大学如何影响城市群创新生态系统形成与演化?——基于价值共创视角的案例研究

How do Universities Affect the Formation and Evolution of Urban Agglomeration Innovation Ecosystem?:Case Study from the Perspective of Value Co-Creation

随着创新范式演变和数字化转型,以官产学为主体的三螺旋结构在城市群创新生态系统演化过程中逐渐形成了一种新的连通性——价值共创。以旧金山城市群创新生态系统为案例,从价值共创视角重新审视了大学如何促进城市群创新生态系统演化。结果表明:(1)大学通过价值主张—匹配行动—吸引成员—协调结构促进生态系统成员链接和关系适配进而推动其演化;(2)城市群创新生态系统演化遵循价值共创的逻辑,是以共同价值主张为主导,在价值共创机制的协调下由参与者和其活动形成价值共创结构,并在外部环境的反馈循环中不断迭代、演化;(3)大学在传统育人和科研功能的基础上被赋予了价值共创的新重点和不可复制的粘合点作用,经历了从发起价值共创、促进价值共创到参与价值共创的角色转变。

With the transformation of innovation paradigm and the upgrading of regional development strategies,urban agglomerations have become a new driving force for global technological innovation and economic development.As a key member of the urban agglomeration innovation ecosystem,the role of universities has been widely recognized.However,the rapid development of digital technology is constantly reshaping organizational boundaries and value creation methods.A new connectivity-value co-creation-has emerged among actors in the triple-helix between universities,industries and governments.As the existing studies ignore the cross-border characteristics and the role of"connecting points"of universities in promoting value co-creation,the aim of this study is to shed light on the value co-creation logic and mechanism followed by the evolution of urban agglomeration innovation ecosystem,and more fully reveal the intermediate process of universities promoting the innovation ecosystem.Hence,a new insight into the evolution of the urban agglomeration innovation ecosystem is offered.The longitudinal case study method was adopted in this study.It is conducive to construct theory and address the key research questions.Specifically,San Francisco Bay Area innovation ecosystem is taken as the research object.The study from value co-creation perspective finds that the San Francisco Bay Area innovation ecosystem has gone through three phases:birth(1890s-1960s),expansion(1960s-1990s),leadership(1990s-now).The birth phase focuses on the co-creation of industry and universities.The university initiates value co-creation,puts forward the value proposition of"industry-university symbiosis"based on its own mission,and opens up borders through resource integration,service exchange and institutional arrangement to promote the interaction between universities and enterprises,then a binary structure of value co-creation is formed and the prototype of the innovation ecosystem appears;The expansion phase focuses on network co-creation.The value proposition is embodied in the commitment to technological innovation.Universities become facilitators of value co-creation,promoting the advantages of knowledge clusters in the region through the diversity of higher education and knowledge transfer.Other key members of innovation ecosystem are gradually emerged,then social networks are strengthened through horizontal interaction and collective learning.A network-based value co-creation structure is formed and innovation ecosystem is expanded.The leadership phase focuses on ecological co-creation.The value proposition has risen to the level of common vision.Digital technology drives cross-border integration and platform-based business model transformation,thus users and platforms play a more prominent role as participants in the innovation ecosystem.Symbiotic value co-creation structure is formed and the urban agglomeration innovation ecosystem has the leading edge.The results show that:(1)universities orchestrate multi-actor to build relationship through value proposition,matching action,attracting participants,coordination structure,so as to promote the evolution of urban agglomeration;(2)The evolution of urban agglomeration innovation ecosystem follows the logic of value co-creation.It is dominated by the common value proposition and under the coordination of the value co-creation mechanism,then the value co-creation structure is formed by the participants and their activities,which continues to iterate and evolve in the feedback of the external environment;(3)The old key functions of the university of research and education have been given a new emphasis on connecting the dots and value co-creation.The role of universities has changed from initiating value co-creation,promoting value co-creation to participating in value co-creation.The marginal contribution of this study are mainly in three aspects:First,the value co-creation theory was extended to the urban agglomeration innovation ecosystem and a common value co-creation framework was proposed,echoing and enriching the recent understanding of innovation ecosystems.Second,the role of universities as"connecting points"to promote value co-creation was highlighted.In doing so,the different phases of how universities attract ecosystem members to co-create and promote the evolution of urban agglomeration innovation ecosystems were more fully revealed.Third,the value co-creation logic and mechanism of evolution was explored.Hence,a new insight into the evolution of the urban agglomeration innovation ecosystem was provided.From a practical point of view,the study introduces an idea for China to break down border barriers and get rid of the dilemma of the urban agglomerations construction.