Research On Patent Innovation Value Chain In Colleges And Universities

With the advent of the era of knowledge economy,China has entered a new stage of development driven by innovation.As an important source of national innovation ecosystem,universities are the main force and means to develop national core competitiveness.As one of the representatives of university innovation ability,university patents are not only highly valued by the Chinese government,but also attract extensive attention from the academic community.However,in recent years,although the number of university patents has increased sharply,there are also various problems such as low patent quality and low level of patent achievement transformation.In order to promote technological innovation and realize patent industrialization in colleges and universities,the Chinese government has successively issued relevant policies.However,the situation is still quite severe.Especially in the context of implementing the national innovation strategy,as the investment in science and technology innovation resources in universities continues to increase,the problems between the huge patent output of colleges and universities and the commercialization of patents in the downturn will be even more protruding.Therefore,it is extremely urgent to explore the root causes of the fault of patent innovation in colleges and universities,so as to effectively revitalize university patents.Innovation value chain is an effective tool for analyzing innovation activities,which reflects the process of value creation and value added in innovation activities.From the perspective of innovation value chain,linking university patent research and development with patent commercialization,systematically studying the realization process of a series of value innovation of university patent from resource input,R&D to commercialization,and analyzing the key driving factors of patent innovation value chain will be a new breakthrough point to make up the middle gap of innovation and realize the collaborative innovation of upstream and downstream of value chain.It has become the key basis for governments at all levels to consider when formulating policies and measures related to patent innovation.Domestic and foreign scholars’ research on university patents and innovation value chain has laid an important foundation for this study.However,there is no research on the internal structure and links of university innovation value chain,especially university patent innovation value chain,and how to be affected by external factors.On the basis of previous studies,this paper puts forward a theoretical model of the value chain of patent innovation in colleges and universities.It divides patent activities into three stages: knowledge innovation stage,patent R&D stage and patent commercialization stage.Besides the path dependence effect in each stage,a dynamic feedback channel is set up to integrate knowledge in the stage of patent commercialization.Applying and creating feedback to the initial stage of knowledge innovation in colleges and universities.Furthermore,this paper uses the panel data of 64 universities directly under the Ministry of Education from 2009 to 2017 to empirically test the links and feedback effects of each stage in the university patent innovation value chain.In addition,on the basis of university patent innovation value chain,this paper analyses the impact of patent innovation policy and university prestige on patent R&D and commercialization in China’s universities.By analyzing the driving factors of university patent innovation value chain,this paper provides empirical evidence for the operation and management of university patent and policy formulation in China.The empirical results of university patent innovation value chain show that there is a non-linear and flat innovation value chain in university patent activities,which involves a complete value realization process from university original knowledge innovation,university patent research and development to university patent commercialization.In addition,this paper finds that the commercialization of university patents has a feedback channel for university knowledge innovation.The new knowledge generated by the interaction between patent commercialization and industry can be used to feed back to the main body of knowledge original innovation,so as to form a virtuous dynamic cycle,which is conducive to promoting the improvement and deepening of university knowledge innovation level.The results of the research on the influencing factors of university patent innovation value chain show that the number of university patent output is obviously driven by policy,while the transformation of university patent is influenced by the halo effect of university prestige,and the transferee of technology transfer tends to trade with universities with better prestige.In addition,the policy orientation of patent incentive confirmation has not really played an incentive role in the commercialization of patents.On the contrary,it may indirectly weaken the enthusiasm of universities for patent transformation to a certain extent,resulting in a "split" between knowledge output and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements,which makes it difficult for universities to convert patents into real productive forces.Finally,the paper puts forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions based on the results of empirical research.Firstly,in order to improve the patent conversion rate and make up for the gap in innovation,we should improve our patent innovation policy,from front-end incentive to back-end incentive,that is,from the incentive policy of paying attention to patent application authorization to the incentive policy of paying attention to patent transformation.In addition,a market-oriented patent evaluation mechanism in universities should be established.When setting up evaluation indicators and rewards and penalties,the patent quality evaluation criteria should also be included.We should squeeze out the patent bubble,improve the value of the patent market,give full play to the incentive effect of the policy,and practically and steadily improve the innovation and scientific research ability of our universities.Furthermore,general colleges and universities should combine their own characteristics,actively create "characteristic direction" and "superior specialty",actively enter the market through active publicity,and widely build industry-university-research collaboration platforms to overcome the negative impact of lack of halo effect,and promote the existing patent conversion rate.When the dynamic circle of university patent innovation value chain is established,more resources should be invested in university knowledge innovation.Because once a good research foundation has been laid,the commercialized channel of patent transformation can play a key role in strengthening knowledge innovation.If marginal resources are invested in knowledge innovation,universities will benefit for a long time.