China's catching-up in artificial intelligence seen as a co-evolution of corporate and national innovation systems

Inspired by Christopher Freeman's work on how radical technical change opens up for shifts in world leadership and on the role of innovation systems in this process, this paper explores China's emergence as a lead country in artificial intelligence as reflecting a co-evolution of Corporate and National Innovation Systems. Taking Freeman's (1987) work on Japan as our lead, we focus on the domestic interaction within and on the openness of China's national innovation system. To follow up on his prediction of the increasing importance of big companies as network leaders, we introduce the concept “corporate innovation system” with special attention to two Chinese tech giants: Alibaba and Tencent.