University-Industry Cooperation And Its Impact On Industrial Innovation Performance

Under the open innovation system,the successful cooperation between universities and industries can optimize the allocation of innovative resources and promote the commercialization of knowledge.However,some obstacles make the outcome performance of cooperation ambiguous,such as knowledge filtering,structural differences,cultural differences,and insufficient absorption capacity.For a country in transition like China,the university-industry cooperation mechanism and its impact on outcomeperformance have not been fully studied.Previous studies mostly used linear mode to analyze the impact of university-industry cooperation on industrial innovation,university innovation and regional innovation,or directly evaluate the performance of university-industry cooperation and the roles of its influencing factors.Existing research rarely systematically studies the performance of university-industry cooperation,the impact of stakeholders on cooperation performance,and the role of cooperation in industrial innovation.Although research institutes and universities are both academic organizations,they have great heterogeneity,however,which has not been paid enough attention in the previous literature.As the service providers of both the supply and demand sides of the knowledge,the intermediary organizations have continued to develop in scale,but their mechanism of action in university-industry cooperation has not been well revealed.Therefore,this paper explores the following questions:(1)How does the university-industry cooperation perform?What role do stakeholders play in the process of university-industry cooperation?(2)What is the role of university-industry cooperation in industrial innovation?(3)What is the role of intermediaries in university-industry cooperation?Specific research includes three aspects:(1)To evaluate the efficiency of university-industry cooperation and the effects of its influencing factors.Firstly,the DEA model of CRS is used to estimate the efficiency of university-industry cooperation and total factor productivity in 71 Chinese universities.Secondly,the econometric regression model is adopted to analyze the impact of university characteristics,industry innovation inputs,government subsidy and regional endowments on the efficiency of university-industry cooperation.Thirdly,according to the research strength,universities are divided into two sub-samples,and their efficiencies and the roles of influencing factors are estimated and compared.(2)To explore the impact of university-industry cooperation on industrial innovation efficiency.Firstly,the status quo of cooperation between universities,research institutes and industry are introduced;the knowledge production function is constructed,and the research model is determined.University-industry cooperation,research institute-industry cooperation and government funding are introduced into the model.Secondly,using the data of 30 provincial industrial enterprises in China as the research sample,the Stochastic Frontier Analysis(SFA)is used to evaluate the effects of cooperation,government funding and absorptive capacity on industrial innovation efficiency.Thirdly,the sample is divided into three clusters according to innovation ability,and the role of university-industry cooperation in different clusters is compared and analyzed.(3)To examine the role played by intermediaries in the relationship between university-industry cooperation and industrial innovation.Firstly,the purpose,selection criteria and development status of national technology transfer demonstration institutions are introduced.Secondly,building knowledge production function,university-industry cooperation,research institute-industry cooperation and intermediary institutions are included in the model.Thirdly,based on the data of 30 provincial industrial enterprises in China,this paper uses pooled ordinary least squares(POLS)to verify the moderating role of intermediaries in the relationship between university-industry cooperation and industrial innovation.Finally,the similarities and dissimilarities between coastal and inland areas are compared.The contributions include the following aspects:Firstly,it explores the potential explanations of unsatisfactory university-industry innovation-cooperation performance in China,and comprehensively analyses why the mechanism of cooperation does not work smoothly from the aspects of university characteristics,regional endowments and industrial characteristics.It enriches the research on performance evaluation of university-industry cooperation from the macro and meso perspectives.Secondly,it reveals how universities and research institutes play roles in industrial innovation performance(including efficiency and output)in the process of academia-industry cooperation;clarifies their different cooperation mechanisms from the perspectives of operation,academic endowment and research orientation;and expands the research paradigm of academia-industry cooperation from the perspective of differentiation.Thirdly,this paper studies the moderating role of intermediary organizations in the relationship between university-industry cooperation and industrial innovation;and explains the mechanism that intermediaries can effectively promote cooperative performance by reducing transaction costs,information asymmetry and cognitive distance,which enriches the research on the intermediate operation channels from sourcing to commercializing in the process of knowledge flow.Fourthly,this study provides a useful reference for the government to formulate relevant laws and policies in view of the unsatisfactory effect of academia-industry cooperation;provides practical guidance for enterprises at different levels of innovation in choosing innovative partners,especially in the selection of academic organizations,the selection of intermediaries,and the construction of their absorptive capacity;and provides practical advice for the reform of China's higher education system.