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

Data on big data applications are collected from firms’ annual reports available on the official websites of the Shenzhen and Shanghai stock exchanges. To ensure the validity of the disruptive innovation measure, the disruptive innovation indicator is constructed using patent data from the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) for 2000–2023, with the detailed procedure reported in Section 3.2.

Other data are mainly obtained from the CSMAR and Wind databases. The data are processed as follows. First, 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) are excluded.