Policy Imprints: The Impact of National Innovation Policy in Firms' Founding Period on Subsequent Innovation Strategies

ABSTRACT Research on innovation policies has primarily focused on their immediate effects on shaping firms' innovation strategies, often overlooking their long‐term impacts. Drawing on the imprinting perspective, we proposed the concept of the policy imprint and investigated its influence on firms' subsequent innovation strategies through a survey of 1080 innovative enterprises in China. Using a multiperiod regression discontinuity design (MRDD), our analysis reveals that firms founded under different innovation policy regimes exhibit distinct policy imprints. These imprints significantly shape their subsequent innovation strategies, including innovation investment strategies, business‐level innovation strategies, and corporate‐level innovation strategies. Our findings provide theoretical contributions by identifying the policy imprint in the transition economy, as well as its complementary role in the strategic stability under a dynamic environment. Furthermore, practical implications for enterprise managers and policymakers are highlighted by our study.