关键词: 国有企业；公共部门；使命导向型创新政策；社会挑战 

Abstract: In a modern innovative economy, one of the important functions and new missions of the stateowned enterprises (SOEs), as missionoriented enterprises in the public sector, is to replace and complement some of the functions of the government. As a policy toolkit of the state will to innovate, SOEs play three main roles: (1) as a powerful tool to break the dominant influence of vested interest groups and traditional thinking, SOEs promote the reform of the national innovation system; (2) SOEs play a major role in dealing with these major social and global challenges, such as energy transition, climate change, public health, income inequality and population aging; and (3) SOEs play an irreplaceable special role in the technological catchup of latedeveloping countries (e.g. China). This theory applies to large SOEs and to all knowledge and technologyintensive SOEs, regardless of size. The paper specifically discusses the important role of large SOEs as organizers and coordinators in building China's local innovation network and local innovation community; it suggests that SOEs should be used as a policy toolkit to change the unfavorable situation concerning the current “internal selfcirculation” of scientific research activities in universities and research institutes. 

Key words: state-owned enterprises, the public sector, missionoriented innovation policy, social challenges