Entrepreneurship, Innovation And The Development Of Innovation Clusters

From a large number of successful innovation cluster development experience abroad, the interactions between entrepreneurial activity and innovative behavior are the salient features of innovation clusters, which has been evidenced by numerous theory and practice at home and abroad. However, whether it is on practice fields or academic fields, people always tend to focus too much on a particular aspect of entrepreneurial activity or innovation behavior in innovation clusters, meanwhile the interactions between entrepreneurial activity and innovative behavior in innovation cluster did not given enough attention to. Therefore, this paper through studying about the relationship between entrepreneurial activity and innovative behavior of the enterprises in innovation clusters, explore the key role of the characteristics of innovation clusters in promoting innovation, and the mechanism of entrepreneurial activity in innovative behavior of the enterprises in innovation clusters, and explore the innovation performance problems of the enterprises in innovation clusters furthermore. These subjects are valuable in enhancing the innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters and guiding the development of innovation clusters.We obtain352valid data by researching numbers of high-tech industrial parks in the east, south, north, southwest and northwest areas of China, and study about the external environment of innovation clusters, innovation cluster network structure, entrepreneurial activity and the interactions between entrepreneurial activity and innovative behavior in innovation clusters basing on the data. The main conclusions are as follows:First, the external environment of innovation clusters has a significant positive impact on the innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters. This paper verified that the uncertainty of external environment of innovation cluster and the degree of resource abundance of external environment are two important factors which impacting on the innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters. The external environment of innovation clusters has a significant direct impact on the innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters because of the double action of the uncertainty of external environment and the degree of resource abundance. In most cases, only when the external environment is stable while the degree of resource abundance is lower, the frequency of innovative behavior is relatively lower in innovation clusters. And when the uncertainty of external environment of innovation clusters or the degree of resource abundance is higher, the impaction on the innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters is greater.Second, the innovation cluster network structure has a significant positive impact on the innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters. Network cohesion in innovation cluster means that there are trustworthy, reliable and extensive network relationships between different organizations in the innovation cluster, and this network cohesion will help corporations in the innovation cluster to obtain market information timely and accurately. So it can enhance the reliability and applicability of technological research, and promote the innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters finally.Third, entrepreneurial activity plays a partial mediating role between innovation cluster network structure and innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters. In the sight of resources of innovation clusters, innovation cluster network structure provides the resources necessary for enterprise innovation in innovation clusters. It means that, corporations obtain the resources necessary for enterprise innovation such as patent licensing, technical tips, financial support, R&D facilities, and talented person and so on, getting help from the innovation cluster network. Meanwhile, entrepreneurial activities as a major way of promoting innovative behavior play a major role in the process of innovation which based on innovation cluster network structure.Fourth, there are different innovative behaviors and different mechanism in different external environment of innovation clusters. Innovation clusters as a natural business incubator for innovative behavior, enterprises especially small and medium innovative enterprises can take advantage of the particular information and resources obtaining from it frequently, so that the latter can improve the competitiveness of enterprises rapidly and establish the status of enterprises in the new market by obtaining the competitiveness continuously. This article defines the connotation and derivative meaning of innovation clusters first, emphasizes the importance of innovation clusters in the process of enterprise innovation, and then explores the relationship between between entrepreneurial activity and innovative behavior in innovation cluster deeply, elaborates the interaction mechanism of them, confirms the mechanism that the external environment and network structure of innovation clusters impacting on the innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters by data, indicates that entrepreneurial activity playing an important mediating role between innovation cluster network structure and innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters and shows the mechanism. This study not only answer the question that how the innovation cluster network structure impacting on the innovation performance of corporations in innovation clusters, but also give us the following theoretical enlightenment:the entrepreneurial activity in innovation clusters is "infectious", that is because of the passing effect of innovation cluster network structure, that is also the important reason why there is similarity in the innovative behaviors in the same innovation cluster.