Institutional Diffusion Of Innovation Cooperation Among Local Governments

From the traditional three urban agglomerations of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei,Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta,to the "19+2" urban agglomerations pattern proposed in the national "13th five year plan",to the state-level urban agglomerations such as Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay area,which have been approved successively,the urban agglomerations are constantly rising to promote the development of regional integration.Of course,regional integration not only emphasizes the integration of economy,but also the integration of regional innovation.Especially in the context of "innovation driven development strategy" and "building an innovative country",regional innovation is particularly important.Local governments have also carried out closer intergovernmental cooperation in promoting the development of regional innovation integration.However,with the deep development of urban agglomerations,not only the number of urban agglomerations is surging,but also their scale and administrative boundaries are expanding,which requires more in-depth reflection and Discussion on the cooperative governance mode and mechanism adopted by local governments to promote regional innovation integration.Therefore,this paper proposes that we should understand how innovation cooperation among local governments,a new topic of cooperation,spreads with the expansion of urban agglomeration from the perspective of dynamic change.Therefore,this paper takes the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration as an example,introduces the relevant theories of organizational institutionalism,and comprehensively uses the research methods of social network analysis and text analysis to analyze the institutional diffusion process,mechanism and the logic behind the innovation cooperation among local governments in the Yangtze River Delta.Specifically,firstly,the agreement texts of innovation cooperation among local governments in 2009-2017 are collected from relevant government websites in the Yangtze River Delta,revealing the diffusion process of innovation cooperation among local governments in the Yangtze River Delta city cluster from the traditional 16 cities to 26 cities,that is,innovation cooperation has been put on the agenda but not yet mature,to the rapid development but limited scope of innovation cooperation,and finally to the comprehensive innovation cooperation But the cross provincial integration is insufficient.Secondly,through the QAP multiple regression commonly used in social network analysis,the regression relationship between the existing economic cooperation foundation and the proximity of economic and social characteristics of different cities to the innovation cooperation between local governments is verified.The results show that the existing basis of economic cooperation,homogeneity or heterogeneity,geographical proximity,special trust relationship between local leaders and the involvement of superiors have important influence on innovation cooperation among local governments to varying degrees.Finally,it discusses the legitimacy logic under the intervention of the superior government,the competition,flexibility and deviation between the city governments,and the different cooperation modes,such as homogeneity and heterogeneity,economic cooperation and innovation cooperation.It is concluded that the institutional diffusion situation of innovation cooperation among local governments is basically formed but still lack of effective policy tools,innovation cooperation among local governments is still in the form,and the institutional diffusion of innovation cooperation among local governments depends on the existing system and resource base,etc.,and relevant policy suggestions are put forward to promote the better and faster development of regional innovation cooperation.