How Industry-University-Research Cooperation Influences Innovation Efficiency in China

A provincial level balanced panel data set with 29 provinces and municipalities in China from 2009 to 2015 on the innovation production is used in this paper to analyze how industry-university-research cooperation influences innovation efficiency. Time-lag Stochastic Frontier Analysis models are applied and the results illustrates that cooperation between industries and universities takes a positive effect on innovation efficiency, the cooperation between industries and research institutions does not significantly influence innovation efficiency, and government funding for innovation has significant negative effect on innovation efficiency. The results also indicate that innovation efficiency in China in the sample years is not high; and is decreasing. The regional disparity of innovation efficiency is also obvious. Policy suggestions are presented in the conclusion of the paper.