Comparative Studies on Efficiency of China’s Regional Innovation System on the Basis of Cooperation Measurement Model

Abstract

In this paper, taking an advanced economics standpoint, we specify the concept of synergy degree as the basis to the discussion of regional innovation system. Few literatures analyze the efficiency of regional innovation system from the angle of synergy effect between initial R&D technology stage and final commercial technology stage. Super efficiency data envelopment analysis is applied to calculate the efficiency of 27 selected provinces in China over 3 individual periods from 1998 to 2006. Then, a cooperation measurement model is introduced to measure the synergy degree between two sub-technological stages. We divided 27 provinces into four synergy categories to further measure correlation between each stage and the whole innovation stage. On the basis of the comparison of the efficiency of the whole innovation system and the synergy degree, the empirical results illustrate that most Chinese regions are still in the low efficiency and the cooperation level of each stage is relatively low. Finally, some policy suggestions are recommended accordingly.