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<p>This study investigates how local officials’ educational and career imprints influence their policy priorities for regional innovation—particularly in governance contexts characterized by goal multiplicity—through the mechanism of attention allocation. Focusing on the development of emerging industries, we argue that formative experiences, such as university education and successful innovation governance, leave lasting cognitive imprints that shape how officials direct their attention across competing policy objectives. Drawing on imprinting theory and the attention-based view of decision-making, we theorize that these imprints guide officials’ strategic focus and policy attentions. Using a panel dataset of 3449 official transfers across 338 Chinese cities from 2000 to 2020, we find that officials with relevant educational and career imprints are more likely to prioritize and promote emerging industries in their new positions. Mediation analysis confirms that policy attention is a key channel linking past experience to present policy outcomes. Our findings extend imprinting theory to explain the regional industrial emergence shaped by officials’ formative experiences and contribute to the policy literature by highlighting the cognitive foundations of policy prioritization under conditions of multiplicity.</p>

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Shaping regional futures: how education and career imprints of officials drive the rise of emerging industries

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年7月25日

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  • Yuan Zhou,
  • Zidi Wang,
  • Qiang Feng

摘要

This study investigates how local officials’ educational and career imprints influence their policy priorities for regional innovation—particularly in governance contexts characterized by goal multiplicity—through the mechanism of attention allocation. Focusing on the development of emerging industries, we argue that formative experiences, such as university education and successful innovation governance, leave lasting cognitive imprints that shape how officials direct their attention across competing policy objectives. Drawing on imprinting theory and the attention-based view of decision-making, we theorize that these imprints guide officials’ strategic focus and policy attentions. Using a panel dataset of 3449 official transfers across 338 Chinese cities from 2000 to 2020, we find that officials with relevant educational and career imprints are more likely to prioritize and promote emerging industries in their new positions. Mediation analysis confirms that policy attention is a key channel linking past experience to present policy outcomes. Our findings extend imprinting theory to explain the regional industrial emergence shaped by officials’ formative experiences and contribute to the policy literature by highlighting the cognitive foundations of policy prioritization under conditions of multiplicity.