The Impact of Regional Policies on the Efficiency of Scientific and Technological Innovation in Universities: Evidence from China

The efficiency of scientific and technological innovation in universities is strongly influenced by both institutional structures and policies. However, existing research predominantly emphasizes the role of internal factors-such as resource allocation, management efficiency, personnel systems within universities, and education-sector policies-on innovation efficiency. This focus often overlooks the significant impact of regional factors on innovation outcomes. This study compares and analyzes the scientific and technological innovation efficiency of universities, growth rates, sources of inefficiency, inter-regional disparities, and intra-regional differences between universities in three strategically important regions in China, namely the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, based on their respective regional planning from 2007 to 2017. Additionally, it employs the Tobit model to explore the pathways to improve the scientific and technological innovation efficiency of universities within these three major strategic regions. This study finds that the implementation of targeted regional policies significantly enhances the efficiency of scientific and technological innovation in Chinese universities. Furthermore, it reveals that this positive impact also exhibits differences between universities and regions. The promotion effect of targeted regional policies on the efficiency of scientific and technological innovation in universities shows a high degree of similarity. In more developed cities, however, the scientific and technological innovation efficiency of universities tends to be lower. Both the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta regions within the three major strategic areas are significantly affected by the negative impact of financial assets, while the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, although affected negatively, is not significant. Moreover, this study uncovers that population density and fixed assets also serve as factors that can enhance the scientific and technological innovation efficiency of universities.