Impact of Industrial Synergy on the Efficiency of Innovation Resource Allocation: Evidence from Chinese Metropolitan Areas

Chinese metropolitan areas suffer from isolated industrial development, obstructed factor flows, and imperfect cooperation mechanisms. Promoting inter-city industrial complementarity and the rational allocation of regional innovation factors is necessary for sustainable regional development. First, this paper uses a network data envelopment analysis model based on resource sharing and two-stage additional input to measure the efficiency of innovation resource allocation in 31 metropolitan areas in China between 2010 and 2019. Second, the Tobit model is used to explore the impact of industrial synergy in metropolitan areas on the efficiency of innovation resource allocation at different stages and to analyze regional heterogeneity. The results indicate that the efficiency of innovation resource allocation in China's metropolitan areas shows a slowly increasing trend. The efficiency of the innovation resource development stage is lower than that of the economic transformation stage. Disparity in the efficiency of innovation resource allocation among metropolitan areas is significant, with those on the southeast coast being the most efficient. Industrial synergy in metropolitan areas has a significantly positive impact on the efficiency of innovation resource allocation. The positive impact is greater in the economic transformation phase than in the innovation resource development phase and has significant regional heterogeneity.