ABSTRACT
Driven by emerging technological revolutions in information and communications technology (ICT) and artificial intelligence (AI), innovation in the digital age shows a brand-new feature. Intangible information is now more valuable than traditional production factors. Thus, the mode of production and organization is emerging in a new, more agile way which is called flexible production as well (Rigby et al., 2016; Cooper and Sommer, 2016). The “platform” mode, in which firms may cocreate values with customers through a variety of internet-based mechanisms, will gradually become the mainstream mode, and the boundaries of firms will become increasingly blurred (Sawhney et al., 2005). Compared with the traditional production system, the cost of R&D, production, and sales in the digital economy is greatly reduced, and the entire product life cycle is also shortened (Sawhney et al., 2005; Rigby et al., 2016; Cooper and Sommer, 2016). Pressured by the ICT environment, the division of labor in the world will continue to deepen (Klinenberg, 2016), and all fields of R&D, production, and sales can all be integrated ports in the “whole-industry-chain” (WIC). All links in the WIC will jointly create, pass, and share values together. For example, Xiaomi Company has formed a “user-information-organization” three-dimensional flexible value network, which realizes “value co-production” under the WIC. The manufacturing value chain with the traditional “smile curve” shape (Shih, 1996) will be subtly reshaped. As a catch-up economy, China has devoted tremendous efforts to improve its innovative capabilities in the wake of the next industrial revolution. In particular, China has made substantial investments in core technologies such as the Internet, big data, and AI. Compared with the previous three industrial revolutions, the innovative characteristics of the digital era have given China great potential to take advantage of the technological needs in the new industrial revolution and catch up with the developed countries.
