Knowledge Interaction Model Delineation and Innovation Performance in Chinese Cities

Abstract

In the era of the knowledge economy, the production, distribution, and application of knowledge play increasingly important roles in the production of regional innovations, and the phenomenon of networking of knowledge interactions is becoming increasingly obvious. Knowledge interactions are an important driving mechanism of urban innovation performance, and the effects of local and non-local knowledge interaction linkages on urban innovation performance need to be clarified. This paper explains urban innovation performance on the basis of the "Network Capital" theoretical framework and argues that it is a function of the stock of network capital in each region; that is, the stock of local and cross-border connected network capital and the interrelationships between the two (complementarity, balance and synergy, etc.) are the key mechanisms driving urban knowledge acquisition and innovation performance. Through the analysis of patent transfer data, this study investigated the classification of Chinese urban innovation network patterns from the perspective of the strength of local (intra-city) and cross-border (inter-city) innovation linkages and analyzed the impacts of local and cross-border knowledge interaction linkages on urban innovation performance. The empirical results for China's biomedical industry led to the following conclusions: (1) The activity of knowledge interactions in Chinese cities is increasing, with the proportion of cross-border linkages steadily rising and the gap between them and local linkages gradually widening. Knowledge interactions in Chinese cities exhibit a high degree of spatial imbalance, with knowledge interactions evolving from being sparse to dense while the imbalance intensifies, exhibiting characteristics such as hierarchy, gradient, and agglomeration. (2) The knowledge interaction portfolio model based on local and cross-border linkages categorizes cities into four types: Networked, Outward-oriented, Inward-oriented, and Isolated. The distribution of Networked-type cities is clearly concentrated in the central and eastern regions, and the spatial bias has been strengthened with the evolution of time. The distribution of Isolated-type cities is biased toward the inland regions, whereas Outward- and Inward-oriented cities are mainly interspersed in the central and western areas, among which Networked-type cities play an extremely important role in the innovation network system and are responsible for the main functions of innovation output. (3) Local and cross-border linkages and their degree of complementarity play a significant role in promoting urban innovation performance. Conversely, the degree of local and cross-border balance and their synergy are insignificant on urban innovation performance. The results show that for the innovative development of China's biomedical industry at the city level, the focus should be on increasing the strength of local and cross-border knowledge interaction linkages as well as the complementary roles of the two, and that it is not appropriate to pursue a balanced and synergistic development of the two at the current stage of development. This study has systematically investigated the roles of the complementary, balanced, and synergistic relationships between local and cross-border linkages in urban innovation performance, and its findings enrich the current literature on "Network Capital."

Keywords

• knowledge interaction
• innovation performance
• network capital
• network mode
• biomedical industry
• china