechanism of innovation network formation. Findings: The research findings indicate that the innovation behavior of technology receivers is significantly influenced by their own technology cross-border search and technology internalization capability, and technology ecological niche of technology senders, information stimulation intensity, the level of platform participation and government regulation. The simulation results show that in the interaction among innovation subjects under the market mechanism, a greater number of enterprises choose technology-restructuring innovation. However, in the interaction between innovation subjects and the environment, a higher number of technology-distributed innovation subjects is observed. Originality/value: This paper reveals the “black box” of technological innovation network formation in new energy automobile industry based on the stimulus–response model. This paper also enriches the research framework of technological innovation networks by exploring the attributes of innovation subjects as well as exploring the dynamic interactions of subjects, platform and government.