University-industry collaboration portfolio concentration and focal firms’ innovation performance: evidence from China

Abstract

ABSTRACT It has been a pervasive phenomenon that a firm constructs multiple collaborations with universities and research institutes from diverse geographic regions. This study examines whether and under what conditions university-industry (UI) collaboration portfolio concentration, the geographical concentration of UI collaboration partners, influence focal firms’ innovation performance. The results suggest that UI collaboration portfolio concentration is negatively associated with focal firms’ innovation performance. Besides, the negative relationship between UI collaboration portfolio concentration and firm innovation performance is stronger for state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than non-SOEs. Moreover, the negative relationship between UI collaboration portfolio concentration and firm innovation performance is stronger for politically connected firms than non-politically connected firms. This study contributes to previous research on alliance portfolios and UI collaborations, and provides some meaningful inspiration for practice.