Research On The Association Network Characteristics And Driving Factors Of Technological Innovation In The Yangtze River Economic Belt

As China enters the stage of high-quality development,innovation has become the primary driving force for China’s economic growth.The Yangtze River Economic Belt(YREB),spanning east,middle and west of China,is a demonstration area of regional coordinated development strategy and an important growth pole of technological innovation system in China.However,due to the differences in resource endowment,economic development level and regional policies,the innovation pattern shows an unbalanced situation of "strong east and weak west",which seriously restricts the innovation-driven development of the YREB.At the same time,the cities are important carriers of innovation activities agglomeration,and the cooperation among different cities which rely on the location advantage of riverside in the field of technological innovation is deepening,then the association network of technological innovation among cities presents complex structural characteristics.Therefore,how to optimize the spatial layout of technological innovation is of great significance to the high-quality development of the YREB.Under the above background,based on the analysis of the current situation of technological innovation development in the YREB,this paper studied the correlation network characteristics and key driving factors of technological innovation from the perspective of spatial correlation.Firstly,this study took prefecture-level cities in the YREB as the research object.Based on the modified gravity model,the spatial association network of technolo gical innovation among cities was constructed.On the basis of identifying strong association relations,the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics of the association network are explored from the aspects of the overall network,centrality and small groups by using social network analysis.Then,the strong correlation relationship matrix was used as the spatial weight matrix.Based on the spatial correlation test,the spatial econometric model was constructed to identify the key driving factors of technolog ical innovation output,the robustness test and heterogeneity analys is of the regression results were carried out.Finally,some policy suggestions were put forward to accelerate the coordinated development of technological innovation in the YREB.Results are as follow.Firstly,during the study period,the network shows lower density,higher efficiency and rigid stratification properties.Secondly,such typically central cities as Chengdu and Chongqing of upper region of YREB show increasing influences significantly of the association network.Wuhan and Changsha of middle region of YREB are playing roles as more significant middleman.The urban agglomeration of lower region of YREB has always been the power source leading the technological innovation development.Four clearly positioned sectors are formed in 2019,namely “net spillover” block,“bidirectional spillover” block,“broker” block and “net beneficial” block.Thirdly,the technological innovation output of cities shows a significant negative correlation.Human capital,informatization level,economic development level,industrial structure and opening up level significantly promote the improvement of technological innovation output level,and economic development level has the strongest promoting effect,there are spatial spillover effects in industrial structure and level of opening-up.R&D personnel input have a restraining effect on technological innovation output,and its spatial spillover effect is not obvious.Therefore,this paper puts forward policy suggestions to accelerate the coordinated development of technological innovation in the YREB.It mainly includes: strengthening the function of central cities as "engines" and fostering new growth poles of innovation;Breaking down regional administrative barriers and speed up the formation of a collaborative development system for technological innovation;Based on regional economic advantages,guiding the differentiated development of technological innovation demand.