Missionʼs Rudder and Sails: Analysing the Governmentʼs Entrepreneurial Functions Across Supply and Demand in Chinaʼs New Energy Vehicle Industry

ABSTRACT Mission‐oriented innovation has emerged as a novel paradigm for tackling pressing societal and environmental challenges. Grounded in the theory of the entrepreneurial state, this study contends that governments fulfil various ‘entrepreneurial functions’—acting as directional leader, market shaper, standard setter, fund provider, risk‐taker, and model leader. This study is based on 36,052 policy application instruments implemented by provincial governments from 2014 to 2022. Results indicate that technological support and export orientation are core drivers of new energy vehicle production growth, whereas sales growth depends on a synergistic combination of subsidy‐ and non‐subsidy policy instruments, charging infrastructure construction, local production levels, and per capita disposable income. The proposed ‘supply–demand feedback loop’ and ‘policy–output’ models empirically elucidate the mechanisms by which the Chinese government guides supply‐side direction and shapes demand‐side markets. These findings offer transferable insights for policy instrument implementation in other strategic emerging industries and national contexts.