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Universities are important parts of innovation ecosystems, and university technology transfer (UTT), which aims for the sustainable commercialization of sci-tech achievements, is closely related to other actors in the ecosystem. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in mainland China, this paper empirically analyzes the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of UTT levels from 2011 to 2019 and estimates the influencing factors using the spatial Durbin model (SDM) with an economic spatial weighting matrix from the perspective of innovation ecosystems. The results are presented as follows: (1) Although the overall level of UTT in China is low, it shows an upward trend in most provinces. In addition, the interprovincial gap is obvious, forming a ladder distribution of UTT levels increasing from west to east. (2) There is a significant spatial autocorrelation between UTT levels in the provinces. (3) Industry, economy, and informatization play significant roles in promoting UTT, while financial institutes and openness have significant inhibitory effects. The economy has a significant spatial spillover effect on UTT, while government, industry and informatization have a significant inhibitory effect on UTT in neighboring regions. (4) The direct and indirect effects of influencing factors in the Eastern Region and other regions show significant spatial heterogeneity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is intrinsically dependent on the construction of local infrastructure. Using panel data on 285 cities in China, we empirically examined the impact of high-speed rails on urban innovation and the mechanism underlying this effect. We found that high-speed rails significantly increase urban innovation. In our analysis, high-speed rails were found to increase the agglomeration of innovation factors, including population and investment, which in turn increase urban technological innovation. The agglomeration of investment factors brought about by high-speed rails is the main source of the improvement in urban innovation. Through the use of a spatial panel model, we found that high-speed rails promote knowledge dissemination and technology spillovers among the cities along high-speed railways, thus improving their innovation levels. However, the existing effects of high-speed rails on innovation exhibit spatial heterogeneity. We confirmed the effect of high-speed rails on innovation and explored the mechanism underlying this effect by considering the effects of factor agglomeration and knowledge spillovers. Our conclusions can be used as a resource by policymakers to stimulate knowledge and technology diffusion, which in turn cultivates and stimulates urban innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The innovation value chain is an effective tool for analysing innovation activities and reflects the process of value creation and increase in innovation activities. From the perspective of innovation value chains, we divided patent innovation activities into three stages: knowledge innovation stage, applied research stage and patent commercialization stage. The panel data from 64 universities directly managed by the Ministry of Education from 2009 to 2017 were used and several conclusions were drawn: 1) In the initial stage of knowledge innovation, the fundamental research fund plays a crucial promoting role, and knowledge innovation achievements are mainly published academic papers. 2) In the applied research stage, the knowledge innovation in the early stage and the fund investment in R&D activities have a significant positive effect on the patent output of universities, but the personnel investment has a negative effect. 3) In the final stage of patent commercialization, preliminary research results have a positive impact on patent commercialization, whose marginal effect depends on the industry-university-research relationship, external competition and reputation of the university. The evidence showed that there is a feedback channel between university patent commercialization and knowledge innovation, and new knowledge generated by the interaction with the outside world in the process of patent commercialization was transmitted to the subject of knowledge innovation through this channel, forming a virtuous dynamic cycle. By analysing the driving factors of the value chain of patent innovation in colleges and universities, we provided empirical evidence for the operation mechanism and policy formulation of college patents in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]