Entrepreneurship and Export Product Quality Improvement

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is the sustainable driving force and stable source of economic development, and it is an important guarantee for the continuous improvement of export product quality and high-quality economic development. This paper selects entrepreneurship and export product quality as research objects. It measures the export product quality at the enterprise level using data from the China Industrial Enterprise Database and the China Customs Import and Export Trade Database. Furthermore, based on matching entrepreneurship at the macro-level and the export product quality at the micro-level, the impact and mechanism of entrepreneurship on the export product quality are empirically examined. It was found that entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship further significantly contribute to the improvement of export product quality by promoting the total factor productivity of enterprises. Entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship do not significantly contribute to the export product quality of state-owned and collective enterprises, while they significantly contribute to privately-owned, independent legal entities, Hong Kong–Macao–Taiwan, and foreign-funded enterprises. Furthermore, the promoting effect on privately-owned and independent enterprises is greater than that on Hong Kong–Macao–Taiwan and foreign-funded enterprises. Further analysis shows that improving the rule of law, reducing excessive government intervention, and improving the market mechanism for products and production factors, as well as vigorously developing the non-state-owned economy, will all be conducive to the cultivation and development of entrepreneurs and better promotion of the improvement of export product quality.

1. Introduction

In the past, China’s economic growth was characterized by high investment, high energy consumption, and high pollution [1]. As China enters a new era, the quality and efficiency of economic growth have become significantly more important than its scale and pace [2]. To address climate change, China has pledged to peak its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 [3]. As the world’s largest exporter, China is also the largest carbon emitter, with about one-third of its carbon emissions coming from the import and export trade [4,5]. By upgrading the quality of export products and reducing the implicit carbon emissions of exports, this is not only beneficial for improving the global ecological environment, but also helps to alleviate the regulatory pressure that China may face in future climate negotiations. Furthermore, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee adopted the “Recommendations of the CPC Central Committee on the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the 2035 Visionary Goals”, which put forward that the economic and social development in the 14th Five-Year Plan period should be “based on the theme of promoting high-quality development”. Product quality upgrading plays a central role in promoting high-quality economic development [6], and many scholars regard export product quality as one of the most important indicators of the sustainable development of export trade [7]. The quality of the export product reflects the competitive advantage of the product, and the high quality reflects the high competitiveness of international trade [8].

Meanwhile, product quality is a key factor in international trade activities and determines the position of a country or region in the global supply chain [9,10]. We should fully understand and appreciate the profound connotation and significance of the theme of promoting high-quality economic development and take it as our responsibility to promote high-quality economic development. At the same time, we need to integrate the promotion of high-quality economic development throughout all areas and processes of economic and social development in the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has successfully integrated into the global value chain through its labor force endowment, successfully achieved inter-industrial upgrading and high-speed economic growth, and become the world’s second-largest economy and the largest trading country of goods. However, quantity does not fully represent quality, as China has been at the lower end of the global value chain, engaging in low value-added, low-technology processing and assembly, with its “quality” growth significantly lagging “quantity” growth. The trade friction between China and the United States in 2018 increased the uncertainty of world economic recovery. The “COVID-19” pandemic in 2020 further paralyzed the world’s supply and value chains. Against this backdrop, improving the quality of export products, enhancing international competitiveness, and promoting the transformation from “Made in China” to “Created in China” requires greater reliance on domestic independent research and innovation capabilities. On 21 July 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping emphasized at a symposium for entrepreneurs the importance of stimulating the vitality of market players, promoting entrepreneurship, and encouraging enterprises to contribute more to achieve greater development. Entrepreneurship is a lasting power and stable source of economic development. To promote the continuous improvement of technology and product quality and to ensure stable and high-quality economic growth, it is necessary to unleash the innovative spirit of risk-taking entrepreneurs, while ensuring fair and transparent competition and fostering innovative vitality in the market.

In summary, the necessity of studying the impact and mechanism of entrepreneurial spirit on export product quality lies in its ability to help us understand the influence of innovation and entrepreneurship on the quality of firms’ export products, thus identifying key factors. This research can provide targeted suggestions for policymakers and business leaders to promote and support innovation and entrepreneurship, increase the total factor productivity of firms, and improve the quality of export products. Furthermore, studying the importance of entrepreneurial spirit for improving export product quality can help us establish a social atmosphere that values and encourages innovation and entrepreneurship, thus providing support and guarantee for cultivating an innovative and entrepreneurial culture and promoting the high-quality development of the Chinese economy. Additionally, this research can also help us understand and grasp the demand and trends of the global market, enabling China to make timely adjustments to the corporate structure to meet international market requirements, thus enhancing the competitiveness and position of Chinese firms in the international market.

2. Literature Review

With the continuous improvement of enterprise heterogeneity theory, scholars have introduced enterprise product quality into theoretical models to explore the role played by product quality in enterprise trading activities and transformed it into a function of observable variables for measurement. The current methods for measuring product quality at the micro-level mainly include the unit value method, the product characteristics method, the inverse demand information method, and the summation of the supply and demand information method. Firstly, the unit value method takes the product unit price as the judgment criterion of quality, and higher quality products usually correspond to higher prices [11,12,13,14]. The unit value method is simple and easy to calculate, but there are many factors that affect the price of the product and it is impossible to maintain an exact correspondence with the product quality. Second, there is the product characteristics method, which measures product quality based on different criteria selected for different types of products. For example, the quality index is measured according to the rating of the wine, and the quality is measured according to the overall performance parameters of the car. This method is only measured for special products and cannot be extended. Third, the inverse demand information method derives an expression for output based on the optimal choice of consumers in reverse. According to this method, if two products have equal prices, the one with a larger market share is considered to have higher product quality [15,16,17]. Compared with the first two methods, the inverse demand information method is more accurate and more realistic, and it is currently the mainstream measurement method. The fourth is the supply and demand information summation method, which integrates both supply and demand factors and endogenously determines the quality of export products. Feenstra and Romalis [18] first proposed this method, and Chinese scholars Yu and Zhang [19] drew on this method to measure the quality of Chinese export products. It is more comprehensive and accurate to measure export product quality through both supply and demand levels. However, this method requires more data such as intermediate inputs of enterprises and elasticity of product substitution in different countries, and its operability is somewhat restricted.

Based on accurate measurement, the academic community further focuses on the main factors affecting the improvement of export product quality. From a macro-perspective, the level of a country’s legal system significantly improves export product quality. Specifically, the legal environment [6], property rights protection [20,21], and environmental regulation [22] will all improve the quality of export products. Countries’ import tariffs affect the speed of improving product quality, and lower tariffs promote product quality upgrades [23]. However, excessive tax incentives may promote output and export expansion, which could lead to a crowding out of human capital and a weakening of the quality of export products [24]. Trade liberalization will also promote the quality of export products, and the impact on the quality of export products is heterogeneous among different types of enterprises [25]. In terms of transmission mechanisms, trade liberalization can contribute to the quality of export products through increased competition [26], quality upgrading of intermediate inputs, and productivity gains [27]. At the micro-level, firms’ human capital development [28,29], green innovation [30], and digitization [8] are capable of promoting the improvement of export product quality. When labor prices are negatively distorted, firms introduce unskilled labor to reduce costs, which can lead to a decrease in the quality of export products. However, as unskilled labor gradually becomes skilled and productivity increases, export product quality will subsequently improve [31]. Compared with firms that invest only domestically, firms with OFDI have higher export product quality, and this quality-upgrading effect is more pronounced when firms export to developed countries [32].

Entrepreneurship is the soul of innovation. By breaking the equilibrium of the old market through various forms of innovation, such as technological innovation, product innovation, and business model innovation, entrepreneurship can drive sustained and steady economic growth through innovation [33]. The key to entrepreneurship is to be creative and systematic, which can be divided into five specific areas: autonomy, innovation, risk-taking, initiative, and competition [34]. The period of the 14th Five-Year Plan is a key stage in China’s transition from high-speed development to “high-quality development”. As export trade is the core driving force of China’s economic growth, the rapid improvement of export product quality is an important guarantee for China’s high-quality economic development. Under the dual pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic and trade frictions, the global supply chain and global value chain have been greatly impacted. The traditional development model that heavily relies on the global value chain poses great risks and uncertainties to the Chinese economy. Therefore, the improvement of export product quality must rely on China’s own research and development capabilities and innovation abilities. Under the new circumstances, fully leveraging the innovation and entrepreneurship spirit of domestic entrepreneurs, enhancing the innovation capacity and efficiency of domestic enterprises, and further improving the quality of export products are vital safeguards for achieving the high-quality development of our country’s export trade and economy. While there have been many studies on the relationship between entrepreneurship and economic growth, most of them are conducted at the macro-level and focus on the “quantity” of economic growth. Fewer studies focus on the “quality” of economic growth at the firm level. Therefore, can entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship enhance the quality of export products and promote the high-quality development of the economy, and what is the mechanism of its influence? This is the concern of this paper. The answer to this question can provide an important reference for building a social atmosphere of entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship and boosting the high-quality development of the economy. Therefore, this paper matches provincial-level data with firm-level microdata to empirically examine the impact and mechanism of entrepreneurship on the quality of export products.

Based on matching data from the China Industrial Enterprise Database and the China Customs Import and Export Trade Database, this paper calculates the export product quality at the enterprise level in China and measures both entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship at the provincial level. On this basis, this paper empirically tests the impact of entrepreneurial spirit on the quality of export products at the enterprise level. The study found that entrepreneurial spirit can promote the improvement of export product quality by enhancing the total factor productivity of enterprises, which is in line with the expected research objectives. Compared with the existing literature, the possible marginal contributions of this paper are as follows: firstly, this paper focuses on the relationship between entrepreneurship and firms’ export product quality in the context of high-quality economic development, matches the data on entrepreneurship at the provincial level with the data on export product quality at the firm level, and conducts empirical tests. Secondly, this article empirically tests the impact of entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship on export product quality, providing a reference for understanding the promotion effect of entrepreneurial spirit on product quality. Thirdly, we use mediation effects to empirically test the underlying mechanism of entrepreneurial spirit in promoting export product quality and explore the heterogeneous impact of entrepreneurial spirit from the perspective of enterprise ownership. Fourthly, we empirically test the moderating effects of improving the rule of law, reducing government intervention in the market, developing the non-public sector, and improving factor and product markets on the effect of entrepreneurial spirit.

3. Entrepreneurship and Export Product Quality Measurement

3.1. Selection and Measurement of Entrepreneurship Indicators

Although the conclusion that entrepreneurship promotes economic growth is universally recognized by the academic community, there is no clear and unified method for defining entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a semantically rich term that changes its meaning with variations in social, economic, and cultural environments. It includes but is not limited to innovation awareness, adventure awareness, risk awareness, etc., and it is difficult to quantify all its connotations in empirical analysis. Drawing on Hébert and Link [35], this paper further divides entrepreneurship into entrepreneurship of innovation spirit and entrepreneurship of venture for this study.

3.1.1. Entrepreneurship of Innovation

Entrepreneurial innovation, which is the core concept of Schumpeter’s [33] “Creative Destruction”, is a reliable guarantee and a lasting driving force for economic growth. It enables firms to create new products, services, and business models, thereby driving economic development and creating new opportunities for prosperity. Innovation is reflected in all aspects of production and operation, including production technology innovation, production process innovation, product design innovation, product quality innovation, business model innovation, etc. In empirical analysis, the number of patent applications by a firm is a primary indicator for measuring entrepreneurial innovation spirit [36]. It is worth noting that the number of patent applications can reflect a firm’s innovation willingness and enthusiasm. However, not all patent applications are granted, and not all granted patents can be transformed into real production capacity. To better reflect the quality of innovation, this paper sets the proxy variable as the number of patents granted per 10,000 people. The number of patents granted is taken from the Annual Review of China Science and Technology Statistics each year, and the number of the population is obtained from the China Population and Employment Statistical Yearbook each year.

3.1.2. Entrepreneurship of Venture

Entrepreneurial spirit also includes creating new businesses, expanding production scale, and employing more workers. The number of new enterprises is a direct manifestation of the entrepreneurship of venture, while the increase in employment is an indirect manifestation of the entrepreneurship of venture. Schumpeter [33] used the number of new production organizations as a centralized representation of entrepreneurship of venture, and later scholars followed this approach. It is worth noting that new businesses must be able to start operating on time to expand their scale and create employment opportunities. However, according to official statistics, a considerable number of businesses cannot start operating on time. A survey questionnaire conducted by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in the fourth quarter of 2015 regarding small and micro-enterprises showed that the annual opening rate of newly established small and micro-enterprises, which is included in the statistics, was only 70.8%. To truly reflect the quality of entrepreneurship of venture, we draw on Li and Li [37] to consider both the quantitative and qualitative effects, including the increase in the number of firms and the expansion of the firm employment scale. The entrepreneurial entrepreneurship index at the provincial level was constructed by the following method:

$$CYZ{S}_{it}=\frac{Qy{s}_{it}}{Rk{s}_{it}}\times \frac{Sj{y}_{it}}{Zj{y}_{it}}$$

(1)

In Equation (1), $CYZS$ represents the entrepreneurship of venture. $Qy{s}_{it}$ and $Rk{s}_{it}$ are the number of private and self-employed enterprises and the total population in year $t$ of province $i$, respectively. The ratio of the $Qy{s}_{it}$ to $Rk{s}_{it}$ represents the number of enterprises per capita at the provincial level, which can reflect the quantitative effect of entrepreneurship; $Sj{y}_{it}$ and $Zj{y}_{it}$ represent the number of private and self-employed enterprises and the total population in year $t$ of province $i$, respectively. The ratio of $Sj{y}_{it}$ to $Zj{y}_{it}$ can reflect the quantitative effect of entrepreneurship. The number of private and self-employed enterprises, the total population, the number of private and self-employed persons employed, and the total number of employed persons are all obtained from the China Population and Employment Statistical Yearbook.

3.2. Selection and Measurement of Export Product Quality Indicators

To measure export product quality, this paper selects the current mainstream demand information backpropagation method based on data availability and operability. This ensures that the research findings can be compared with the relevant literature.

The specific method is as follows:

$$U_{}=[{\displaystyle \sum _j{({\lambda }_j{q}_j)}^{\frac{{\sigma }_j-1}{{\sigma }_j}}}{]}^{\frac{{\sigma }_j}{{\sigma }_j-1}}$$

(2)

where ${\lambda }_j$ and $q_j$ denote the quality and quantity of product $j$, respectively. ${\sigma }_j>1$ denotes the elasticity of substitution between different varieties within the same product category $j$. The corresponding price index $P$ is:

$$P={\displaystyle \sum _j{p}_j^{1-\sigma }}{\lambda }_j^{\sigma -1}$$

(3)

where $p_j$ is the price of product $j$, and the consumption quantity $q_j$ corresponding to product $j$ is:

$$q_j=p_j^{-\sigma }{\lambda }_j^{\sigma -1}\frac{E}{P}$$

(4)

where $P$ and $E$ represent the overall price index and total expenditure in the importing country, respectively. Then, the quantity of product $j$ exported by firm $i$ to country $m$ in year $t$ can be expressed as:

$$q_{ijmt}=p_{ijmt}^{-\sigma }{\lambda }_{ijmt}^{\sigma -1}\frac{E_{mt}}{P_{mt}}$$

(5)

Taking the natural logarithm on both sides and simplifying:

$$\ln q_{ijmt}={\phi }_{mt}-\sigma \ln p_{ijmt}+{\epsilon }_{ijmt}$$

(6)

where ${\phi }_{mt}=\ln E_{mt}-\ln P_{mt}$ is the year fixed effect in the importing country, controlling for differences in the importing country’s price index $P$ and total consumption expenditure $E$. $\ln p_{ijmt}$ is the price of the firm’s exported product and ${\epsilon }_{ijmt}=\left(\sigma -1\right)\ln {\lambda }_{ijmt}$ is the residual term containing information on product quality. Therefore, the product quality can be further expressed as:

$$qualit{y}_{ijmt}=\ln {\widehat{\lambda }}_{ijmt}=\frac{{\widehat{\epsilon }}_{ijmt}}{\sigma -1}$$

(7)

where $qualit{y}_{ijmt}$ denotes the quality of product $j$ exported by firm $i$ to country $m$ in year $t$. The overall product quality is standardized using the method proposed by Shi [16]:

$$S-qualit{y}_{ijmt}=\frac{qualit{y}_{ijmt}-\min qualit{y}_j}{\max qualit{y}_j-\min qualit{y}_j}$$

(8)

where $\min qualit{y}_j$ and $\max qualit{y}_j$ denote the minimum and maximum values of the quality of a certain HS product, respectively. $\max qualit{y}_j-\min qualit{y}_j$ represents the length of the quality tier for this HS product. The standardized quality index values range from 0 to 1 and can be aggregated at different dimensional levels for comparison of different dimensions. Using the export value as the weight, the overall quality indicator is defined as:

$$T-quality={\displaystyle \sum _{\Omega }\frac{Valu{e}_{ijmt}}{{\displaystyle \sum _{\Omega }Valu{e}_{ijmt}}}\times S-qualit{y}_{ijmt}}$$

(9)

where $T-quality$ denotes the overall quality of the corresponding sample set Ω, Ω denotes the sample set at a certain level, and $Valu{e}_{ijmt}$ denotes the sample export amount. The reason for using a weighted average instead of a simple average is that a simple average cannot reflect the export importance of different products in a sample set, while a weighted average can maximize the export contribution of different products in the set, thus reflecting their different levels of impact on the export quality of the sample set at that level.

3.3. Data Sources and Processing

The micro-enterprises data used in this paper are all from the China Industrial Enterprise Database and the China Customs Import and Export Trade Database from 2000–2013. Data matching was performed using the methods described by Upward et al. [38]. First, the enterprise name and year were used for matching. Then, the postal code of the enterprise location and the last 7 digits of the phone number were used to match the unidentified enterprises.

The China Industrial Enterprise Database includes two types of information: basic information and financial information of all state-owned industrial enterprises and non-state-owned industrial enterprises above a certain scale in China. Before the measurement, the data were processed as follows: in the first step, the missing observations of key indicators and those that violated accounting standards were removed. In the second step, the extreme values of 0.5% before and after the key indicators were excluded. In the third step, we removed observations for enterprises without identification numbers, observations for enterprises with invalid establishment dates, and observations for enterprises with fewer than 10 employees.

The China Customs Import and Export Trade Database records monthly transaction data for Chinese import and export enterprises. Each data sample contains two types of information: enterprise-level information and transaction-level information. Enterprise-level information includes the enterprise name, address, phone number, postal code, and contact person. Transaction-level information includes the HS 8-digit code for imported and exported products, import and export quantities, amounts, and units, as well as information on the importing country (region), trade mode, transport mode, transit country (region), and other related information. Before the measurement, the data were processed as follows: in the first step, samples with missing key information were removed. In the second step, samples with export quantities and export amounts of 0 were removed. In the third step, samples with China as the destination country were removed. In the fourth step, samples of trading intermediaries were removed. In the fifth step, only manufacturing data samples were retained.

4. Empirical Analysis

4.1. Description of the Econometric Model and Variables

The quality of a company’s exported products is influenced not only by its own technological level, production efficiency, and management mode but also by macro-level factors such as local government policies, the level of rule of law, and the development of factor markets. Based on this, and drawing on the empirical models of Wang and Shi [39], we established the following econometric model that considers both micro-level factors and macro-level market factors:

$$qu{a}_{it}={\beta }_0+{\beta }_{1}C{X}_{it}+{\beta }_{2}C{Y}_{it}+{\beta }_3{X}_{it}+{\beta }_4{Y}_{it}+{\lambda }_{pro}+{\lambda }_{year}+{\epsilon }_{it}$$

(10)

where the subscript $i$ represents the firm and $t$ represents the year. $qu{a}_{it}$ represents the export product quality of firm $i$ in period $t$. $C{X}_{it}$ represents the entrepreneurship of innovation, and $C{Y}_{it}$ represents entrepreneurship of venture. ${\lambda }_{pro}$ and ${\lambda }_{year}$ are dummy variables controlling for province and year fixed effects, respectively. ${\beta }_0$ is a constant term and ${\epsilon }_{it}$ is a random disturbance term.

The econometric model used in this paper is a panel data model, which employs matched data from micro-level enterprise data and macro-level provincial data. The entrepreneurial spirit is primarily a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, and it has obvious regional characteristics, with very wide disparities between entrepreneurial spirit among different regions. Based on this, entrepreneurial spirit is measured using provincial-level data. The rule of law, government intervention in the market, development of the non-public sector, and development of factor and product markets, as macroeconomic development indices, are also measured using provincial-level data. The baseline regression model uses a fixed effects model, controlling for the province and time dummy variables. Robustness tests are conducted using the system GMM model, alternative indicator measurement methods, and high-dimensional fixed effects. Additionally, the impact mechanism is tested using the mediation effect model, while the moderating effect is tested using the corresponding interaction term. The limitations of the model are as follows: firstly, it is unable to obtain entrepreneurial spirit data at the enterprise level that can correspond with the quality of exported products. Secondly, the data only go up to 2013, which prevents the use of the most recent data for empirical testing.

$X$ represents firm-level control variables, mainly including: (1) financing constraints (ys): financing constraints are estimated using the SA index proposed by Hadlock and Pierce [40]. (2) Total factor productivity (tfp): the total factor productivity of the enterprise is estimated using the semi-parametric method proposed by Levinsohn and Petrin [41]. (3) Firm size (size): enterprise size is measured using the logarithm of enterprise sales. (4) Firm capital intensity (kl): firm capital intensity is measured using the ratio of fixed assets to the number of employees in the enterprise. (5) Firm age (age): firm age is measured using the difference between the observation year and the year of enterprise registration. (6) Average wage of workers (mwage): average worker wage is measured using the ratio of total wages payable by the enterprise in the current year to the average number of employees. (7) Share of processing trade (exp): the share of processing trade is measured using the ratio of processing trade export amount to the total export amount of the enterprise. (8) Subsidy intensity (subs): the subsidy intensity is measured using the proportion of government subsidies to the industrial value-added of the enterprise.

$Y$ represents the province-level control variables, mainly including the index of intermediary organization development and law (ZJSC), with higher values indicating greater development of intermediary organizations and higher levels of legal standards. There is the index of government–market relationship (ZFSC), with higher values indicating lower government intervention in the market and better government–market relations. There is the index of non-state economic development (FGY), with higher values indicating better development of non-state enterprises. There is the index of factor market development (YSFY), with higher values indicates better factor market development. There is the index of product market development (CPSC), with higher values indicating better product market development. The data for all of these provincial control variables were obtained from the China Marketization Index: 2011 Report on the Relative Process of Marketization. Descriptive statistics for each variable are presented in

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of variables.

Variables	Average Value	Standard Deviation	Minimum Value	Maximum Value	Observations
$qua$	0.566	0.101	0	1	165,688
$CX$	0.378	1.045	0	2.578	165,688
$CY$	0.006	0.005	0	0.028	165,688
ys	3.023	0.110	0.0008	3.356	165,688
tfp	6.144	1.038	1.508	11.220	165,688
size	9.342	1.089	0	15.500	165,688
kl	83.210	212.060	0	32097	165,688
age	9.123	10.098	0	184	165,688
mwage	11.410	12.110	0.043	2332	165,688
exp	0.033	0.112	0	0.967	165,688
subs	0.023	0.037	0	0.921	165,688
ZJSC	4.243	2.332	−0.300	10.120	165,688
ZFSC	7.222	1.121	−1.040	10.230	165,688
FGY	7.765	2.214	−1.123	12.010	165,688
YSFY	6.754	2.204	0	12.710	165,688
CPSC	6.116	4.314	−0.012	21.730	165,688

.

4.2. Baseline Regression

Table 2. Effect of entrepreneurship on export product quality.

Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6	Model 7	Model 8
$CX$	0.033 **	0.032 **	0.031 **	0.042 **	0.036 **	0.031 ***	0.033 **	0.032 **
	(2.323)	(2.029)	(2.141)	(2.244)	(2.565)	(3.726)	(2.443)	(2.132)
$CY$	0.023 **	0.028 **	0.021 **	0.033 **	0.023 **	0.024 ***	0.031 **	0.031 **
	(2.245)	(2.331)	(2.228)	(2.412)	(2.433)	(3.332)	(2.311)	(2.342)
ZJSC	0.011 **	0.012 **	0.012 **	0.011 **	0.013 **	0.014 **	0.016 **	0.015 **
	(2.111)	(2.321)	(2.121)	(2.423)	(2.146)	(2.174)	(2.124)	(2.204)
ZFSC	0.003 *	0.004 **	0.003 **	0.004 *	0.004 **	0.004 *	0.003 *	0.003 *
	(1.773)	(2.212)	(2.325)	(1.784)	(2.453)	(1.786)	(1.784)	(1.844)
FGY	0.013 **	0.013 **	0.012 *	0.014 **	0.013 **	0.013 **	0.012 *	0.014 **
	(2.027)	(2.132)	(1.728)	(2.413)	(2.037)	(2.132)	(1.738)	(2.433)
YSFY	0.004 **	0.005 **	0.004 **	0.004 **	0.005 **	0.005 **	0.004 **	0.004 **
	(2.332)	(2.451)	(2.226)	(2.323)	(2.425)	(2.236)	(2.323)	(2.425)
CPSC	0.004 **	0.003 **	0.004 **	0.003 **	0.004 **	0.003 **	0.004 **	0.003 **
	(2.133)	(2.433)	(2.213)	(2.433)	(2.132)	(2.436)	(2.135)	(2.243)
tfp	0.021 ***	0.026 *	0.025 ***	0.022 ***	0.025 ***	0.024 ***	0.021 ***	0.022 ***
	(4.11)	(3.22)	(4.15)	(3.68)	(4.22)	(4.09)	(3.56)	(4.342)
ys		−0.112 ***	−0.105 ***	−0.126 ***	−0.134 ***	−0.126 ***	−0.126 ***	−0.133 ***
		(−4.121)	(−3.826)	(−3.427)	(−3.525)	(−4.214)	(−4.214)	(−4.238)
size			0.013 ***	0.013 ***	0.011 ***	0.016 ***	0.021 ***	0.016 ***
			(4.121)	(4.212)	(4.342)	(4.326)	(4.122)	(4.222)
kl				0.026 **	0.0324 **	0.022 *	0.021 **	0.026 **
				(2.132)	(2.463)	(1.934)	(2.342)	(2.415)
age					−0.032 **	−0.033 **	−0.033 *	−0.031 **
					(−2.137)	(−2.144)	(−2.095)	(−2.075)
mwage						−0.018 **	−0.021 **	−0.019 **
						(−2.442)	(−2.239)	(−2.435)
exp							−0.031 *	−0.031 *
							(−1.911)	(−1.894)
subs								−0.035 **
								(−2.312)
Provincial Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Time Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
$R^2$	0.524	0.633	0.714	0.664	0.573	0.632	0.637	0.743
Number of Samples	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688

Note: The regressions were performed by adding variables one at a time, and only some of the regression results of the models are reported for space limitations, which are available from the authors upon request; the values in () are t-values; *, **, and *** represent meeting the 10%, 5%, and 1% significance levels, respectively.

reports the regression results obtained by adding variables one by one to Equation (10). The regression coefficients for entrepreneurship of innovation and entrepreneurship of venture are significantly positive, indicating that both can promote the improvement of export product quality. The innovation spirit promotes product quality improvement by enhancing product performance, quality, and technology content through innovation. The venture spirit promotes product quality improvement by expanding the production scale, improving resource allocation efficiency, labor productivity, and reducing production costs. The regression coefficients of total factor productivity, firm size, and firm capital intensity are significantly positive, indicating that they can promote the improvement of export product quality. On the other hand, the regression coefficients of financing constraints, firm age, average wage, and government subsidies are significantly negative, which are not conducive to the improvement of export product quality. Finally, the regression coefficients of the five provincial control variables are significantly positive, showing that improvements in all five market mechanisms can promote the improvement of export product quality.

4.3. Robustness Tests

4.3.1. Endogenous Problems

Entrepreneurship affects the change in export product quality, and the change in export product quality may likewise have endogeneity problems by swaying the next R&D and production activities of the firm. Systematic GMM is a common approach to addressing the endogeneity problem. By using the differential lag term of the endogenous explanatory variables as the instrumental variables, this method can solve not only the endogeneity problem but also the issues of autocorrelation in the time series and heteroskedasticity in the cross-section [42,43]. Based on this, the lagged one period of the dependent variable ($qua$) is put into the independent variable here, and the dynamic panel data are composed to be regressed using the systematic GMM method.

$$qu{a}_{it}=qu{a}_{it-1}+{\beta }_0+{\beta }_{1}C{X}_{it}+{\beta }_{2}C{Y}_{it}+{\beta }_3{X}_{it}+{\beta }_4{Y}_{it}+{\lambda }_{pro}+{\lambda }_{year}+{\epsilon }_{it}$$

(11)

Table 3. Effect of entrepreneurship on export product quality (systematic GMM approach).

Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6	Model 7	Model 8
$qu{a}_{it-1}$	0.017 ***	0.016 ***	0.015 ***	0.013 ***	0.016 ***	0.012 ***	0.015 ***	0.016 ***
	(3.772)	(3.436)	(4.337)	(4.235)	(3.724)	(4.165)	(3.447)	(3.157)
$CX$	0.031 ***	0.032 ***	0.044 ***	0.041 ***	0.042 ***	0.041 ***	0.042 ***	0.036 ***
	(5.124)	(4.455)	(4.738)	(4.232)	(4.623)	(4.556)	(4.447)	(4.433)
$CY$	0.024 ***	0.024 ***	0.023 ***	0.023 ***	0.024 ***	0.026 ***	0.026 ***	0.021 ***
	(3.253)	(3.544)	(3.215)	(4.756)	(4.633)	(4.841)	(4.147)	(4.421)
ZJSC	0.015 ***	0.015 ***	0.014 ***	0.013 ***	0.015 ***	0.015 ***	0.014 ***	0.015 ***
	(3.564)	(4.724)	(4.336)	(4.373)	(4.546)	(4.356)	(4.124)	(5.209)
ZFSC	0.003 ***	0.003 ***	0.004 ***	0.003 ***	0.004 ***	0.006 ***	0.006 ***	0.005 ***
	(3.636)	(3.743)	(3.939)	(3.556)	(4.246)	(4.331)	(4.225)	(3.776)
FGY	0.014 ***	0.014 ***	0.015 ***	0.015 ***	0.016 ***	0.016 ***	0.015 ***	0.016 ***
	(4.107)	(4.114)	(4.245)	(3.677)	(4.306)	(4.144)	(4.014)	(4.222)
YSFY	0.006 ***	0.007 ***	0.007 ***	0.006 ***	0.007 ***	0.007 ***	0.006 ***	0.007 ***
	(4.431)	(4.364)	(4.343)	(4.441)	(4.346)	(4.333)	(4.414)	(4.365)
CPSC	0.005 ***	0.006 ***	0.005 ***	0.006 ***	0.005 ***	0.006 ***	0.005 ***	0.006 ***
	(4.836)	(4.447)	(4.686)	(4.477)	(4.786)	(4.347)	(4.86)	(4.437)
tfp	0.026 ***	0.022 ***	0.024 ***	0.022 ***	0.023 ***	0.024 ***	0.023 ***	0.023 ***
	(4.41)	(3.77)	(3.73)	(4.32)	(4.17)	(4.22)	(4.16)	(4.366)
ys		−0.122 ***	−0.126 ***	−0.124 ***	−0.116 ***	−0.114 ***	−0.128 ***	−0.117 ***
		(−4.145)	(−3.356)	(−4.213)	(−4.145)	(−4.343)	(−4.155)	(−4.264)
size			0.015 ***	0.018 ***	0.015 ***	0.012 ***	0.014 ***	0.015 ***
			(3.244)	(4.757)	(4.522)	(4.241)	(3.638)	(3.624)
kl				0.033 ***	0.035 ***	0.035 ***	0.034 ***	0.036 ***
				(3.353)	(3.646)	(3.577)	(4.543)	(4.961)
age					−0.025 ***	−0.026 ***	−0.026 ***	−0.026 ***
					(−4.346)	(−3.673)	(−3.344)	(−4.754)
mwage						−0.023 ***	−0.025 ***	−0.026 ***
						(−3.739)	(−3.642)	(−4.156)
exp							−0.032 ***	−0.031 ***
							(−3.998)	(−3.876)
subs								−0.053 ***
								(−4.39)
Provincial Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Time Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
AR (1) p-value	0.003	0.001	0.000	0.000	0.003	0.002	0.003	0.003
AR (2) p-value	0.211	0.327	0.347	0.313	0.322	0.253	0.231	0.314
Sargan test p-value	0.346	0.241	0.322	0.243	0.233	0.242	0.325	0.343
Number of Samples	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688

Note: The instrumental variables used in models 1–8 all lagged 2 periods of $qua$. *** represent meeting the 1% significance levels.

reports the results of the regression of Equation (11) using the systematic GMM method. Seven regression models have first-order autocorrelation but not second-order autocorrelation, and the Sagan test results indicate that the model does not have over-identification of instrumental variables and that the regression results are reliable. The regression coefficient of export product quality lagged one period in the model and is positive and significant at the 1% level, indicating a clear dynamic continuity of export product quality. The results suggest that improvements in export product quality in the first stage can stimulate further innovation activities by enterprises, thereby promoting the improvement of export product quality in the next stage. The regression coefficients of entrepreneurship of innovation and entrepreneurship of venture are significantly positive at the 1% level, and both of them can promote the improvement of export product quality.

4.3.2. Replacement Indicator Measurement Method

To avoid the influence of different measurement methods for indicators, we adopted the method proposed by Li and Li [37]. Specifically, the growth rate of patents granted per 10,000 people was used to measure entrepreneurial innovation spirit, while the growth rate of the number of private and individual enterprises was used to measure entrepreneurial venture spirit. To ensure robustness, the method proposed by Yu and Zhang [19] was adopted to measure the quality of export products. Specifically, the supply–demand information aggregation method was used to calculate the quality of export products by enterprises. The regression results are reported in

Table 4. Effect of entrepreneurship on export product quality (proxy variables).

Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6	Model 7	Model 8
$CX$	0.035 ***	0.034 ***	0.034 ***	0.034 ***	0.030 ***	0.033 ***	0.034 ***	0.036 ***
	(3.912)	(4.154)	(4.554)	(4.346)	(3.563)	(3.677)	(4.526)	(3.691)
$CY$	0.033 ***	0.033 ***	0.030 ***	0.031 ***	0.028 ***	0.031 ***	0.032 ***	0.033 ***
	(4.113)	(3.454)	(3.564)	(4.534)	(4.631)	(4.278)	(3.771)	(4.161)
ZJSC	0.013 **	0.013 **	0.013 **	0.012 **	0.013 **	0.013 **	0.013 **	0.013 **
	(2.007)	(2.121)	(2.114)	(2.512)	(2.543)	(2.154)	(2.334)	(2.443)
ZFSC	0.005 ***	0.004 ***	0.004 ***	0.005 ***	0.003 ***	0.005 ***	0.004 ***	0.004 ***
	(4.35)	(5.11)	(4.54)	(4.18)	(3.77)	(4.35)	(5.11)	(4.54)
FGY	0.013 **	0.014 **	0.014 **	0.015 **	0.014 **	0.014 **	0.014 **	0.014 **
	(2.106)	(2.522)	(2.083)	(2.457)	(2.550)	(2.332)	(2.332)	(2.137)
YSFY	0.004 ***	0.003 ***	0.004 ***	0.004 ***	0.003 ***	0.004 ***	0.004 ***	0.003 ***
	(4.313)	(5.141)	(5.252)	(4.314)	(5.113)	(5.223)	(4.341)	(5.114)
CPSC	0.003 ***	0.003 ***	0.003 ***	0.003 ***	0.003 ***	0.003 ***	0.003 ***	0.003 ***
	(5.635)	(4.457)	(5.565)	(4.457)	(5.645)	(4.537)	(5.365)	(4.357)
tfp	0.019 ***	0.021 ***	0.023 ***	0.024 ***	0.023 ***	0.024 ***	0.031 ***	0.031 ***
	(4.424)	(3.578)	(5.314)	(4.411)	(4.258)	(3.858)	(4.153)	(3.102)
ys		−0.102 ***	−0.111 ***	−0.132 ***	−0.121 ***	−0.132 ***	−0.124 ***	−0.117 ***
		(−4.535)	(−3.255)	(−4.226)	(−4.233)	(−4.536)	(−4.831)	(−4.333)
size			0.023 ***	0.016 ***	0.017 ***	0.015 ***	0.016 ***	0.015 ***
			(4.224)	(3.388)	(4.223)	(4.232)	(3.893)	(3.636)
kl				0.024 ***	0.023 ***	0.031 ***	0.031 ***	0.026 ***
				(3.269)	(4.143)	(3.433)	(3.335)	(4.331)
age					−0.018 ***	−0.021 ***	−0.024 ***	−0.025 ***
					(−4.435)	(−3.747)	(−4.245)	(−4.663)
mwage						−0.019 ***	−0.021 ***	−0.019 ***
						(−3.122)	(−3.199)	(−4.094)
exp							−0.030 *	−0.031 *
							(−1.908)	(−1.843)
subs								−0.033 ***
								(−5.142)
Provincial Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Time Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
$R^2$	0.633	0.653	0.676	0.599	0.556	0.623	0.544	0.573
Number of Samples	124,656	124,656	124,656	124,656	124,656	124,656	124,656	124,656

Note: The sample size was somewhat smaller after processing using the method of Yu and Zhang [19]. *, **, and *** represent meeting the 10%, 5%, and 1% significance levels, respectively.

. The coefficients of entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship are significantly positive, and the regression coefficients of other control variables are consistent in sign with those in Table 3, most of which are significant at the 1% level. This indicates that the findings of this paper are not influenced by the measures of entrepreneurial spirit and export product quality.

4.3.3. High-Dimensional Fixed Effects Tests

Entrepreneurial spirit may improve the quality of export products through innovation and entrepreneurial activities, but it is also possible that the improvement in export product quality is due to tax incentives and supportive policies implemented by the government. Government preferential policies are often implemented at the industry level. To eliminate the potential impact of these policies and industry heterogeneity on the conclusions, this study included industry dummy variables and used high-dimensional fixed effects for testing, as reported in

Table 5. High-dimensional fixed effects tests.

Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
$CX$	0.032 **	0.030 **	0.033 **	0.031 **	0.034 **
	(2.512)	(2.543)	(2.154)	(2.334)	(2.443)
$CY$	0.032 **	0.030 **	0.030 **	0.028 **	0.031 **
	(2.106)	(2.522)	(2.083)	(2.457)	(2.550)
Province $\times$ Year Effect	YES				YES
Industry Effects		YES	YES	YES	YES
Industry $\times$ Year Effect			YES	YES	YES
Province $\times$ Industry Effect				YES	YES
Provincial Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Year Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
$R^2$	0.676	0.599	0.556	0.623	0.544
Number of Samples	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688

Note: The regression results are only reported for some of the models due to space limitations and are available from the authors upon request. ** represent meeting the 5% significance levels.

. Model 1 added the interaction term between provincial and year effects based on the provincial and year effects, and the coefficients for entrepreneurial innovation spirit and entrepreneurial venture spirit were significantly positive. Models 2–4 successively added industry effects, the interaction term between industry and year effects, and the interaction term between provincial and industry effects, and the coefficients for entrepreneurial innovation spirit and entrepreneurial venture spirit were significant and positive in all models. Model 5 added all of the fixed effects mentioned above, and the coefficients remained significant and positive, indicating that the regression results were not affected by government preferential policies at the industry level or industry heterogeneity.

4.4. Enterprise Heterogeneity Analysis

The entrepreneurial spirit has long been considered by Western scholars as a persistent driving force and stable source of economic growth. Through “creative destruction”, entrepreneurial spirit applies innovation to various aspects of practical production and management, promoting technological progress and productivity improvement, and driving economic growth. However, since the emergence of the theory of firm heterogeneity, scholars have begun to focus on the production decisions of firms with different natures in the same environment. Different types of firms measure the benefits and risks based on their actual situations, and then decide whether to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship activities. Entrepreneurial spirit can only truly play a role when the expected benefits exceed the costs related to legal, institutional, and cultural barriers.

Based on this, this paper classifies enterprises into six ownership types according to their registered investment capital share in the current year: state-owned enterprises, collective enterprises, independent legal entities, privately-owned enterprises, Hong Kong–Macao–Taiwan enterprises, and foreign-funded enterprises. The study examined the production decisions of firms with different ownership characteristics.

Table 6. Heterogeneous effects of entrepreneurship on export product quality.

Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6
	State-Owned	Collective	Legal Person	Private	Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan	Foreign Investment
$CX$	0.008	0.017	0.033 ***	0.043 ***	0.029 ***	0.029 ***
	−0.721	−1.301	−4.463	−4.242	−3.633	−4.338
$CY$	0.086	0.013	0.031 ***	0.037 ***	0.027 ***	0.022 ***
	−0.503	−0.314	−3.573	−4.223	−4.132	−3.713
ZJSC	0.014 ***	0.012 ***	0.015 ***	0.011 ***	0.011 ***	0.012 ***
	−4.131	−3.341	−3.252	−3.471	−3.643	−4.453
ZFSC	0.004 ***	0.004 ***	0.005 ***	0.010 ***	0.006 ***	0.007 ***
	−4.321	−3.434	−3.094	−4.173	−4.042	−3.244
FGY	0.012 ***	0.012 ***	0.012 ***	0.013 ***	0.012 ***	0.011 ***
	−3.337	−3.529	−3.714	−4.225	−3.349	−3.251
YSFY	0.003 ***	0.004 ***	0.003 ***	0.003 ***	0.003 ***	0.004 ***
	−5.111	−4.605	−3.679	−3.781	−4.226	−3.894
CPSC	0.003 ***	0.004 ***	0.003 ***	0.005 ***	0.003 ***	0.005 ***
	−4.423	−4.232	−4.146	−5.2553	−4.326	−5.953
ys	0.009	0.013	−0.027 **	−0.033 ***	−0.011 ***	−0.009 ***
	−1.322	−1.162	(−2.324)	(−3.327)	(−3.226)	(−3.633)
tfp	0.019 ***	0.021 ***	0.022 ***	0.022 ***	0.026 ***	0.031 ***
	−4.332	−3.643	−3.481	−3.362	−4.414	−3.755
size	0.011 **	0.012 *	0.013 *	0.008 *	0.011 *	0.012 *
	−2.202	−1.963	−1.945	−2.144	−1.852	−1.866
kl	0.011 **	0.016 *	0.014 **	0.014 **	0.016 *	0.015 *
	−2.134	−1.815	−2.261	−2.235	−1.849	−1.952
age	−0.021 **	−0.015 **	−0.016 *	−0.017 **	−0.021 **	−0.021 **
	(−2.415)	(−2.368)	(−1.954)	(−2.096)	(−2.335)	(−2.121)
mwage	−0.018 ***	−0.021 ***	−0.019 **	−0.020 **	−0.022 **	−0.021 ***
	(−4.043)	(−4.135)	(−2.114)	(−2.251)	(−2.213)	(−4.114)
subs	−0.027 **	−0.024 **	−0.026 **	−0.027 **	−0.024	−0.023
	(−2.11)	(−2.32)	(−2.14)	(−2.23)	(−1.09)	(−1.11)
Provincial Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Time Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
$R^2$	0.646	0.713	0.622	0.689	0.756	0.676
Number of Samples	55,537	110,406	154,532	452,075	53,956	55,066

*, **, and *** represent meeting the 10%, 5%, and 1% significance levels, respectively.

reports the results of the regressions conducted separately for different types of enterprises. Controlling for the province and time-fixed effects, the six regression models have first-order autocorrelation but not second-order autocorrelation, and the Sagan test results indicate that the models do not have over-identification of instrumental variables and the regression results are reliable.

Specifically, entrepreneurial innovation spirit and entrepreneurial venture spirit do not have significant promotion effects on the export product quality of state-owned and collective enterprises (two types) and have significant promotion effects on an independent legal person, privately owned, Hong Kong–Macao–Taiwan, and foreign-funded enterprises (four types).

State-owned enterprises have a clear advantage in competition with other types of enterprises, but their innovation enthusiasm and motivation are not very strong. Most state-owned enterprises are in key industries of national strategy or important industries related to people’s livelihood, and the stable technical and financial support from the state has ensured their monopoly position in the industry for a long time. On the other hand, state-owned enterprises have already reached a considerable scale and are facing problems such as bloated organizations, low efficiency, and declining profits. Therefore, their willingness to expand their scale is not very strong. Collective enterprises have made important contributions to the development of local economies and maintained good cooperative relations with local governments. They can enjoy implicit support from local governments in terms of funding and policies during their development process. Their technological level, operational capacity, and enterprise scale are clear advantages in local enterprise competition. However, their initiative for innovation and entrepreneurship is not very high. For the other four types of enterprises, entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship can significantly promote the improvement of the quality of export products. High-quality innovation and entrepreneurship by enterprises ensure the technical level and product performance of the supply side of products, enhance resource allocation efficiency, reduce production costs, and further promote the improvement of the quality of export products. The profit increase brought by the improvement of export product quality will in turn stimulate further innovation and entrepreneurship activities by enterprises, forming a virtuous cycle.

4.5. Analysis of Impact Mechanisms

Both entrepreneurial innovation spirit and entrepreneurial venture spirit promote the improvement of product quality by enhancing the total factor productivity of enterprises. The improvement of total factor productivity is the main mechanism by which entrepreneurial spirit promotes the improvement of export product quality. Entrepreneurial innovation spirit mainly focuses on innovation in production processes such as technological innovation, production process innovation, and production mode innovation, which can enhance the technical level and performance of products, promote the improvement of total factor productivity, and ultimately improve product quality. On the other hand, the entrepreneurial venture spirit promotes the improvement of product quality by expanding the production scale of enterprises, enhancing resource allocation efficiency, reducing production costs, promoting the improvement of total factor productivity, and ultimately improving product quality. At the same time, macro-level policy factors and market factors also affect the entrepreneurial choices of innovation and venture. The role of entrepreneurial spirit must first consider the risks of innovation and entrepreneurship activities [44]. Only when the expected benefits of innovation and entrepreneurship exceed the risks faced by the enterprise will the enterprise choose to continue production activities. Based on this, this study empirically tests the effect of entrepreneurial spirit on the improvement of total factor productivity. On the other hand, it also empirically tests the moderating effects of five market-level factors: the level of rule of law, government regulation, the development of a non-state-owned economy, the development of factor markets, and the development of product markets.

4.5.1. Test for Total Factor Productivity Enhancement Effect

If the independent variable $X$ affects the dependent variable $Y$, and this effect is mediated through another variable $M$, then $M$ is the mediating variable. If, after removing the mediating effect of variable $M$, the effect of $X$ on $Y$ is no longer significant, then $M$ is considered a “complete mediator”. If, after removing the mediating effect of $M$, the effect of $X$ on $Y$ remains significant, then $M$ is considered a “partial mediator”.

$$Y=cX+e_1$$

(12)

$$M=aX+e_2$$

(13)

$$Y=c^{/}X+bM+e_3$$

(14)

Table 7. Mediation effect test.

	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3		Model 4	Model 5	Model 6
	Export Product Quality	Total Factor Productivity	Cost-Plus		Export Product Quality	Total Factor Productivity	Cost-Plus
Entrepreneurial Innovation	0.043 **	0.572 ***	0.030 **	Entrepreneurial Essence	0.031 **	0.532 **	0.029 **
	(2.136)	(3.335)	(2.096)		(2.021)	(3.345)	(2.165)
Total Factor Productivity			0.612 **	Total Factor Productivity			0.576 **
			(2.178)				(2.099)
Intermediary Effect	Total factor productivity mediating effect: 0.013 Intermediary effect/total effect = 30.23%			Intermediary Effect	Total Factor Productivity Efficiency Mediation Effect: 0.012 Intermediary effect/total effect = 38.70%
Provincial Effect	YES	YES	YES	Provincial Effect	YES	YES	YES
Time Effect	YES	YES	YES	Time Effect	YES	YES	YES
$R^2$	0.72	0.77	0.76	$R^2$	0.72	0.78	0.76
Number of Samples	165,688	165,688	165,688	Number of Samples	165,688	165,688	165,688

Note: The model mainly analyzes mediating effects and omits the regression results of other control variables, which are available from the authors upon request. **, and *** represent meeting the 5%, and 1% significance levels, respectively.

reports the results of testing the mediating effects. Models 1, 2, and 3 are the three regression equations that test the mediating effect of entrepreneurial innovation for cost-plus enhancement, and all four regression coefficients $c$, $a$, $b$, and $c^{/}$ are significant. Models 4, 5, and 6 are the three regression equations to test the mediating effect of entrepreneurship for cost-plus enhancement, and the four regression coefficients $c$, $a$, $b$, and $c^{/}$ are all significant. Total factor productivity has significant mediating effects on both entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship for cost-plus enhancement, 0.013 and 0.012, respectively, and the two mediating effects can explain 30.23% and 38.70% of the total effect, respectively.

4.5.2. Test of Market Regulation Effect

To test the five market regulation effects, the interaction term model is constructed here as follows:

$$mk{p}_{it}=mk{p}_{it-1}+{\beta }_0+{\beta }_{1}C{X}_{it}+{\beta }_{2}C{Y}_{it}+{\beta }_3{X}_{it}+{\beta }_4{Y}_{it}+{\beta }_{5}C{X}_{it}\times J{Z}_k+{\beta }_{6}C{Y}_{it}\times J{Z}_k+{\lambda }_{pro}+{\lambda }_{year}+{\epsilon }_{it}$$

(15)

Equation (15) is a regression model to test the total factor productivity enhancement effect and the market regulation effect. $k$ represents five different impact mechanisms: the level of rule of law (ZJSC), government regulation (ZFSC), non-state economic development (FGY), factor market development (YSFY), and product market development (CPSC) when k takes values from 1 to 5, respectively. The meanings of the other variables are the same as in Equation (4).

Table 8. Moderating effect test.

Variables	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5
	Rule of Law Level	Government Control	Non-Public Economy	Elemental Market Development	Product Market Development
$CX$	0.034 **	0.035 **	0.031 ***	0.032 **	0.033 **
	(2.212)	(2.512)	(3.456)	(2.442)	(2.213)
$CY$	0.023 **	0.024 **	0.024 **	0.024 **	0.022 **
	(2.106)	(2.522)	(2.083)	(2.457)	(2.550)
$JZ$	0.024 ***	0.023 ***	0.019 ***	0.014 ***	0.015 ***
	(4.332)	(5.083)	(4.114)	(4.463)	(5.174)
$JZ\times CX$	0.013 **	0.015 **	0.012 **	0.012 ***	0.012 ***
	(2.313)	(2.154)	(2.057)	(4.145)	(4.526)
$JZ\times CY$	0.011***	0.007 ***	0.011 ***	0.006 ***	0.010 ***
	(3.482)	(4.131)	(4.462)	(3.537)	(5.148)
Provincial Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Time Effect	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
$R^2$	0.624	0.733	0.764	0.757	0.732
Number of Samples	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688	165,688

Note: The model mainly analyzes the impact mechanism and omits the regression results of other control variables, which are available from the authors upon request. **, and *** represent meeting the 5%, and 1% significance levels, respectively.

reports the results of the regression based on Equation (15). From Model 1, it can be seen that the coefficient of the rule of law level is significantly positive, and the coefficients of the two interaction terms between the rule of law level and entrepreneurial spirit are also significantly positive. The improvement of the rule of law level plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between entrepreneurial spirit and the improvement of export product quality. A good rule of law level can provide all-around protection for entrepreneurial innovation and venture, maximize the protection of the expected benefits brought by entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship, enhance the enthusiasm and motivation of entrepreneurs, and reduce the uncertainty and expected risks of entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship. From Model 2, it can be seen that the coefficient of government regulation is significantly positive, and the coefficients of the two interaction terms between government regulation and entrepreneurial spirit are also significantly positive. “Streamlining administration and delegating power” can truly stimulate the vitality of entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship, push market affairs to be decided by the market, and transform passive government service into active service, providing efficient and customized services for entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship. From Model 3, it can be seen that the coefficient of the development of the non-state-owned economy is significantly positive, and the coefficients of the two interaction terms between the development of a non-state-owned economy and entrepreneurial spirit are also significantly positive. From Models 4 and 5, it can be seen that the coefficients of the development of factor markets and product markets are significantly positive, and the coefficients of the two interaction terms between the development of factor markets and product markets and entrepreneurial spirit are also significantly positive. The good development of the non-state-owned economy, factor markets, and product markets can improve the efficiency of market resource allocation, reduce the risks and uncertainties faced by entrepreneurial innovation and entrepreneurship, and help entrepreneurial spirit play a better role.

To sum up, for entrepreneurship to play an efficient role, it is necessary for the government, market, enterprises, intermediary structures, and other parties to coordinate and work together to build a social environment in which the entire society dares to innovate and start up, enjoys innovation and entrepreneurship, and excels in innovation and entrepreneurship. This can drive better innovation and entrepreneurship, leading to the formation of a good circular competition model.

5. Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

High-quality development is the main theme of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan and is an inevitable requirement to adapt to the changes in China’s main social contradictions. The efficient and pragmatic, enterprising spirit of Chinese entrepreneurs with distinctive characteristics is the core content and key guarantee for achieving high-quality development. This article empirically analyzed the impact of entrepreneurial innovation spirit and entrepreneurial venture spirit on export product quality. The study found that both entrepreneurial innovation spirit and entrepreneurial venture spirit can positively promote the improvement of export product quality. Entrepreneurial spirit does not have a significant promoting effect on cost increases for state-owned and collective enterprises but has a significant promoting effect on cost increases for private, independent legal entities, Hong Kong–Macao–Taiwan, and foreign-funded enterprises. Among them, the promoting effect on private and independent legal entity enterprises is particularly significant. The cultivation and development of entrepreneurial spirit is a systematic project that involves various parties, such as enterprises, the government, and the market. It requires organic coordination and teamwork among all parties to ensure the efficient operation of this system. Improving the rule of law level, reducing government intervention in the market, promoting the development of the non-public economy, and improving factor markets and product markets can all help entrepreneurs innovate and start businesses more effectively and further improve the quality of export products.

The main policy implications are as follows: first, accelerate the construction of the rule of law and protect the entrepreneurs’ right to operate autonomously and their legitimate rights and interests according to the law. Second, establish an enterprise-led market competition mechanism and promote the improvement of a market environment with equal rights, opportunities, and rules. Third, vigorously promote reforms at the level of “delegating power, streamlining administration, and optimizing services”, transforming from a passive to an active approach in providing services to entrepreneurs according to their needs and optimizing and simplifying administrative procedures. Fourth, pay attention to creating an innovative and entrepreneurial social atmosphere, fostering an environment that encourages innovation and entrepreneurship among the entire population, while also understanding the mistakes made in innovation and entrepreneurship, and providing entrepreneurs with more understanding, tolerance, and assistance within the legal scope of operation. Fifth, accelerate the market-oriented reform of factor prices, guide various factors to flow coordinately toward advanced productivity, improve the marketization level of production factors, and promote the improvement of market allocation efficiency and the quality of production factors.

The econometric model used in this paper is a panel data model, which employs matched data from micro-level enterprise data and macro-level provincial data. Due to the availability of data, the limitations of this paper are as follows: firstly, it is unable to obtain entrepreneurial spirit data at the enterprise level that can correspond with the export product quality. Secondly, this study is constrained by the fact that the data only go up to 2013, which prevents the use of more recent data for empirical testing. Future research should strive to measure entrepreneurial spirit and export product quality at the enterprise level as much as possible, and update the data to the latest year, to ensure the micro-level correspondence of the data and the credibility of the research conclusions. Furthermore, selecting a specific policy as a proxy variable for entrepreneurial spirit and using a difference-in-differences approach for testing could also be a good method. In addition, wavelet models can decompose data into simpler and more clearly trending sequences, which facilitates modeling [45,46,47]. Combining wavelet models with machine learning methods is also one of the trends in future econometric research.