Measuring the Development Capability of the Innovation Ecosystem from a Quadruple Helix Perspective—An Empirical Analysis Based on Panel Data for Chinese High-Tech Industries

Abstract

With the rapid development of high-tech industries, the research perspective of industrial innovation has gradually evolved from the innovation system to innovation ecosystem. Whether the innovation ecosystem of China’s high-tech industry can achieve the benign evolution and development of the system under the new global pattern has become a real issue. Based on the perspective of the four-helix innovation model, in this study we construct an index system of the industrial innovation ecosystem development and designs a framework system of the industrial innovation ecosystem development capability, including the coordinated development capability, evolutionary development capability, and sustainable development capability at three levels. We construct measurement models of different capability dimensions and multi-dimensionally analyses of the regional development differences and change trends of each capability dimension of the system. The results show that the coordinated development capability of China’s high-tech industrial innovation ecosystem is poor, which inhibits the comprehensive capability of the system’s development to a certain extent. Although the evolutionary and sustainable development capabilities fluctuate greatly and have significant regional differences, they are measured at a better level and thereby contribute to the development of the system.