Transformation Efficiency And Spatial Effect Of Scientific And Technological Achievements In Universities In The Yangtze River Economic Belt

Under the new round of industrial revolution and technological revolution,the demand structure and production function of China's economic development have undergone significant changes,and driving high-quality development by scientific and technological innovation is an inherent requirement for China to establish a modern industrial system.The "Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 14 th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development and,Long-Range Objective through 2035" proposes to put innovation at heart of China's modernization drive and to strengthen science and technology to provide strategic support for development.Higher education institutions,important drivers of China's scientific and technological innovation,play an important part in turning the country into one of innovators.However,at present,there are still in universities' research system impediments to implementation of the strategy that makes the country a leading power in science and technology.These factors in turn affect the application of scientific and technological achievements from universities.Therefore,to conduct quantitative assessment how efficiently scientific and technological achievements from colleges and universities are applied will help identify key possible affecting factors and difficulties throughout the process,and provide theoretical guidance and technical support for the reform of scientific research and findings application system in colleges and universities in China.Based on innovation value chain theory and with review of relevant literature at home and abroad,the article defines the application of university scientific and technological achievements at two stages,namely,research findings in laboratory and commercial output at production line,in order to carry out a more comprehensive assessment of the application activities.Taking the most innovative and dynamic universities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt as research subject,the author takes a quantitative approach to first explore how where and when the research findings from universities are applied would affect the application process,and then discuss possible factors in and out of the involved universities that might be relevant to the actual application activities.Based on a well-logical analysis of development of evaluation mechanism,influencer assessment and spatial effect analysis,and from perspectives of how universities' investment and possible affecting factors beyond universities,this thesis discusses,the process of application activities and proposes improvement suggestions.The major findings are as follows.Firstly,it creates,under the framework of innovation value chain theory,a model to evaluate efficiency of application of scientific and technological achievements that are out of colleges and universities.It is necessary to take as many underling factors into consideration as possible as application activities in colleges and universities often require huge investments,yield good returns,and have to go through different procedures.Based on the innovation value chain theory,the article identifies each and every possible link of application activities,and defines the whole process at two stages,namely,research findings in laboratory and commercial output at production line,and then further evaluates returns at these two stages.In the first stage,the researcher considers the possible contributions of human capital and research funding as well as that of the potential third-party shareholders.In the second stage analysis,the research includes the indicators related to the transfer of science and technology results,such as the contractual value and thus creating an evaluation system under the framework of innovation value chain theory.Secondly,it discusses how the application activities are distributed and the corresponding benefits on the basis of where the universities are located in Yangtze River Economic Belt and which stages the application activities are at.The article selects the most representative universities in Yangtze River Economic Belt and quantifies the efficiency of application activities by using two-stage DEA model on the basis of the evaluation system which is mentioned in the previous sections.It also analyzes the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of such activities.According to the research,the comprehensive efficiency of the application activities decrease as we approach the production line,or in other words,more research findings are made in labs than turned into real products.The results of total factor productivity decomposition show that lack of technological progress is the main impediments to application activities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.Therefore,scientific and technological advances hold the key to success in application activities in the region,which needs to be boosted with more capable personnel in science and technology and more effective evaluation of the commercial value of these innovations.Thirdly,the research investigates the possible factors that effect the application activities and how the effects take place.On the basis of comprehensive analysis of existing literature and the typical characteristics of application activities in universities,the thesis analyzes,from the perspectives of within and beyond universities,possible factors that are involved in the application activities and how they take effects.The Tobit model with truncation is employed to analyze the influence of internal and external factors on the previously mentioned two stages throughout the application activities.The results indicate that number of contracts and specific contractual value bolster the success of application activities overall while the amount of funds for services that underpin the activities prove to be impediments to the success.The regression results of different types of university groups show that due to their distinctive characteristics and the differences in discipline categories,factors within and beyond universities do not have regular and systemic influence on the application activities.For different groups of colleges and universities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt,specific incentives mechanisms are needed to reflect the disciplinary characteristics of different universities.Fourthly,the spatial effects of application activities are explored.Based on the spatial Durbin model,the researcher defines the spatial characteristics and then further measures how they have effects on application process based on which provinces are the universities in and which types are the universities fall into.The results show that the transformation efficiency of scientific and technological achievements in colleges and universities indicate positive correlation in general,but there are great differences if looked from the perspective of types of institutions.However,spatial factors have negative effects throughout the application process and the effects remain either in general or specific to two stages.It indicates that the application activities do not show desirable ripple effects within the region,and involving provinces in the region need to pay greater attention to and strengthen coordination in applying scientific and technological innovations and expanding them into more areas and sectors therefore these advances in science and technology will be shared more extensively and yield better returns.Finally,the article puts forward relevant policy suggestions in terms of institutional mechanism for transformation of scientific and technological achievements,system that brings industry,university and research institute for technological innovation,evaluation system of scientific and technological innovation in university,strengthened regional coordination in innovation,and provides an outlook for future research in this field.This paper features the following innovations:Firstly,it puts forward a two-stage evaluation model for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in universities.Based on the innovation value chain theory,the transformation activities of scientific and technological achievements in colleges and universities are studied at two different stages separately: research findings in labs and commercial outputs at production line,thus refining the scientific and technological innovation activities in colleges and universities in China,and at the same time effectively analyzing the transformation efficiency and internal and external influencing factors at each link.All these efforts are to be helpful supplement to the existing theories.Secondly,it looks into how special factors exert influence on application activities at the two specific stages and other possible impacts in broader areas.The internal and external factors such as input-output,industrial institutions,human capital,economic development and government support are incorporated into the empirical analysis.The transformation efficiency at each stage of application activities and other possible impacts in broader areas due to spatial factors is analyzed.All these findings are supposed to provide technical support for the reform of scientific research management system in universities in China.