How does the Traditional Heavy Industry Use Ecotechnology to Achieve the Ecological Innovation Goal? Analysis Based on Expert Survey in China’s Shipbuilding Industry

The traditional heavy industry creates not only economic value for societies and countries but also serious ecological and cultural damage. This type of industry is not easy to transform and upgrade because of its large-scale and complex characteristics, and its traditional management mode is being challenged. This study focused on the relation between China’s current ecotechnology and ecological innovation goals. This was investigated to research a new technology and goal management method, which would promote the transformation and upgradation of traditional heavy industry. We investigated 11 shipbuilding companies with strong comprehensive capacity in China’s shipbuilding bases, analyzed the viewpoints of 331 senior managers and designers with more than a decade of shipbuilding experience, and referred to the industry technical standards and literature to define types of shipbuilding ecotechnology and ecological innovation goals. Structural equation modeling was conducted to analyze the relation between them. The simulation results demonstrated that four types of ecotechnology (i.e., energy technology, shipbuilding technology, digital technology, and strategic management) represent the key factors affecting the shipbuilding ecological innovation goals. This study is of theoretical significance for traditional heavy industry, and its outcomes encourage the achievement of ecological innovation goals through the application of ecotechnology.