The policy effects of innovative city pilot on the dual efficiency of industry–university–research knowledge flow

Abstract

The implementation of the innovative city pilot policy (ICPP) is conducive to promoting the urban industry–university–research collaborative innovation, but there is no clear answer to how industry–university–research knowledge flow is affected by the policy. Based on the knowledge flow process divided into the knowledge creation stage and knowledge transfer stage, this paper uses the two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to measure the dual efficiency of urban industry–university–research knowledge creation and knowledge transfer. And the paper also adopts the spatial difference-in-difference (SDID) model to study the impact mechanism of ICPP on the knowledge flow dual efficiency. The results show that there are positive spatial spillover effect of the knowledge creation efficiency (KCE) and knowledge transfer efficiency (KTE). And the effects of ICPP on industry–university–research KCE and KTE are both manifested as the promoting impact. Furthermore, ICPP has a significantly positive impact on the urban innovation atmosphere (UIA), and UIA plays a partial mediating role in the impact mechanism of ICPP on KCE and complete mediating role in the relationship of ICPP and KTE.