Title: A comparative study of the effects of internal and external technology spillovers on the quality of innovative outputs in China: the perspective of multistage innovation

Authors: Xionghe Qin; Debin Du

Addresses: Faculty of Education, Institute for Global Innovation and Development, East China Normal University, No. 3663, North Zhongshan Road, Shanghai, China ' School of Urban and Regional Science, East China Normal University, No. 500 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai, China

Abstract: This study compares the extent to which external technology spillovers, represented by foreign direct investment (FDI), and internal technology spillovers, represented by university-institute-industry cooperation (UIC), influence the quality of innovative outputs. Through a combination of the three-stage innovation value chain approach and econometric modelling of the knowledge production function, a panel regression is used to analyse the effects of FDI and UIC on the quality of innovative outputs during each stage, using data for 2006-2015 on 30 provinces in China. By comparing UIC with FDI, we find that UIC has a higher coefficient and stronger significance level than FDI in the knowledge innovation and product innovation stages, while institute-university linkages exhibit a negative association with the quality of innovative outputs in the technology innovation stage. However, from a regional perspective, it is found that only institute-university linkages in the knowledge innovation stage show a positive association with journal paper quality in coastal regions.

Keywords: foreign direct investment; FDI; university-institute-industry cooperation; UIC; innovative output quality; external technology spillover; internal technology spillover.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.2019.100287

International Journal of Technology Management, 2019 Vol.80 No.3/4, pp.266 - 291

Accepted: 31 Dec 2018
Published online: 24 Jun 2019 *

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