Mechanisms and Policy Implications for Enhancing International Market Power of SRDI Intelligent Equipment Manufacturing: A Product Space Perspective

Cultivating "Specialized, Refined, Differentiated and Innovative" (SRDI) enterprises has become a key lever for forging new international competitive advantages in China's industries. Drawing on product space theory, this paper analyses the internal mechanisms through which SRDI intelligent equipment manufacturing firms enhance their international market power from the perspective of capability evolution. The study finds that, by continuously accumulating specialised capabilities within niche market segments, SRDI firms extend their product portfolios toward nearby goods in the product space, thereby achieving gradual product leaps. Such adjacent transitions densify the regional product network and generate a self-reinforcing cycle of capability iteration and product expansion, which ultimately translates into international market power in the forms of differentiated pricing capacity and dominance over niche markets. The paper further identifies four core mechanisms: capability accumulation, adjacent product leap, cluster densification, and the construction of standard-setting discourse power. On this basis, targeted policy implications are proposed, including consolidating niche capability foundations, precisely supporting adjacent product transitions, promoting dense and coordinated industrial clusters, and competing for voice in international standard-setting.