The role of ICT ecosystem for sustainable innovation: Evidence from the gaming industry of China

Increased digital participation adds new momentum to the economy and changes the nature of business. The gaming industry has become a large industry in China, and this industry has not developed independently. The development and innovation in the ICT ecosystem influences the development and innovation of the gaming industry. This investigation follows the ICT layer model by using Meta-frontier analysis to estimate and analyse the innovation in the gaming industry of China. The change in the technology gap ratio (TGR) is utilised to measure innovation in the gaming industry. The decrease in technical efficiency brings an increase in the technology gap ratio which alludes that some companies have shifted the production function upward due to technological innovation. Similarly, an increase in technical efficiency can be understood as the diffusion of innovation by imitation of competitors. The steady increase in meta-frontier efficiency explains that the gaming industry of China is growing by innovation. This study has significant position in frontier studies by explaining the production process in a distinctive way which has previously been ignored. © 2020, Primrose Hall Publishing Group.