The paper offers an analysis of the innovation performance of cluster‐based leading
enterprises in Guangdong Province (China). It is a first attempt in the international literature
to examine the innovation strategy of cluster‐based leading enterprises in the context of a
transition economy. To this aim we explore a unique data‐set of leading enterprises in
Guangdong specialized towns and we investigate the relationship between the patenting
activity of such enterprises and other variables of interest among which the magnitude of
policy intervention, the response of firms to policy measures, firm’s specific characteristics
(such as ownership and export propensity) and entrepreneur’s specific characteristics (such
as previous experience in policy‐making or previous government appointments).
