Sector Convergence and Its Impact on Innovation Performance: A Case of Solar Industry in China

With the rapid development of information technology, innovation no longer takes place within single sectors. Taking China's solar industry as a case, this paper analyzes the network structure of technology convergence between diversified standard industries based on the patent data of 328 cities from 2003 to 2020. From the perspective of both horizontal and vertical dimensions, this paper explores the mechanism of sector convergence on innovation performance and its regional heterogeneity. The results show that the convergence of the manufacturing sector and the production and supply sector of electricity, heating gas, and water is the main component of sector convergence of the solar industry in China. The level of sector convergence shows an overall upward trend and exhibits significant regional differences. The promotion effect of horizontal sector convergence on innovation performance is only reflected in larger cities, higher administrative-tier cities, and non-resource-based cities. Vertical sector convergence exerts significant positive impacts on innovation across cities of different city sizes, administrative tiers, and resource endowments, with stronger effects in smaller cities, lower administrative-tier cities, and resource-based cities. This study deepens the measurement knowledge of convergence among diversified standard sectors within a specific industry, reveals the mechanism of dual-dimensional sector convergence on innovation performance, and offers scientific evidence for developing convergence policies by zone.