The Impact Of Economic Development Differences On Urban Innovation Networks

With the rise of the open innovation model and the transition from "space of places" to "space of flows," the activities of innovation subjects continue to break through organizational and geographic boundaries to seek external cooperation.Technological innovation elements and technology itself flow and transfer between different cities,thus forming a network of urban innovation cooperation and transfer.Promoting innovation cooperation and technology transfer between cities not only provides a new path for regional independent innovation capabilities,but is also a requirement of the times for promoting China's economy to form a development pattern with "internal circulation" as the main body.The innovation network connection promotes the balanced and circular development of the supply and demand side of China's economy by strengthening the links between cities,promoting the flow of elements across regions,and optimizing the industrial and innovative division.Theories such as innovation ecosystem and innovation network believe that innovation activities are "embedded and symbiotic" in the innovation environment and ecosystem,but they are also the products of crossregional interactions.Therefore,urban innovation networks have the dual characteristics of embeddedness and openness.Then,in the context of the unbalanced development of China's urban economy,why do eastern coastal cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have more power in the innovation network? Why are innovation association behaviors between big cities more intense?What are the impacts of urban local “economic” development and “inter-city”economic development differences on the structure of innovation networks? What is its mechanism and path? At present,the academic community's attention to this field still needs to be strengthened,and the understanding of related issues is still controversial.Answering the above questions will not only help us to understand the relationship between urban economic differences and innovation networks more comprehensively,but also have a positive effect on the coordinated development of regional economy.Taking 278 cities from 2001 to 2016 as research samples,this article uses“China City Statistical Yearbook” and “Patent Search Database of the State Intellectual Property Office” as research materials.The research methods include big data analysis,spatial analysis and social network analysis.Based on the dual perspectives of economic scale and urban economic quality,it defines and measures the differences in China's urban economic development,and characterizes the structural characteristics of China's urban innovation network from two aspects: innovation cooperation and transfer.Based on this,the impact of economic development differences on the structure of urban innovation networks and its mechanism are discussed from the two dimensions of "local" and "intercity".The main findings are as follows:From the "local" perspective,the scale of the "local" economy can promote the enhancement of cities' power in innovation cooperation,transfer-in and transfer-out networks,and the quality of the "local" economy has a restraining effect on the power of the three types of innovation networks.“Borrowed scale” and “internal dependence”are the intermediary paths through which “local” economic development affects the power of urban innovation networks.The former has a promoting effect on the power of the three types of urban innovation networks,and the latter has a restraining effect on the power of the three types of urban innovation networks.Economic scale positively affects innovation network power through the two paths of promoting "borrowed-scale" and inhibiting "internal dependence",and economic quality negatively affects innovation network power through the two paths of inhibiting "borrowed-scale" and promoting "internal dependence".There are bidirectional positive interactions among powers of innovation cooperation,transfer-in and transfer-out networks,thus strengthening the positive effect of economic scale on innovation network power and reducing the negative one of economic quality on it.From the perspective of "inter-city",the "inter-city" economic scale and quality differences have consistent effects on the inter-city innovation network association behavior.The larger the gaps of economic scales and qualities between cities,the lower the intensity of innovation cooperation and transfer.The "inter-city" economic gap will affect the inter-city innovation network association behavior through two paths: the industrial structure difference between cities and the inter-city innovation network association channel.The larger the degree of differentiation of the industrial structure between cities,the more favorable it is for inter-city innovation cooperation and transfer.The innovation network connection channel can promote the intensity of innovation cooperation and transfer between cities.The “inter-city” economic scale gap inhibits inter-city innovation linkages by preventing the formation of inter-city innovation linkage channels.The “inter-city”economic quality gap inhibits innovative cooperation and transfer between cities through two paths: promoting industrial homogeneity and inhibiting the formation of innovation linkage channels.Based on the research conclusions,the following four policy implications are put forward.First,remove the institutional barriers embedded in the urban innovation network and create a good interactive ecosystem and environment for the innovation network.Second,actively guide cities to embed diversified innovation networks and promote the interaction between innovation networks of different types of cities.Third,increase support for the economies of underdeveloped regions to narrow the economic development gap between cities,so as to increase the intensity of innovation cooperation and transfer between cities.Fourth,broaden the inter-city innovation connection channels,coordinate the dislocation and complementary development of regional urban industries,and promote the integrated development of urban economic development and innovative activities.