The Spatiotemperal Evolution And Influencing Factors Of China’s Intercity Technology Innovation Networks

The world is now in the midst of a century of unprecedented changes,and in the context of the increasingly prominent globalization of science and the continuous restructuring of global innovation networks,science and technology innovation has become the main battlefield of the great power game.However,the study of the spatio-temporal evolutionary complexity of S&T innovation networks from the perspective of multiple technology flows integrating technology cooperation,technology citation and technology transfer is still lacking and needs to be further strengthened and expanded.In this paper,based on big data mining,cleaning,and extraction to obtain the intercity patent cooperation,patent citation,and patent transfer data in China from 2007 to 2018,we use complex network analysis to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of intercity technology citation network in China in terms of network topology,node centrality,network association,and association structure,and use two-way fixed-effect panel regression model and panel negative binomial regression to explore the spatio-temporal evolution of intercity technology citation network from the perspective of city attributes and intercity association perspectives to explore the influencing factors of China’s intercity technology innovation network and conduct a comparative analysis to further classify the functional types of Chinese cities above prefecture level in terms of three dimensions: technology cooperation,knowledge spillover and absorption,and technology spillover and absorption,and the main conclusions are as follows:(1)The spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of the topological structure,node centrality,network association,and association structure of China’s intercity technology innovation network generally show the characteristics of expansion and growth,hierarchical development,multilateral connectivity,and all-round diffusion.First,the topological characteristics are all developed into a dense network with extensive networking,deepening the breadth and depth of connections,and increasing the scale of the network,all showing typical small-world and scale-free characteristics.The technology citation network has more scale and linkage effect;the technology transfer network has more expansion and growth effect;the technology citation network has both equilibrium and Matthew effect.Secondly,the node characteristics all show a hierarchical structure with significant differences in scale and order,evolving from a "pyramid" to a "spindle" structure,forming the "North-South-Shenzhen" as the national extreme core,and the Yangtze River Delta as the representative of the eastern part of the country.The hierarchical development pattern is based on the "North,Shanghai and Shenzhen" as the national core,the eastern coastal cities represented by the Yangtze River Delta,and the inland regional node cities represented by the provincial capitals as the multi-center hierarchy.The spatial distribution of node breadth of technology cooperation,technology citation and technology transfer network shows the spatial morphological characteristics of hierarchical differentiation,spreading into pieces and clustering;the spatial distribution of node intensity shows the spatial morphological characteristics of mono-nuclear development,multi-center and tri-polar resonance;the spatial distribution of node proximity shows the spatial morphological characteristics of northern coast,eastern coast and clustering east of Hu Huanyong line.Thirdly,the network linkage characteristics show a diamond-shaped or multilateral network structure with "North,Shanghai,Shenzhen and Chengdu" and other central cities as the apex,and the strength of inter-city innovation linkage across the country is deepening.The technology cooperation network presents a topology with Beijing as the core of the extreme core;the technology reference network presents a topology with Beijing,Shanghai and Shenzhen as the core of the triangular linkage;the technology transfer network presents a topology with Beijing,Shanghai,Shenzhen and Shenyang as the center of the multilateral linkage.Fourth,the organization of associations shows a trend of entropy reduction from chaotic and disorderly,local associations and regional associations to national associations,reflecting the decline of the spatial modularity of the national intercity innovation network and the enhancement of the vitality of innovation linkages,the reduction of the restrictive effect of administrative boundaries and geographical distance on the innovation network,and the change from the enclave model of hierarchical diffusion to the all-round diffusion model of both hierarchical and contagious diffusion.The technology citation network has gradually formed a national association,and the association boundary tends to be blurred;the technology cooperation network has gradually formed a regional association,but it is still restricted by various factors such as administrative boundaries and geographical distance;the technology transfer network has the characteristics of both local and regional associations,but it is still restricted by various factors such as distance and potential differences.(2)The influencing factors of China’s intercity technology innovation network are influenced by the soft proximity,hard power and face-to-face communication of cities.First,intercity technology cooperation,technology citation and technology transfer all depend on the level of city development.Knowledge production in the innovation-creating place and knowledge absorption in the receiving place both require a certain level of city development capacity.Manpower,transportation,economic development,innovation investment,and venture capital all have significant positive effects on the scale of intercity technology cooperation,citation,and transfer,indicating that the optimization of urban innovation environment can significantly improve its innovation performance.In contrast,the degree of openness to the outside world does not have a significant effect on the intensity of intercity technological cooperation,and has a significant positive effect on technology citation and technology transfer,but the intensity is smaller.Second,the strengthening of intercity ties relies on multidimensional proximity.The high degree of integration of modern communication technology and transportation facilities has greatly increased the freedom of technology cooperation,citation and transfer,and the geographic constraint of spatial distance on knowledge flow has become weaker and weaker.The cultural proximity,institutional proximity,social proximity,technological proximity and technology transfer potential all have significant positive effects on intercity technological cooperation,technology citation and technology transfer intensity.Third,intercity technology cooperation network is more sensitive to the soft factors of intercity proximity,and the influence of cultural and institutional proximity on intercity cooperation network is higher than that of citation and transfer network;intercity technology citation network is more sensitive to the hard strength of city development,and the influence of human capital,economic development,innovation investment,geographical distance,and technology proximity on intercity citation network is higher than that of cooperation and transfer network;intercity technology transfer network is more sensitive to The intercity technology transfer networks are more sensitive to the correlation factors of "face-to-face communication",and the effects of convenient transportation,risk and foreign investment,social proximity and technological potential are all higher than those of citation and cooperation networks.(3)The overall evolution of the city function types of intercity technology innovation networks in China is in the direction of complexity and multifunctionality.The overall number of cities with high cooperation intensity is relatively small,and the number of "high cooperation-dual spillover" and "high cooperation-dual absorption" nodes is superior,reflecting certain path-dependent and path-creating characteristics respectively.The total number of cities with low cooperation intensity is larger and decreases slightly over time.The overall percentage of "low cooperation-double spillover" cities is the lowest,and the overall percentage of "low cooperation-double low" cities is the highest.Over time,a large number of cities with "low-cooperation-technology absorption-led","low-cooperation-double absorption-led",and "low-cooperation-knowledge absorption-technology spillover-led" functional types emerged.The functional types of cities are dominated by "low cooperation-technology absorption-led","low cooperation-dual absorption-led" and "low cooperation-knowledge absorption-technology spillover-led".