Research on the impact of virtual agglomeration of the Chinese manufacturing on the efficiency of enterprise technological innovation

The virtual agglomeration of manufacturing realises the ubiquitous connection and efficient allocation of technological innovation resources, and becomes a new driving force for improving the technological innovation efficiency of enterprises and building a strong manufacturing country. This paper constructs a theoretical framework to investigate the impact of the specialised and diversified virtual agglomeration of manufacturing on the efficiency of enterprise technological innovation. This paper uses the adjusted location entropy and the Herfindahl-Hirschman index to measure the level of specialised and diversified virtual agglomeration of manufacturing. Using Chinese manufacturing data (2008–2021), empirical tests confirm that the specialised and diversified virtual agglomeration of manufacturing can improve the efficiency of enterprise technological innovation. Additionally, the mechanism test results show that the specialised virtual agglomeration of manufacturing improves the technological innovation efficiency of enterprises through competition and knowledge spillover, and the diversified virtual agglomeration improves the technological innovation efficiency of enterprises through knowledge spillover. However, the effect of specialised virtual agglomeration of manufacturing on the efficiency of enterprises` technological innovation will be adjusted by the age of enterprises. These results are pivotal for understanding the realistic path of virtual agglomeration of manufacturing to improve the technological innovation efficiency of enterprises.