Research on Innovation Capability of Regional Innovation System Based on Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis: Evidence from China

Abstract

Building regional innovation systems (RISs) has become an important measure for China to implement an innovation-driven development strategy, but a moderately complex way to describe the characteristics of the RISs is needed for aiding the implementation of this strategy. Based on the subject-resource-environment (SRE) framework with five secondary conditions, this study takes 31 regions in China as cases, and studies the innovation capability of the RISs by using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach. The findings are as follows: (1) Different combinations of the five conditions have generated two high and one low innovation capability configurations of RISs. (2) The two configurations of high innovation capability are the independent-investment type and the independent-open type. (3) The configuration of low innovation capability is the core-resource-deficiency type. This study has simplified the complexity of the RISs to a certain extent and revealed that the matching effect among core conditions is the key to obtaining high innovation capability. The conclusions provide practical implications for the RISs in China to acquire appropriate innovation capabilities according to their resource endowment conditions.