Research on spatial correlation in regional innovation spillover in China based on patents

Abstract

Regional innovation is very important for the sustainable development of regional economies. Innovation development between regions is not independent, and there is spatial correlation in innovation spillover. This paper uses the total amount of regional patent authorization as the measure of regional innovation and uses network analysis to study the spatial relationships among different regions. An unstructured vector autoregressive model is established to determine whether there is an association between any two regions, the causal relationship between which is tested by a Granger causality test. Having established the spatial network relationship, network analysis is used to further analyze the overall characteristics of the network, the individual characteristics of the network, and the block model of the network. We find that the provinces are closely related regarding regional innovation spillovers. However, the spatial correlation between the provinces differs greatly. Also, there is an obvious hierarchy between blocks that have different orientations and functions. Finally, the relationship between the interior of each block differs greatly in closeness degree.