ABSTRACT The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9.5 emphasizes that countries need to strengthen their capacity for scientific and technological innovation. Patent‐intensive industries, as key drivers of technological innovation, have become a central focus for nations worldwide. However, the development of such industries cannot be separated from the integration of the innovation, capital, talent, and industry (ICTI) chains. Grounded in evolutionary economics, this study innovates by adopting a systemic perspective that integrates ICTI. It examines 12 patent‐intensive industries in China from 2013 to 2022, measuring their ICTI integration levels using a coupling coordination degree (CCD) model and assessing their static and dynamic technological innovation efficiency through super‐efficiency slack‐based measurement (Super‐SBM) and Malmquist models. The results indicate that ICTI exhibits a moderate integration level. Although its technological innovation efficiency does not achieve data envelopment analysis (DEA) efficiency, it performs relatively well. The total factor productivity (TFP) shows an overall downward trend, with the slowdown in technological progress being the primary limiting factor. Additionally, four distinct types of industrial development stages are identified, and the corresponding development strategies are formulated based on the characteristics of each stage. This study reveals the ICTI integration and efficiency trends within patent‐intensive industries and determines integration bottlenecks, offering insights for policymakers and enterprises to enhance the global competitiveness and sustainability of China's patent‐intensive sectors.
Zhang et al. (Sun,) studied this question.