Effect of High-Tech Manufacturing Co-Agglomeration and Producer Service Industry on Regional Innovation Efficiency

Abstract

The study discusses the effect of co-agglomeration between the producer service industry and the high-tech manufacturing industry on regional innovation efficiency. Based on data from public companies of three urban agglomerations from 2011 to 2019, we used the Data Envelopment Approach (DEA)- Banker, Charnes, Cooper (BCC) model to estimate real innovation efficiency. Results found that the industrial co-agglomeration and regional innovation efficiency have an “inverted U-shaped” relationship. The industrial co-agglomeration in regions with a low level of co-agglomeration plays an important role in expediting regional innovation efficiency than that in high-level areas of co-agglomeration. Moreover, it is confirmed that the prefecture-level cities of the three urban agglomerations have low innovation efficiency types and low collaborative agglomeration types. Yangtze and Pearl river delta urban agglomeration can promote innovation efficiency through industrial co-agglomeration. While for the industrial co-agglomeration of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, the urban agglomeration has not become the main way to promote innovation efficiency. The regression results of different industry collaborative agglomeration found that the co-agglomeration of information transmission, computer services, software industries, and the high-tech manufacturing industry plays a significant role to improve innovation efficiency. Moreover, the co-agglomeration of the transportation service industry and high-tech manufacturing industry plays a relatively weak role in regional innovation efficiency. Therefore, it is suggested to formulate more adaptive and heterogeneous market policies. The paper provides an important idea for improving innovation efficiency by optimizing industrial spatial layout.