How can regional innovation ecosystem affect innovation level? an Fs QCA analysis

ABSTRACTThe regional innovation ecosystem is an important force to stimulate the innovation vitality by regions. Yet, gaps in previous research limit our understanding of how regional innovation ecosystems contribute to the innovative development of regions. Therefore, this study constructs the regional innovation ecosystem analysis framework from five aspects: innovation actors, government, innovation carrier, innovation resource and innovation environment. Based on the data of 30 provinces in China, we employ the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fs QCA) to explore causal configurations of innovation ecosystem elements that drive regional innovation development. The results show that (1) regional heterogeneity existed in these configurations. Four types of configurations can drive high regional innovation including the ‘Innovation actors -Government-Carriers-Resources’ type; ‘Innovation actors -Government-Carriers-Personnel-environment’ type; ‘Knowledge innovation actors-government-carriers-resources-environment’ type; and ‘Technology innovation actors-government-carriers-resources-environment’ type. (2) In the three configurations that lead to low regional innovation, the lack of multiple ecosystem elements is the main reason for low regional innovation. (3) Substitutive relationships exist between innovation actors and the innovation environment.KEYWORDS: Regional innovation ecosystemregional innovation levelconfiguration analysisFs QCA Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by National Office for Philosophy and Social Sciences [grant number 16AZD006].Notes on contributorsDan XuDan Xu is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Management of Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Now, Dan Xu has signed a contract with Jinan University as a lecturer. His main research interests focus on Technology Economics and Management.Bo YuBo Yu is a Ph.D. and professor in the School of Management of Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Main research interests focus on Technology Economics and Management.