A blessing and a curse: Identifying how knowledge complexity influences regional innovation efficiency in the presence of varying spatial externalities

IF 5.2 1区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS

中国经济评论 Pub Date : 2025-04-15 DOI:10.1016/j.chieco.2025.102416

Xionghe Qin , Dong Zhang , Song Wang , Seamus Grimes

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The dual nature of knowledge complexity on innovation manifests as a blessing and a curse, emerging when it positively affects innovation outputs while contributing to innovation costs. The knowledge complexity exerts heterogeneous effects on innovation efficiency by expanding the scope of knowledge recombination and increasing the difficulty of knowledge transfer. This study employs a spatial Durbin model to empirically examine the effect of knowledge complexity on regional innovation efficiency by utilizing a dataset from 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2004 to 2018. The findings demonstrate that knowledge complexity has a significant “inverted-U” nonlinear effect on local knowledge creation efficiency but positive effect on local technology transfer efficiency. The spatial spillover effects in both knowledge creation and technology transfer efficiency across adjacent cities suggest a considerable likelihood of convergences in innovation efficiency. Moreover, this study indicates a nuanced effect of knowledge complexity on regional innovation efficiency, contingent on the presence of varying spatial externalities. The positive moderating effect of inter-regional network externalities and knowledge complexity on knowledge creation is observed, coupled with the mediating role of local agglomeration externalities and knowledge complexity on technology transfer.

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福与祸：不同空间外部性下知识复杂性对区域创新效率的影响

知识复杂性对创新的双重影响表现为一种祝福和一种诅咒，当它对创新产出产生积极影响时，它会增加创新成本。知识复杂性通过扩大知识重组的范围和增加知识转移的难度，对创新效率产生异质效应。本文利用2004 - 2018年中国285个地级市的数据，采用空间Durbin模型实证检验了知识复杂性对区域创新效率的影响。研究结果表明，知识复杂性对地方知识创造效率有显著的“倒u”型非线性影响，对地方技术转移效率有显著的正向影响。相邻城市间知识创造效率和技术转移效率的空间溢出效应表明创新效率存在较大趋同的可能性。此外，该研究还表明，知识复杂性对区域创新效率的影响是微妙的，这取决于不同空间外部性的存在。区域间网络外部性和知识复杂性对知识创造具有正向调节作用，区域集聚外部性和知识复杂性对技术转移具有中介作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

中国经济评论 ECONOMICS-

CiteScore

10.60

自引率

4.40%

发文量

380

期刊介绍： The China Economic Review publishes original works of scholarship which add to the knowledge of the economy of China and to economies as a discipline. We seek, in particular, papers dealing with policy, performance and institutional change. Empirical papers normally use a formal model, a data set, and standard statistical techniques. Submissions are subjected to double-blind peer review.