R&D investment and regional innovation performance – threshold effects based on intellectual property protection

ABSTRACT Based on the panel data of 24 provinces and cities in China from 2009 to 2017, this paper uses panel threshold regression model with regional intellectual property protection intensity as the threshold variable to investigate the effect of R&D investment on regional innovation performance from two perspectives of human resource investment and R&D funding investment with different threshold effects. The results show that human resource investment and R&D investment have a significant contribution to regional innovation performance with a lag of three periods, and there is a significant double threshold effect. The optimal intellectual property protection intensity range of human resource input on regional innovation performance promotion is (0.8698, 0.8712). The optimal intellectual property protection intensity range for R&D investment on regional innovation performance is (0.8698, 0.8781), and R&D investment on regional innovation performance shows an increasing and then decreasing effect. This paper constructs a system of indicators to measure the intensity of intellectual property protection in China based on the “dual-track parallelism” of intellectual property protection management in China. It also measures the intensity of intellectual property protection in each region of China. A non-linear relationship between R&D investment, intellectual property protection and regional innovation is found.