Digital Enablement of Collaborative Innovation along the Low-Altitude Economy Industrial Chain: Foundations, Blockages and Pathways in Henan Province

Xiaoyan Zhang; Zhibo Feng; Weixiang Gan

doi:10.47297/wspdecWSP2515-797310.20261006

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Digital Enablement of Collaborative Innovation along the Low-Altitude Economy Industrial Chain: Foundations, Blockages and Pathways in Henan Province

Volume 10, Issue 6

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Digital Enablement of Collaborative Innovation along the Low-Altitude Economy Industrial Chain: Foundations, Blockages and Pathways in Henan Province
Digital Enablement of Collaborative Innovation along the Low-Altitude Economy Industrial Chain: Foundations, Blockages and Pathways in Henan Province
1.School of Business, Anyang Institute of Technology, Anyang, Henan, 455000, China
2.Post-Doctorate Researcher, Lincoln University College, Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, 47301, Malaysia
Vol. 10, Issue 6, Pages: 57-65(2026)
Published：30 June 2026
DOI：10.47297/wspdecWSP2515-797310.20261006
Accepted：

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Zhang Xiaoyan,Feng Zhibo,Gan Weixiang.Digital Enablement of Collaborative Innovation along the Low-Altitude Economy Industrial Chain: Foundations, Blockages and Pathways in Henan Province[J].Development Economics of China,2026,10(06):57-65.
DOI：

Zhang Xiaoyan,Feng Zhibo,Gan Weixiang.Digital Enablement of Collaborative Innovation along the Low-Altitude Economy Industrial Chain: Foundations, Blockages and Pathways in Henan Province[J].Development Economics of China,2026,10(06):57-65. DOI： 10.47297/wspdecWSP2515-797310.20261006.

摘要

Abstract

After the low-altitude economy was written into the

Report on the Work of the Government

local governments across China promoted it as an industrial form of new quality productive forces. Drawing on its position in the national transport network

its supporting manufacturing base and early pilot policies

Henan has formed a twin-core

multi-node spatial pattern led by Zhengzhou and Anyang. The chain runs from research and manufacturing through operations and services to application scenarios. The effectiveness of collaborative innovation along that chain has yet to be realized

constrained by the weak pull of chain-leading firms

thin capability in core technologies

loose upstream-downstream coordination and lagging institutional supply. Taking collaborative innovation along the industrial chain as its analytical thread

this paper reviews Henan's industrial foundations and collaborative practice

and identifies four blockag

es: spatial agglomeration without operational linkage

unshared data

fragmented cross-department coordination and collaboration that remains at a low level. It then explains how "digital + low-altitude" integration enables collaboration along the chain

working through digital infrastructure

data as a factor of production

artificial intelligence

digital platforms and two-way integration. The paper compares practice in the United States and the European Union with that in Shenzhen

Anhui and Sichuan. On that basis it proposes six pathways: building an integrated air-space-ground digital base; building a collaborative innovation ecosystem around integration of the innovation

industrial

capital and talent chains; deepening scenario-driven application innovation; strengthening institutional support for innovation; advancing regional coordination and linkage; and reinforcing the safety baseline. Digital technology changes more than the efficiency of individual links: it rewrites how actors along the chain connect

and that rewriting is the condition for the low-altitude economy to move from a policy concept to industrial scale.

关键词

Keywords

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