Fostering industry-science collaboration through government funding in China : network evolution of knowledge-based organizations

Abstract

The triple helix model conceptualizes innovation as a result of the interaction of triple helix components involving the government and knowledge-based organizations. In this study, knowledge-based organizations refer to universities, public research institutes and enterprises. However, our understanding about the mechanisms underlying the interaction of triple helix components and their impact on innovation is unclear. The primary purpose of this study is to explore a key interaction mechanism in the triple helix, namely government funding for networking of knowledge-based organizations and its impact on innovation. Special attention is paid to three aspects: the impact of government funding on the collaboration of knowledge-based organizations, the evolution patterns of the government sponsored collaboration network, and the impact of these evolution patterns on the innovation performance of collaborating organizations. Building upon the knowledge-based view and the framework of exploration and exploitation, and the large body of literature on government funding evaluations, network and innovation, this study develops a research framework linking the three aspects. The research framework is examined in the context of Chinese solar photovoltaics sector, based on two sets of archive data: 10,366 scientific publications and 5,849patent applications that are derived from the databases of Web of Science (WoS) and State Intellectual Property Office of the People’s Republic of China (SIPO) separately from2003 to 2013.Moreover, the data is analyzed using several descriptive tools and regression analysis techniques.

From the behavioral additionality perspective, this research examines the impact of government funding on the collaboration of knowledge-based organizations through comparisons between subsidized and nonsubsidised scientific publications. The result shows that government funding, at both central and regional levels, promotes the collaboration between scientists of the science community (i.e., universities and public research institutes), but not collaboration with researchers of industry.

With respect to the evolution patterns of the government sponsored collaboration network, structural effects and organizational attributes proximity effects are jointly considered. The results indicate that structural effects, such as degree and direct & indirect ties are important determinants of the evolution of government sponsored collaboration network during the period concerned, while transitive triads effect emerges after year 2010. Regarding attributes proximity, the results show that the effect of geographical proximity favors collaborations during the period concerned. The effect of institutional proximity emerges in the last four waves, suggesting that actors are more likely to engage in inter-institutional collaboration before 2009, but tend to collaborate with partners with similar institutional profile thereafter. The effect of technological proximity does not play a significant role.

Finally, this study examines the impact of network structure and composition of an organization’s collaboration network on its innovation performance in terms of exploratory innovation and exploitative innovation. The results suggest that direct ties have a curvilinear effect on exploratory innovation. Put differently, appropriate direct ties could enhance exploratory innovation, but too much direct ties might impede exploratory innovation. Indirect ties and structural holes have positive effects on both exploratory and exploitative innovation. This study also confirms the argument that geographical proximity has a negative effect on both exploratory and exploitative innovation. Taken together, these findings constitute an integrated understanding about why government funding matters and how it works in promoting innovation through networking of knowledge-based organizations, and provide several implications to scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. In short, it is possible to achieve a suitable balance of short-term exploitation of existing knowledge and technologies and long-term exploration of new knowledge and technologies through managing the interaction of science and industry actors. This is of particular significance for the emerging energy-saving technologies in the buildings sector, where the government is expected to play an important role. Finally, this study is exploratory and an early attempt to analyze the relationship between triple helix interaction and innovation, particularly in the Chinese context. Thus, this study is prone to several limitations for further research.