Knowledge Workers, Innovation Linkages and Knowledge Absorption: An Interactive Mechanism Study

To clarify how the key knowledge elements affect national innovation output, this study empirically tested the interactive mechanism of the impact of knowledge workers, innovation linkages and knowledge absorption on national innovation output based on panel data of 128 countries from 2013 to 2019. The conclusion shows that: (1)innovation linkage in the national innovation system can promote the spillover and sharing of tacit knowledge among innovation subjects, and can also strengthen the international knowledge spillover effect; (2)in the national innovation system, the innovation activities of knowledge workers cannot be separated from the absorption of knowledge, especially the knowledge spillover accompanying international trade activities; (3)the absorbed knowledge also needs to be utilized and transformed by the creative behavior of knowledge workers, so as to achieve the innovative outputs. This study, to some extent, reveals the impact mechanism of innovation linkages on knowledge spillovers and knowledge absorption in national innovation systems and also helps to bridge the "gap" between knowledge human resources and knowledge spillover effects on national innovation output.