How does a diversified knowledge base drive corporate disruptive technological innovation?

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationship between enterprise knowledge diversification (KD) and disruptive technological innovation (DTI), and further explores the roles of financing constraints, government innovation subsidies and R&D investment. It highlights KD not only as a feature of firms’ technological knowledge structure, but also as an organizational learning and knowledge recombination condition that supports the understanding, absorption and integration of heterogeneous knowledge. Design/methodology/approach Using A-share listed firms from 2010 to 2024, this study constructs a KD index based on International Patent Classification (IPC) four-digit patent classes. DTI is proxied by whether a firm’s current patents introduce IPC knowledge elements absent from its patent portfolio in the previous five years. Firm and year fixed-effects models, instrumental-variable estimation, robustness tests, mechanism tests and heterogeneity analyses are conducted. Findings The results show a significant positive association between KD and DTI. Mechanism tests show that KD is associated with lower financing constraints, greater access to government innovation subsidies, and higher R&D investment. The effect is more evident in non-state-owned firms, manufacturing firms, and firms with overseas-experienced executives. Originality/value This study explains DTI from the perspective of knowledge structure and enriches innovation research that mainly emphasizes input intensity and external resources. It also incorporates organizational learning, knowledge absorption and knowledge recombination into the logic of KD.