Technology progress bias, industrial structure adjustment, and regional industrial economic growth motivation —— Research on regional industrial transformation and upgrading based on the effect of learning by doing

In the new normal economy and under supply-side structural reform progress, industry has become the pillar of economic development, thus making it urgent to adjust and upgrade a country's industrial structure both scientifically and effectively. During the process of industrial transformation and development, technical progress is the key driving force, and for China, technical changes in the industrial sector began during the 12th Five-Year Plan (FYP) (2011–2015). Thus, this paper improves the decomposition of the traditional Malmquist DEA index to distinguish and quantify the effects of independent innovation and learning by doing and analyzes the impact of R&D and learning by doing on regional industrial development during the 12th FYP. Findings reveal consistency between the effect of “learning by doing” and “independent innovation” in technical progress during the 12th FYP, and the overall trend shows a V-shaped decline first and then later an increase. The heterogeneity of industrial structure in domestic regional economies present differences in independent innovation and learning by doing, among which the northeast region is highly sensitive to the effect of learning by doing. Therefore, strengthening the training of production departments and improving employee productivity are two key tasks in the northeast region.