数字化对区域创新格局的重塑效应研究——基于中国城市的经验数据

The Reshaping Effect of Digitalization on Regional Innovation Geography:A Study Based on the Empirical Data of Cities in China

数字化驱动新一轮创新提速的同时,正在重塑中国区域创新格局。在刻画中国区域创新格局演化趋势的基础上,构建纳入数字化调节机制的区域创新收敛模型,利用2013—2021年283个城市面板数据,系统考察数字化对区域创新格局的重塑效应。研究发现:(1)中国数字化水平整体呈上升趋势,但各地区数字化建设程度存在明显差异;(2)中国区域创新格局呈收敛趋势,数字化提升有助于加速区域创新格局收敛进程,这一结论在进行一系列稳健性检验后依然成立;(3)中国南北方地区创新水平增长存在俱乐部收敛,南方地区内部创新收敛进程快于北方地区,而数字化对北方地区创新收敛进程的影响效果更明显;(4)数字化对区域创新格局的影响存在显著双门槛效应,只有当数字化水平达到0.154的门槛值时,其对区域创新收敛进程才具有显著加速效应。科学研判数字化对中国区域创新格局的影响,可为促进数字红利共享与区域协调发展提供政策启示。

China is one of the largest digital economies in the world,and it is served as one of the most important testing grounds for digital transformation.Although digitalization is constantly promoting the diffusion of knowledge in physical and virtual spaces,the existing studies have rarely focused on the potential power to cause the changes in regional innovation geography.Since the digital technologies have triggered a new round of innovation growth,they are reshaping the geography of regional innovation in China.This paper aims to investigate the reshaping effect of digitalization on regional innovation geography based on the theory of backwardness advantage.It is of great practical significance for digital dividend sharing and regional coordinated development by judging scientifically the impact of digitalization on China′s regional innovation geography.Using 283 city observations in China from 2013-2021,this paper systematically studies the role of digitalization in reshaping regional innovation geography.It selects four dimensions of digital infrastructure,digital element input,digital industry output and digital transaction development to calculate the digitalization index at the city level.Then it constructs the convergence model incorporating the digitalization moderating mechanism to examine the impact of digitalization on the convergence of regional innovation.This paper also investigates the heterogeneous influence of digitalization on the internal innovation convergence process in the northern and southern regions.Furthermore,using the panel threshold regression method,it reveals the nonlinear evolution of the impact of digitalization.The results imply that,first,the overall level of digitalization in China has been continuously improving in recent years,but the digital construction of cities has become polarized.Second,the convergence process of China′s regional innovation and digitalization facilitates the acceleration of this trend significantly.This result still holds after a series of robustness tests.Third,the heterogeneity analysis shows that there is club convergence in regional innovation in the north and south of China,and the innovation convergence rate in the south is faster than that in the north,while the acceleration effect of digitalization on innovation convergence in the north is obviously stronger.Last,the digitalization has an obvious double-threshold effect on regional innovation convergence.Only when the digitalization level reaches the threshold value of 0.154 can it show a significant acceleration effect on the convergence process of regional innovation.To sum up,this paper explains the impact of digitalization on regional innovation geography and provides a reference for the new round of digital construction strategies in China.Then it puts forward the following policy implications.Overall,the digital infrastructure construction should be further popularized,with special emphasis on improving the network penetration of underdeveloped cities,and incorporating marginal cities into digital networks to realize economies of scale.For the central government,by scientifically judging the influence of digitalization on regional innovation geography in different regions and stages,digital construction can be an effective and new means to promote high-quality and coordinated regional development.Late-developing cities should employ comparative advantages and digital means to strengthen innovation cooperation with developed cities,further transform exogenous knowledge into endogenous pursuit power,and achieve high-level convergence in innovation.While developed cities should make full use of digital infrastructure to expand the effective scope of innovation spillovers,formulate sustainable inter-regional digital economic dividend sharing policies,and drive late-developing regions to carry out innovation activities at different levels.Compared with previous studies,this paper contributes to the literature in three important ways.First,it studies the role of digitalization in reshaping the regional innovation geography,which is an expansion of the research field of digitalization affecting regional innovation.Second,by introducing a digital adjustment mechanism based on the conditionalβconvergence model,this paper overcomes the limitation that the conditionalβconvergence model is only used to describe convergence facts.Third,it further analyzes the threshold conditions for digitalization to accelerate the process of regional innovation convergence,and studies the characteristics of regional clubs in the effect of digitalization on reshaping the regional innovation geography.By analyzing threshold effects and heterogeneous facts of digitalization,it provides a decision-making reference for the government to make targeted digitalization strategies.