Science park, triple helix, and regional innovative capacity: province-level evidence from China

By precipitating a clustering effect and encouraging the establishment of links among firms and academic and research institutions (the so-called triple helix), science parks are expected to have both direct and indirect effects on promoting regional technological capacity. Based on a provincial-level panel dataset over the 1997-2009 period together with adopting patents as an indicator of innovative capacity, this study's empirical results show that science parks, in terms of various measures, indeed have a significantly positive impact on regional patenting. More importantly, science parks play a key role in coordinating research and development (R&D) collaboration across various R&D performers within the region and indirectly contribute to upgrading the regional technological ladder. Moreover, we find a positive innovation-enhancing effect brought about by R&D cooperation between industries and universities, rather than research institutes, highlighting both the importance and inherent problems of China's regional innovation systems.