Exploring the evolutionary driving factors of collaborative innovation networks based on complex network evolutionary game: a case study of China's smart grid industry

The collaborative innovation network of China's smart grid industry plays a pivotal role in low-carbon economic transformation, energy security and smart city development. Clarifying its evolutionary driving factors is significant for optimizing the network. Based on collaborative patents of China's smart grid industry from 1987 to 2021, this study combines social network analysis and complex network evolutionary game model to construct collaborative innovation networks at different stages, exploring the impact of macro and micro driving factors on the network evolution. The results show that (1) the evolution depth and speed of the network are greater when the network heterogeneity is large. (2) The increase of allocated benefits, cooperation benefits, penalty for breach of contract, losses from competition and implicit benefits will improve the depth and speed of the network evolution. (3) The initial network state also affects the network evolution. The evolution depth and speed of the network are greater when the network scale is larger, the average number of connections is higher, and the average degree is higher. This study provides a theoretical support for improving the collaborative innovation network of China's smart grid industry and an analytical framework for studying the evolutionary driving factors of collaborative innovation networks through the complex network evolutionary game.