The Effects Of Multi-dimensional Proximities On Inter-regional R&D Collaboration Pattern

Inter-regional research and development(R&D)collaboration is an important policy issue for China’s regional innovation.This research follows China’s inter-regional R&D collaboration pattern and pattern’s evolution,describes pattern characteristics and evolution path of China’s inter-regional R&D collaboration by theoretical and empirical analysis,uncovers the effects of multi-dimensional proximities and the effects’ change in phase on China’s inter-regional R&D collaboration pattern in order to identify the influencing factors of China’s inter-regional R&D collaboration form a dynamic perspective and provide evidence for China’s regional harmonious development policy design.Firstly,based on the theory of regional innovation system,this research takes inter-regional knowledge flow as a carrier and divides inter-regional R&D collaboration into three patterns by the organizational dimension:inter-regional collaboration between enterprises(IRC_EE),inter-regional collaboration between academic institutions(IRC_AA),inter-regional collaboration between enterprises and academic institutions(IRC_EA).Meanwhile,a three dimensional analytical framework of the evolution of inter-regional R&D collaboration pattern is proposed which can combine collaboration pattern itself and its spatial characteristics and its technological characteristics.Based on China’s co-patent data at the regional level,an empirical study has been conducted to illustrate the dynamics of China’s inter-regional R&D collaboration from 1985 to 2015.Results show that,the evolution of China’s inter-regional R&D collaboration pattern is linked with the evolution of China’s economic transition and S&T system reform;the dominant collaboration pattern changes from IRC_EA to IRC_EE by using 2006 as the boundary;there exists geographic constraint on China’s inter-regional knowledge flows for IRC_EE before 1999,and for IRC_AA&IRC_EA after 1999;for technological distribution,IR-AA and IR-EA mainly take place in related technological fields while IRC_AA takes place in unrelated technological fields.Secondly,based on "four turns" and related theories of New Economic Geographies,this research integrates geographical location,technological correlation,relational embeddedness and institutional context into a unified framework,builds the influencing factor model of inter-regional R&D collaboration pattern which contains four inter-regional proximities(geographical proximity,technological proximity,relational proximity and institutional proximity).After that,the effects of multi-dimensional proximities on inter-regional R&D collaboration pattern are discussed,and corresponding hypotheses are further proposed.Thirdly,this research designs an empirical solution which contains multistage regressions,then applies it to Chinese case and tests the hypotheses in three periods(1985-1998,1999-2006,and 2007-2015)by using quadratic assignment procedure(QAP)method,which is commonly used in social network analysis.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)For the main effects of multi-dimensional proximities,the role of geographical proximity has weakened period by period which has more obvious effect on IRC_AA and IRC_EA;the role of technological proximity has changed from "stimulating" to "inhibiting",and the two patterns,IRC_EE and IRC_AA,need more technological distance,while IRC_EA needs more technological proximity;the role of relational proximity measured by previous collaboration existed or not varies for different patterns and in different periods,the role of relational proximity measured by the number of previous collaboration is significantly positive for all three patterns and it has the highest impact on IRC_EA;the role of institutional proximity is significantly positive for all three patterns and it has the highest impact on IRC_EE.(2)For the interaction effects of multi-dimensional proximities,they mainly work in the two latter periods(1999-2006,2007-2015).The strong overlap effect between institutional proximity and relational proximity is found in all three patterns,which means,there exists the mutual promotion in inter-regional R&D collaboration between informal embeddedness based on trust and formal institutional regulation based on market;a substitution effect between technological proximity and relational proximity or institutional proximity,that is,a deeper level of relational embeddedness and a higher level of institutional proximity can compensate for the negative effect of technological proximity on inter-regional R&D collaboration,especially in 2007-2015;geographical proximity mainly negatively regulates the relationship between non-spatial proximities and inter-regional R&D collaboration,especially for IRC_EA and IRC_EE,but the judgement has proved effective for the two regions which once established partnerships,while,for the two regions which didn’t have partnerships,the closer the geographical distance is,the higher the level of inter-regional R&D collaboration will be between the two regions.