Policy-induced cooperative knowledge network, university-industry collaboration and firm innovation: Evidence from the Greater Bay Area

The major goal of this paper is to analyze the interactive impact of China's high-tech policies on university-industry (UI) collaboration and firm innovation by a network-based approach. Introducing high-tech policy to traditional innovative networks, we constructed a policy-induced UI collaboration network and applied social network analysis (SNA) method to empirically study the role of high-tech policies and the underlying mechanisms in firm innovation in the Greater Bay Area (GBA). This policy-induced innovative network consists of over 2000 innovative entities in GBA from 2012 to 2021, which reflects dynamic characteristics of innovative activities in this region. Based on this network, we find that high-tech policies play a positive and key role in regional innovation and we also clarify some potential mechanisms and routes in the effect of policies on UI collaboration and firm innovation. This paper advances our understanding of innovative networks and policy-induced regional innovation, which has implications for innovation policymaking in world-class innovative centers.