Accepted Manuscript

Driving Effect of Technology Innovation on Energy Utilization Efficiency in

Strategic Emerging Industries

Chenglin Miao, Debin Fang, Liyan Sun, Qiaoling Luo, Qian Yu

PII: S0959-6526(17)32229-1

DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.225

Reference: JCLP 10730

To appear in: Journal of Cleaner Production

Received Date: 14 February 2017

Revised Date: 09 September 2017

Accepted Date: 25 September 2017

Please cite this article as: Chenglin Miao, Debin Fang, Liyan Sun, Qiaoling Luo, Qian Yu, Driving
Effect of Technology Innovation on Energy Utilization Efficiency in Strategic Emerging Industries,
Journal of Cleaner Production (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.225

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Highlights
(1) Constructing the panel data of strategic emerging industries in

China between 1997 and 2012 from the perspective of energy

conservation and low carbon emission reduction.

(2) The evaluation model is developed by the stochastic frontier

analysis method.

(3) An empirical analysis is made to study the driving effect of

technological innovation from energy conservation and low-carbon

development of strategic emerging industries.

(4) Analyzing the role and its influencing factors of technological

innovation impacting energy utilization efficiency of China’s strategic

emerging industries.
 ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Driving Effect of Technology Innovation on Energy Utilization Efficiency in

Strategic Emerging Industries

Chenglin Miao1, Debin Fang2,*, Liyan Sun1, Qiaoling Luo3, Qian Yu4

( 1School of Economics and Management, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Huainan City, Anhui

Province, China, 232001; 2 School of Economics and Management, Centerfor Complexity and Management

Research，Wuhan University, Wuhan City, China, 430072; 3 School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan

City, China, 430072; 4Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan City, China, 430074 )

Abstract:Under the policy of energy saving and emission reduction, technological innovation has

become the key power-driver to improve energy utilization efficiency. By using the panel data of

21 industrial segments between 2000 and 2015, this paper investigates the driving effect of

technological innovation on energy-utilization efficiency in strategic emerging industries and

analyzes the critical factors influencing the driving effect of technological innovation by the

stochastic frontier analysis method. The empirical result shows that technological innovation

between 2000 and 2015 has had a significant positive driving effect on the energy utilization

efficiency of strategic emerging industries and exhibits a development trend of year-by-year

steady-state growth on the whole. The greater the value of the development expenditure of new

green products and the investment in environmental pollution treatment, the greater the

technological efficiency; the greater the value of the transformation expenditure of energy-saving

technology, the greater the technological inefficiency. Finally, the paper proposes the

countermeasures and suggestions for the driving effect of technological innovation on energy

utilization efficiency in strategic emerging industries. An empirical study is made to analyze the

driving effect of technological innovation on energy utilization efficiency, the positive and

negative factors of technological innovation are forgotten. Strategic emerging industries can select

optimal innovation behavior to improve quality and efficiency of energy utilization based on the

results.

Key Words: Technology innovation; Strategic emerging industries; Energy utilization efficiency;

Stochastic frontier analysis

1. Introduction

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Energy is indispensable for the economic development of various countries in the world. It

contributes to economic development and the improvement of technical efficiency in the short run

(Birgit et al., 2016). In the past, high energy consumption resulted in high investment and high

pollution. The long-standing low energy-utilization efficiency and high environment pollution

have had a strong impact, particularly on economic development (Sanford, 2015; Francesco et al.,

2016). Strategic emerging industries are the new breakthroughs and growth poles for driving

regional economic development (Dan, 2016). However, strategic emerging industries still face

multiple constraints if they are expected to be the leading industries or pillar industries. The

developmental trajectories of traditional industries lack the critical core technologies for industrial

development (Florian, 2015). A good mastery of industrial core technologies is crucial to the

development of strategic emerging industries; energy utilization efficiency must be rapidly

improved by the industrial technological innovation so that the industrial growth and expansion

are also rapidly promoted (Jagjit et al., 2016; Hans et al., 2016). However, the driving effect of

technological innovation on energy utilization efficiency is mainly theoretical, empirical studies

are still lacking. From this new perspective, the paper analyzes the influencing relationship

between technological innovation and energy utilization efficiency of strategic emerging

industries, gets the positive and negative influencing factors. The technological innovation model

can be proposed to improve energy utilization efficiency, it is of great theoretical significance and

practical value.

The extensive development mode leads to excessive consumption of energy, exhaustion of

limited energy, and deterioration of the beautiful environment (Tommy et al., 2016). Thus, various

countries in the world need a new growth pattern, i.e., an intensive growth pattern. In this

historical reformation, various countries propose developing strategic emerging industries,

accelerating industrial structure adjustments and upgrades, transforming the economic growth

pattern, and leading and guiding the economic society to achieve long-term development (Li-yan

Sun et al., 2017; C. Vasanthakumar et al., 2016). To achieve such a transformation, it is

imperative to strengthen the technology-innovation construction of strategic emerging industries,

attach importance to technological-innovation issues, and improve the labor productivity and

technological innovation efficiency based on the role of technological innovation in driving the

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energy-utilization efficiency of strategic emerging industries (Gustav et al., 2016).

Technological innovation is one of the critical impetuses for strategic emerging industries to

improve energy utilization efficiency (Ulf Andersson et al., 2016; Piret, 2015). Technology

innovation not only has a strong impact on the production modes of strategic emerging industries,

but also plays roles in reforming the technological paradigm and continuously developing

ecological production modes and ecological technologies (Bronwyn and Christian, 2013). To

create sustainable utilization of energy needs means that strategic emerging industries must raise

energy-utilization efficiency by relying on technological innovation to promote the economic

transition and development when achieving energy conservation and emission reduction

(Kassahun and Toshio, 2017; Wolfgang et al., 2016). However, the impetuses for traditional

economic and social development in the world are high energy consumption and high investment

rather than the improvement of technological innovation (Masachika, 2015).

Under the policy of energy saving and emission reduction, energy is an important material

basis, but the energy utilization level is lower, the utilization mode is extensive, and utilization

technology is outdated(D.Q. Zhou et al., 2017). Stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) is an estimation

method of technology efficiency(Koki Oikawa, 2016). It assumes that production frontier of each

production unit is random, the error term of production function is divided into the random errors

and technology invalid error which is used to estimate technology efficiency (Mike G. Tsionas,

2017). The related frontier production function is estimated by the econometric method, and then

the parameters frontier analysis method can calculate technological efficiency and productivity

through setting the specific form of the production function and assuming the random interference

distribution. Thus, the paper analyzes the role and its influencing factors of technological

innovation in driving energy utilization efficiency of strategic emerging industries based on the

stochastic frontier analysis method (SFA). Based on the panel data of 21 industrial segments

between 2000 and 2015, the paper analyzes the driving role of technological innovation in energy

utilization efficiency of strategic emerging industries and the major factors influencing the driving

effect by the parametric stochastic frontier analysis method. Finally, the paper proposes the

appropriate development countermeasures, suggestions, and provides theoretical references for

achieving sustainable development, low-carbon development, cyclic development and green

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development of strategic emerging industries.

2. Literature review

Scientific and technological innovation as a strategic basis leads the green development and

solves the economic low-carbon development and environmental protection dilemma. Energy

utilization efficiency is improved through technological innovation to achieve energy-saving and

emission reduction. So energy and technological innovation have become a hot topic for many

scholars. The way, policy and path of improving energy utilization efficiency have become an

important research topic for many scholars. Giacomo et al. (2013) provide environmental policies

to improve energy-utilization efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions for a variety of industries,

especially the most energy-intensive industries, and made an empirical analysis of the iron and

steel industries to simulate the energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions in different

conditions; Ellison and Glaeser (2010) pointed out that all countries should develop a series of

fiscal, financial, and other supporting policies and technological innovation mechanisms to

guarantee and promote the sustainable development of emerging industries; Lovdal and Neumann

(2011) found that government support and technological innovation are the main factors

restricting the rapid development of the emerging marine industry.

Technological innovation has become the key driving force to improve energy utilization

efficiency. Kexin Be etal. (2016)proposed an analytic framework for the low-carbon technological

innovation process under the global value chain and analyzed the low-carbon technological

innovation performance and its influencing factors in China's manufacturing industry by using the

factor analysis and DEA-Tobit two-stage approach. Maria etal. (2014) studied the main driving

forces of the ecological innovation of small and medium-sized enterprises through a case study,

analyzed the factors that affect the efficiency of green technological innovation and non-green

technological innovation, and the difference between the influence of each factor. S. Sinan et al.

(2013) identified the key influencing factors of technological innovation efficiency, and further

analyzed the interrelationships among these factors. Gemaet al. (2016) pointed out that

technological innovation efficiency can help to achieve greater corporate performance, and

establish and strengthen the core competitiveness of enterprises. An empirical analysis was made

to show that the dynamic ability and static ability of enterprises have a positive and significant

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direct impact on technological innovation efficiency. Nevenkaet al. (2016) analyzed that the

factors affecting technological innovation efficiency are similar but not the same, pointed out that

energy cost share, market share, and export orientation have a significant impact.

The influence factors of energy utilization efficiency are multifaceted and comprehensive

(Lingling Li et al., 2017), we should not only analyze the methods and policies improving energy

utilization efficiency but also analyze the multi-dimensional factors such as technologies, systems,

values and so on related to energy consumption and carbon emissions(Wenlong Wang et al., 2015).

Some literature on energy utilization are mainly around the interaction between energy and

environment, economy, less literature considers technological innovation(Vincenzo Bianco et al.,

2017; Hana Moon et al., 2017). Especially, it is relatively lacking that the research on the

relationship between technological innovation and energy utilization efficiency and industry low-

carbon development (KaziSohag et al., 2015). For example, there should be an in-depth study on

various measures and strategies (Abbas Mardani et al., 2017), as well as the coordination

mechanism of existence differences and policy of technological innovation driving effect on

energy utilization efficiency. In addition, most literature on technological innovation are from the

perspective of labor, human capital, and capital stock, and ignore the impact of energy

consumption, carbon emissions, scientific research input, technology management and other

factors, especially the impact of these factors on the driving effect of technological innovation on

energy utilization efficiency.

Energy is indispensable for industry economic development, contribute to the development of

the industrial economy and improve technological innovation efficiency in short-term (Junming

Zhu et al., 2017), but the "three high" system thought was formed that includes high energy

consumption, high investment and high pollution in the past (Tong Xu et al., 2017). The heavy

waste of energy and the high degree of environmental pollution bring the serious influence,

especially have also a serious negative impact on the industrial economy and technological

innovation efficiency (Jian Wang et al., 2017). Thus, taking full account of the impact of energy,

ecology, environment and other factors on technological innovation, this paper makes empirical

analysis on the driving effect of technological innovation from energy conservation and low-

carbon development of strategic emerging industries, analyzes the role and its influencing factors

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of technological innovation impacting energy utilization efficiency of China’s strategic emerging

industries. By using the panel data of 21 industrial segments between 2000 and 2015 in China, this

paper analyzes the driving effect of technological innovation in strategic emerging industries on

energy utilization efficiency and the major factors influencing the driving effect by using the

parametric stochastic frontier analysis method. Finally, the paper proposes the appropriate

development countermeasures and suggestions and provides theoretical references for achieving

sustainable development, low-carbon development, cyclic development, and the green

development of strategic emerging industries.

3. Model specification, sample selection, and data description

3.1 Model construction

At present, the models and methods adopted by domestic and foreign scholars include DEA

method (Qunwei Wang et al., 2013), Super-SBM model (Hong Li and Jinfeng Shi, 2014), SEM

model (Maryono et al., 2016), Theil index decomposition method, vector autoregressive (VAR)

model (Bin Xu and Boqiang Lin, 2016), LEAP model (Nnaemeka Vincent Emodi et al., 2016),

scenario analysis method (Yusuke Kishita et al., 2016) and input-output method and so on.

However, the above methods can not consider the influence of the random error factors in the

operation process, ignore the influence of the price and other factors, and don’t describe the

production process. SFA can combine the input and output indicators in the survey sample of the

research object. The frontier surface obtained by constructing the stochastic frontier model is

random. SFA can test the rationality of the model, and check the parameter values to be estimated.

In addition, SFA can describe the production process, and then can control and measure the

efficiency state of each sample, and further analyze the impact factors, especially the results

obtained by SFA are closer to reality for the panel data with period span.

The sample data of this paper is the panel data of 21 industrial segments between 2000 and

2015, the difference of energy utilization efficiency in different industries and different periods

will be more obvious, that is, the random error term will have a more serious impact on the

efficiency measurement, SFA method is more reasonable and more suitable for the research needs

of this paper. Therefore, this paper will measure the driving effect of technological innovation on

energy utilization efficiency and its influencing factors by SFA method.

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This paper collects and collates the panel data of strategic emerging industries in China from

2000 to 2015, and analyzes the driving effect of technological innovation in strategic emerging

industries on energy utilization efficiency by using the parametric stochastic frontier analysis

method and the logarithmic Cobb-Douglas production function. The model construct is as follows:

ln Yit   0  1  ln Lit   2  ln K it  ( it  uit ) (1)

TEit  exp(uit ) (2)

uit   (t )  ui (3)

 (t )  exp[ (t  T )] (4)

2
 (5)
 v2   u2

mit   0  1 ( NPDE )   2 (TTE )   3 ( EPCI ) (6)

In formula (1)-(6), i represents the serial numbers of 21 strategic emerging industries (

i  1, 2, , N , N  21 ); t represents the serial numbers from 2000 to 2015 ( t  1, 2, , T ,

T  16 , serial number 1 corresponding to 2000, …, sixteen corresponding to 2015); in formula

(1), Yit represents total output value in the t th year in the i th industry; Lit represents the average

number of scientific and technological activities in the t th year in the i th industry; K it represents

the capital stock in the t th year in the i th industry;  0 represents the intercept term; 1 ,  2

respectively, represent the degree of the impact of scientific and technological activities and fixed

assets;  it represents the random error,  it : iid N (0,  v2 ) ; uit represents the non-negative

factors influencing the technological innovation driving inefficiency, uit : iid N  ( mit ,  u2 ) ;  it

and uit are mutually independent. Formula (2) reflects the promotion states of technological

innovation impacting on energy utilization efficiency in 21 industries; TEit  1 when uit  0 ,

indicating that the promotion of energy utilization efficiency is efficient; 0  TEit  1 when

uit  0 , indicating that the promotion of energy utilization efficiency is inefficient; the degree of

impact of time t on uit is quantitatively described by formula (3) and formula (4), and is an

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unknown parameter; the value of  reflects the applicability of the stochastic frontier model

established in the paper, if   0 , it indicates that energy utilization efficiency of strategic

emerging industries are on the production frontier, and the OLS method can be used for

measurement; otherwise, the SFA method will be used. Formula (6) represents the inefficiency

function;  0 , 1 ,  2 ,  3 represent four parameters to be estimated; 1 ,  2 ,  3 reflect the effects of

appropriation expenditure for green new-product development expenditure ( NPDE ), energy-

saving technology-transformation expenditure ( TTE ), and environmental pollution control

investment ( EPCI ) on the energy utilization efficiency in 21 industries. If  i  0 , the greater the

value of corresponding variable, the greater the technical inefficiency; otherwise, the reverse is

the opposite.

3.2 Sample selection and data collection

Report on Development of Strategic Emerging Industries in China 2013 released in January

2013 presents the basic situations, existing problems, and influencing factors in specific aspects of

the current strategic emerging industries based on the typical cases from six provinces/cities, but it

still lacks reduction and statistics of related data. Therefore, the paper is intended to approximately

measure strategic emerging industries by using the data related to the indexes selected above in

high technology industries. The measurement primarily conforms to the specific interpretations on

strategic emerging industries in The 12th National Five-Year Plan for Strategic Emerging

Industries in China and Statistical Classification Cataloger for High Technology Industries (2006).

There is a close relationship between high technology industries and strategic emerging industries.

Strategic emerging industries are characterized by high technology, high knowledge, low

consumption, high development potential, etc. and intensively incorporate the emerging industries

and emerging technologies (Dirk Czarnitzki and Susanne Thorwarth, 2012). Strategic emerging

industries cover the major fields of high technology industries to some extent. High technology

industries can be considered as the main component of strategic emerging industries in a sense.

Therefore, 21 industrial segments are selected from high technology industries in China as

samples (See Table 2 for details). The index data between 2000 and 2015 are collected from the

China Statistical Yearbook, China High Technology Industry Data (2000–2015) and China

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Statistics of Science and Technology (2000–2015).

The numerical values of various indexes can be computed as follows:

yit is the total output value of each year between 2000 and 2015 in 21 strategic emerging

industries (Unit: 0.1 billion yuan), and its value is converted by price deflectors taking the price in

1990 as 100.

Lit is the average number of scientific and technological activities between 2000 and 2015 in

21 strategic emerging industries (Unit: persons).

K it is the average stock of fixed assets between 2000 and 2015 in 21 strategic emerging

industries (Unit: 0.1 billion yuan) and estimated with the perpetual inventory method of

Goldsmiths K t  I t Pt  (1   t ) K t 1 ; K t represents the stock of fixed assets in the t th year; I t

represents the fixed assets investment in the t th year in the 21 strategic emerging industries; Pt

represents the price indexes of fixed assets investment and the numerical values published in the

China Statistical Yearbook can be used;  t represents the depreciation rate and the specific

numerical values use 15% in Hannes and Dennis (2015) and Kidanemariam and Makoto (2015) of

references; the base period fixed capital stock is computed with the method in Koki (2016) of

references. After the above data is determined, the stock of fixed assets of each year (2000–2015)

is sequentially calculated. The capital stock is allocated to various subdivided industries based on

the ratio of the total output value of 21 industries between 2000 and 2015 to the total output value

of the entire strategic emerging industries. The capital stock of 21 industries can be obtained

following approximate calculation (The price of 1980 acts as the criterion).

The data from each statistical yearbook are accounted at the price in the appropriate year. The

monetary forms are different. Thus, the index data related to price can be easily affected. The data

will be deflated with the price of a certain year being the benchmark. The paper apportions the

price indexes of fixed assets investment based on the proportion of the total output value of each

specific industrial segment in the total output value of the whole strategic emerging industries,

deflates the related data based on the prices indexes of fixed assets investment, and uses the data

of 1990 as 100 for the conversion of index data.

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The inventory data of various funds expenditure is estimated by formula (7):

kt  (1   )kt 1  Et 1 (7)

kt and kt 1 respectively, represent the capital stock of 21 subdivided industries in the t th year and

the t -1 th year, Et 1 represents various funds expenditure in the t -1 th year (the data are deflected by

the fixed asset price index).

The estimation formula of base period capital stock is

k0  E0 ( g   ) (8)

g is calculated by formula (9):

E16
g  16 1 (9)
E0

The capital stocks of various funds expenditure in 2000 is estimated by formulas (8) and (9),

and we can then estimate the capital stocks of funds expenditure of each subdivided industry by

formula (7).

4. Empirical results and analysis

4.1 SFA parameter estimation results

By using the panel data of strategic emerging industries between 2000 and 2015 in China,

this paper makes an empirical analysis of the driving effect of technological innovation on energy

utilization efficiency in strategic emerging industries by using the stochastic frontier function and

estimates each parameter of the SFA model by the Frontier4.1 computational software. See Table

1 for the estimated values of all parameters.

Table 1 SFA parameter estimation results

Parameters to be estimated Coefficient estimate Standard error Z-Value

β0 6.0849 0.2403 25.3208*

βK 0.4710 0.0358 13.1700**

βL -0.0532 0.0103 -5.1867**

δ0 3.1250 0.2359 13.2469*

δ1 -0.1957 0.0219 -8.9521**

δ2 0.1307 0.0238 5.490**

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δ3 -0.0704 0.0068 -10.2986***

σ2 0.3413 0.0285 11.9714**

γ 0.7583 0.0257 29.5094**

No． of observations 336

log likelihood function -244.6521

LR test of the one-sided error 293.8968

Note: * represents a significant level of 10%, ** represents a significant level of 5%, *** represents a significant

level of 1%; LR is the likelihood ratio test statistic.

On the basis of the estimation results of various parameters of the SFA model, this paper

reaches the following conclusions:   0.7583 reflects that 75.83% of the errors in the SFA

model largely result from the driving inefficiency of technological innovation, and the remaining

errors result from random influencing factors (James Odeck and SveinBråthen, 2012). Thus, it is

proper to analyze the driving effect of technological innovation on energy utilization efficiency in

strategic emerging industries. It is further considered that the driving inefficiency of technological

innovation is one of the major factors influencing energy utilization efficiency in strategic

emerging industries. In addition, the significance estimation result of LR demonstrates that all

estimation results of various parameters of the SFA model pass the test at the given significance

level. To sum up, the fitting result of the established model is ideal.

In terms of the output elasticity of the technological staff and fixed assets stock of strategic

emerging industries and on the basis of the estimation results of the two parameters,  K  0.4710

and  L  0.0532 , energy utilization efficiency will increase by 47.10% when the fixed assets

stock of strategic emerging industries increases by 1%, whereas energy utilization efficiency will

decrease by 5.32% when the number of technological staff increases by 1%. In consideration of

the development demand of resource-saving and environment-friendly society, the following

possible reasons can account for the above situations. The resource-saving and environment-

friendly society have higher requirements for energy utilization in businesses. It also means that

enterprises have to improve energy utilization efficiency and reduce carbon emissions while

achieving sustainable development. Businesses need to invest more in technological innovation

and should be encouraged to participate in international scientific and technological exchange and

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cooperation, guide foreign investment and encourage social investment, develop more advanced

high and new technologies, and raise the capital utilization efficiency (Wolfgang Gerstlberger et

al., 2016). It can be seen from the analysis result that the input efficiency of the fixed assets in

China is significant in the context that China strengthens the support for the sustainable

development of strategic emerging industries and introduces related policies and incentive

measures. However, a gap still exists largely due to the negative effect of technological staff (Mei-

Chih Hu et al., 2017). The sustainable development of strategic emerging industries and the

improvement of energy utilization efficiency need the driving effect of technological innovation.

Technology innovation needs scientific and technical personnel. Thus, it has higher requirements

for scientific and technical personnel, particularly the composite talents with high skills and high

levels. However, the analysis result shows that the role of scientific and technological personnel

decreases. The analysis indicates that the scientific and technological personnel of strategic

emerging industries in China are weak in skills, research and development capability, innovation

capability, etc. It also reflects that there is a lack of scientific and technological personnel in

strategic emerging industries in China. Thus, more talent needs to be cultivated and introduced. In

addition, the negative effect of the scientific and technological personnel may also include more

personal investment. Businesses tend to increase the number of the introduced personal for

accelerating development and raising the scale efficiency.

In conclusion, for achieving the driving effect of technological innovation on energy

utilization efficiency in strategic emerging industries, we not only need to increase capital

investment and raise capital utilization efficiency, but also need to accelerate the cultivation and

introduction of high-level scientific and technological personnel, continuously optimize and

upgrade technology-innovation capability, raise the capital utilization efficiency, research and

develop energy-saving technologies, and raise energy utilization efficiency to reduce the amount

of discharged pollutants.

4.2 The empirical results analysis

See Table 2 for the empirical results of the driving effect of technological innovation on

energy utilization efficiency.

Table 2 The empirical results of driving effect on energy utilization efficiency

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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Chemical manufacturers 0.7831 0.8271 0.8323 0.8139 0.8580 0.8724 0.9137

Chinese patent medicine manufacturers 0.7511 0.7828 0.7923 0.8015 0.7945 0.8099 0.8349
Biological and biochemical products
0.6137 0.6569 0.6764 0.6857 0.7167 0.7020 0.7479
manufacturers
Aircraft manufacturers and repair 0.7203 0.7131 0.7316 0.7420 0.7472 0.7420 0.7870

Spacecraft manufacturers 0.5190 0.5500 0.5701 0.5720 0.5325 0.5232 0.5636

Telecommunications transmission
0.6903 0.7275 0.7533 0.7538 0.6982 0.7460 0.7366
equipment manufacturers
Communications switching equipment
0.8553 0.8411 0.8661 0.7985 0.8381 0.8600 0.8640
manufacturers
Communications terminal equipment
0.7349 0.7533 0.8849 0.8858 0.7239 0.7695 0.7950
manufacturers
Radar and ancillary equipment
0.5033 0.5326 0.5612 0.5843 0.6032 0.5918 0.6391
manufacturers
Radio and TV equipment
0.4796 0.5586 0.5651 0.5845 0.6299 0.7251 0.7329
manufacturers
Electronic vacuum device
0.7218 0.7594 0.7382 0.7424 0.7769 0.7554 0.7533
manufacturers
Discrete semiconductor device
0.5939 0.6618 0.6661 0.7114 0.6530 0.6827 0.7028
manufacturers
Integrated circuit manufacturers 0.6268 0.7013 0.6773 0.6995 0.7329 0.7919 0.8110

Electronics components manufacturers 0.8038 0.8417 0.8405 0.8605 0.8815 0.9408 0.9789
Home audio-visual equipment
0.9279 0.8960 0.8954 0.9319 0.9423 0.9545 0.9711
manufacturers
Other electronic equipment
0.6906 0.7698 0.7367 0.7352 0.7355 0.7223 0.7634
manufacturers

Electronic computer manufacturers 0.8629 0.8592 0.8920 0.9422 0.9807 0.9895 0.9935

Computer peripherals manufacturers 0.8029 0.8507 0.8695 0.9042 0.9511 0.9766 0.9876

Office equipment manufacturers 0.6828 0.7224 0.7255 0.7508 0.7459 0.7944 0.8155
Medical equipment and device
0.6554 0.6905 0.7041 0.7230 0.7156 0.7520 0.7682
manufacturers
Instruments manufacturing 0.7270 0.7589 0.7616 0.7773 0.8010 0.8445 0.8829

Industry average 0.7022 0.7359 0.7495 0.7619 0.7647 0.7879 0.8116

Continued table 2 The empirical results of driving effect on energy utilization efficiency

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 annual average

0.9191 0.9453 0.9596 0.9626 0.9663 0.9776 0.9753 0.9802 0.9838 0.9107

0.8503 0.8685 0.8800 0.8882 0.9064 0.9355 0.9149 0.9251 0.9337 0.8543

0.7661 0.7965 0.8169 0.8360 0.8508 0.8767 0.8394 0.8553 0.8717 0.7693

0.7875 0.8089 0.8192 0.8330 0.8404 0.6568 0.9315 0.9104 0.9111 0.7926

0.5814 0.5923 0.6109 0.6130 0.6297 0.6495 0.7504 0.7881 0.7806 0.6141

0.7339 0.7671 0.8022 0.8317 0.8428 0.8648 0.9697 0.9778 0.9801 0.8047

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0.8923 0.9229 0.9492 0.9463 0.9614 0.9773 0.9653 0.9718 0.9824 0.9058

0.8109 0.8123 0.8088 0.8185 0.8244 0.8364 0.8271 0.8325 0.8374 0.8097

0.6619 0.6609 0.6578 0.6382 0.6699 0.6919 0.7698 0.7787 0.7792 0.6452

0.7432 0.7781 0.7870 0.7905 0.8235 0.8347 0.8740 0.8794 0.8311 0.7261

0.7528 0.7601 0.7503 0.7586 0.7706 0.7804 0.7287 0.7335 0.7692 0.7532

0.7254 0.7525 0.7686 0.7729 0.7881 0.7974 0.8009 0.8185 0.8258 0.7326

0.8414 0.8598 0.8679 0.8715 0.8745 0.8995 0.9061 0.9164 0.9267 0.8128

0.9874 0.9918 0.9919 0.9880 0.9901 0.9913 0.9890 0.9902 0.9912 0.9412

0.9711 0.9739 0.9727 0.9637 0.9659 0.9770 0.9679 0.9703 0.9734 0.9534

0.8037 0.8302 0.8522 0.8689 0.8773 0.8942 0.8335 0.8589 0.8611 0.8021

0.9938 0.9951 0.9950 0.9931 0.9925 0.9935 0.9903 0.9919 0.9910 0.9660

0.9893 0.9911 0.9900 0.9859 0.9872 0.9855 0.9412 0.9551 0.9533 0.9451

0.8261 0.8317 0.8382 0.8721 0.9024 0.9117 0.8416 0.8266 0.8186 0.8066

0.7923 0.8166 0.8407 0.8484 0.8657 0.8787 0.8123 0.8441 0.9411 0.7905

0.9127 0.9389 0.9325 0.9545 0.9644 0.9762 0.9482 0.9582 0.9006 0.8775

0.8258 0.8426 0.8520 0.8588 0.8712 0.8755 0.8846 0.8935 0.8973

(1) Integral analysis of the driving effect

On the basis of the analysis of the last row in Table 2, technological innovation has a

significant driving effect on energy utilization efficiency. It increases from the minimum value of

70.22% in 2000 to 89.73% in 2015; the annual average increase is 1.2194%. It exhibits a

development trend of steady year-by-year growth. Thus, technological innovation has a positive

and significant driving effect on energy utilization efficiency in strategic emerging industries

(Manuchehr Irandoust, 2016). The sustainable development of strategic emerging industries

requires an innovative driving force. The traditional production mode and development mode

must be changed by science and technology (Sarah M. Jordaan et al., 2017). A development mode

with higher energy utilization efficiency and a production mode with lower input and higher

output will form based on technological innovation. China formulates the economic policies and

market mechanisms for strategic emerging industries from the macroscopic and microscopic

views. The sustainable development of strategic emerging industries comes from the driving effect

of scientific knowledge and technological innovation. We should combine technological

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innovation and industrialization development, strengthen research and development of critical

core green technology, further improve technological innovation and highly skilled talents,

establish the support mechanism of technological innovation in strategic emerging industries, and

promote commercialized and industrialized development of the achievement of technological

innovation. Technology innovation has a significant driving effect on energy utilization efficiency,

but the innovation output fails at the forefront of surface because there are shortcomings in green

technology transformation, development technology of new green products, environmental control

technology, and scientific and technological personnel.

(2) Analysis of the driving effect in the 21 industries

As seen in Table 2, in terms of the driving effect of technological innovation on energy

utilization efficiency in strategic emerging industries between 2000 and 2015, computer machine

manufacturers have the maximum average value of 0.9660, followed by home audio-visual

equipment manufacturers, and its average value is 0.9534. The annual average values of 8

industrial segments such as computer machine manufacturers, home audio-visual equipment

manufacturers, communications switching equipment manufacturers and so on exceed the total

average value of 0.8197. This demonstrates that the driving effect of technological innovation on

energy utilization efficiency of high-tech industries such as electronic products, medicine and

digital equipment and so on has the leading position, and it also reflects that the technological

innovation capabilities of these industries have achieved technology accumulation to some extent.

On the contrary, spacecraft manufactures have the lowest average value of 0.6141, 0.2056 smaller

than the total average value, and approximately 0.3519 smaller than the maximum value of 0.9660.

The requirement for technical content in spacecraft manufacturing is higher than that in other

industries. It is characterized by high-cost research and development, high-precision detection

technology, and poor manufacturing performance. In addition, China lacks the critical core

technology, which makes technological innovation play a less effective role in driving its energy

utilization efficiency (Jorrit Gosens and Yonglong Lu, 2013).

(3) Evolution trend of driving effect

As seen in Table 2, all evolution trends of the driving effect increased between 2000 and

2015. However, individual industries fluctuated in the overall increasing trend, such as spacecraft

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manufacturers, communications terminal equipment manufacturers,computer peripherals

manufacturers and medical equipment and device manufacturers. In particular, the industry of

communication terminal equipment manufacturing fluctuated frequently and substantially. Radio

and television equipment manufacturing had the highest annual average growth rate of 4.320%,

followed by Radar and ancillary equipment manufacturers whose annual average growth rate was

3.4199%, which indicates that technological innovation plays a good role in driving their energy-

utilization efficiency. The industry of home audio-visual equipment manufacturers had the lowest

growth rate of 0.3686%. Although the industry of home audio-visual equipment manufacturers has

achieved related technology development, there is a big gap between its level of technological

innovation and the advanced level of the world. In particular, China’s critical core technology lags

behind the world’s advanced level. The poor innovation capability of scientific and technological

talents limits the sustainable development of the industry and the improvement of the level of

technological innovation.

4.3 Analysis of influential factors of the driving effect on energy utilization efficiency

(1) The impact analysis of green new product development expenditure

1  0.1957 in Table 2 indicates that the greater the value of the development expenditure

of new green products, the greater the technological efficiency, that is, the development

expenditure of new green products plays a significantly positive role on the driving effect of

technological efficiency. Technological innovation will increase the energy utilization efficiency

of strategic emerging industries by 0.1957% when the development expenditure of new green

products increases by 1%. Development of new green products is the focus of the research and

development of strategic emerging industries and one of the strategic cores of improving their

energy-utilization efficiency. Technological innovation is a major driving force for the

development of new products, which are created by developing new technologies, improving

existing technologies, or introducing new technologies. The development of new green products in

strategic emerging industries plays a positive role in this paper, but the value is found to be a

slightlylarge (0.1957%). This also reflects that some achievements have been made in the

development technologies of new green products, but the efficiency is still low (Himanshu Gupta

and Mukesh Kumar Barua, 2016).

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(2) The impact analysis of energy-saving technology transformation expenditure

 2  0.1307 in Table 2 indicates that the greater the value of the transformation expenditure

of energy-saving technology, the greater the technological inefficiency, that is, the transformation

expenditure of energy-saving technology plays a significantly negative role on the driving effect

of technological efficiency, which will decrease the energy utilization efficiency of strategic

emerging industries by 0.1307% when the transformation expenditure of energy-saving

technology increases by 1%. In recent years, the transformation of energy-saving technology has

become particularly important as China faces such issues as energy-supply shortage, low energy

utilization efficiency, increasingly serious environmental pollution, and increasingly slow (even

declined) economic benefits and social benefits (Wenxi Wang et al., 2017). It is imperative that

China strengthens the transformation of energy-saving technology, optimizes energy structure,

achieves energy conservation and emission reduction, and improves energy utilization efficiency

by relying on technological innovation.  2  0.1307 indicates that the transformation of energy-

saving technology plays a negative role, but the negative effect is as big as 0.1307%. The

transformation of energy-saving technology in strategic emerging industries has attained

increasingly significant results under the support of national policies, but it still needs to be further

improved.

(3) The impact analysis of environmental pollution control investment

 3  0.0704 in Table 2 indicates that the greater the value of the investment of

environmental pollution control, the greater the technological efficiency, that is, the investment of

environmental pollution control plays a significantly positive role on the driving effect of

technological efficiency, which will increase energy utilization efficiency of strategic emerging

industries by 0.0704% when the investment of environmental-pollution control increases by 1%.

In the context of “harmonious development of human being and the nature,” “green Earth,

beautiful China, ecological civilization, low-carbon economy” proposed by China and other

countries, strategic emerging industries should not only focus on technological innovation but

should also develop more advanced energy-saving high and new technology, improve energy-

utilization efficiency, decrease pollutant discharge, establish the idea of “low-carbon

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environmental protection,” and strengthen environmental-pollution control (Kyungpyo Lee and

Sungjoo Lee, 2013; Alessandro Marra et al., 2017). On the basis of the estimated value

 3  0.0704 of index parameter, environmental pollution control plays a minor role. On the one

hand, it reflects that the investment of environmental pollution control is insufficient and the

control technology needs to be improved; on the other hand, it also reflects that there is a gap

between the level of technological innovation and the demand for energy utilization.

5. Conclusions

Under the policy of energy saving and emission reduction, it is very urgent and important for

strategic emerging industries to improve energy utilization efficiency by technological innovation,

but there is a main theoretical effecting relationship of technological innovation on energy

utilization efficiency. Therefore, with reference to the existing domestic and foreign research

results, taking full account of the impact of carbon emissions, scientific research input, technology

management output and other factors on technological innovation, the paper makes an empirical

analysis on driving effect of technological innovation on energy utilization efficiency by

constructing the panel data of the 21 industries between 2000 and 2015 and the stochastic frontier

analysis method, and analyzes the critical influencing factors. The main conclusions of the

empirical analysis are as follows: (1)   0.7583 indicates that inefficiency of driving effect of

technological innovation is one of the major factors that influence the energy utilization efficiency

of strategic emerging industries. (2) The driving effect on energy utilization efficiency is higher

and increases year by year. (3) Based on the analysis of the driving effect in specific industries,

the driving effect on computer machine manufacturers is the biggest and spacecraft manufacture is

the smallest. (4) The driving effect on energy utilization efficiency between 2000 and 2015

exhibits an increasing trend, but individual industries fluctuate during the increasing trend.

Based on the research conclusion, we should optimize energy efficiency by technological

innovation. The sustainable development of strategic emerging industries can be conducted with

limited energy, maximize energy potential based on scientific and technological development.

Secondly,strategic emerging industries have no symbiotic correlation with other technology

symbiotic units such as colleges and universities and scientific research institutions during

research and development of the critical core green technology. In addition, technology innovation

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of strategic emerging industries still lags behind and there is a lack of connection with the

advanced technology symbiotic units in foreign developed countries. Thus, strategic emerging

industries should establish an innovative mechanism of close connection and sincere cooperation

between domestic and foreign technological symbiotic units. Thirdly, strategic emerging

industries should integrate the policies of domestic and foreign technology symbiotic units, and

establish the dynamic mechanism of green technological innovation to meet the demand of energy

saving and emission reduction. Fourthly, the key for improving energy utilization efficiency is a

breakthrough of the core technology. Thus, it is imperative to further improve the investment

mechanism of technology innovation and ensure the smooth link between science and technology

and capital. Finally, based on different evolution situations of technology paradigms, strategic

emerging industries should adopt various technology innovation management modes rather than

only one mode and constantly update modes.

Acknowledgments
This research was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant No. 71673210, 91647119, 71503003, 71704002, 51774013, 71403196). The authors
would like to thank the funded project for providing material for this research. We would also like
to thank our anonymous reviewer for the valuable comments in developing this article.

Corresponding author: dbfang@whu.edu.cn(De-bin Fang).

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