How Big Data Applications Drive Disruptive Innovation: Evidence from China’s Manufacturing Firms

Based on the above, this study selects A-share-listed manufacturing firms from 2014 to 2023 as the research sample. Data on big data applications is extracted from firm annual reports published on the official websites of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. To ensure the validity and robustness of the constructed indicators, the measurement of disruptive innovation draws on patent data from the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), covering the period from 2000 to 2023. The specific measurement methodology is detailed in Section 3.2. Additional firm-level data are primarily obtained from the China Stock Market & Accounting Research (CSMAR) database and Wind Information Co., Ltd. (Wind).The data were processed as follows:(1) Firms designated as Special Treatment (ST, Firms that have exhibited financial distress for two consecutive years), particularly Special Treatment (*ST, Firms that have reported consecutive losses for three years or face the risk of trading suspension), or Particular Transfer (PT) were excluded;(2) Financial institutions were removed;(3) Firms with substantial missing values for key variables were excluded.(4) To mitigate the influence of extreme values on the empirical results, selected variables—such as market-oriented disruptive innovation, technology-oriented disruptive innovation, managerial myopia, and government intervention—were winsorized at the 1st and 99th percentiles.After applying the above criteria, a total of 21,203 valid firm-year observations were retained for analysis.