Are cities greener because of innovation?Independent innovation policy and green economic efficiency

The national independent innovation demonstration zone(NIIDZ)is an independent innovation policy that plays a crucial role in implementing strategies.Given the importance of the NIIDZ,this study uses panel data of 278 prefecture-level cities in China from 2006 to 2020 and empirically examines the effect and internal mechanism of the NIIDZ on green economic efficiency(GEE)using the difference-in-difference model(DID).The results show that the NIIDZ effectively enhances the growth of GEE,and the results remain valid through several robustness tests,such as year-by-year propensity score matching.The transmission mechanism suggests that the NIIDZ indirectly drives GEE by accelerating scientific and technological investment,promoting talent concentration,and optimizing the industrial structure.Moreover,heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotion effect of the NIIDZ on GEE is more prominent in the eastern region and high green development level areas.The study’s findings can serve as a reference for China to further utilize the policy effectiveness of the NIIDZ and accelerate the high-quality development of the green economy in the future.

Threshold effects of tourism agglomeration on the green innovation efficiency of China's tourism industry

Industrial agglomeration is an essential and effective way to integrate resources and elements. Its impact on the green innovation efficiency of the tourism industry is a process of continuous development and dynamic change. This paper, based on the provincial panel data from 2006 to 2015, uses super SBM model to measure the green innovation efficiency of China's tourism industry.The threshold regression model is employed to conduct empirical tests of the nonlinear threshold effect of agglomeration on the green innovation efficiency of tourism industry. The inter-provincial differences of various threshold effects and their possible causes are analyzed. Results indicate that the green innovation efficiency of China's tourism industry is generally growing, while regional disparity is significant with a gradient decrease along the eastern-central-western regions. There is an obvious positive nonlinear relationship between tourism agglomeration and green innovation efficiency. It is also found that with the increase of agglomeration, its influence is at a high level. As the level of agglomeration crosses the first threshold, its impact is at a low level, and when it crosses the second threshold, the impact of tourism agglomeration is at an intermediate level. Finally, this paper proposes the basic path and some policy recommendations to promote the green innovation efficiency of the tourism industry in China.

Study on the efficiency and regional disparity of green technology innovation in China's industrial companies

This paper first constructed a system to evaluate the innovation efficiency of industrial companies within China's Mainland.Then,a principal component analysis(PCA) was performed to these indicators for dimensionality reduction,so as to figure out the technology innovation efficiency in these two phases,respectively.Finally,the overall efficiency of industrial companies in different regions was estimated and factorized via data envelopment analysis(DEA).The results showed that:(1)the efficiency of green technology innovation of industrial companies in China was relatively low as a whole,which mainly resulted from pure technical efficiency(PTE).Further,this huge gap continues to expand in these regions.And both PTE and scale efficiency(SE) in central and western regions leave much to be expected.(2)In the first phase of green technology development,when environmental factors were concerned,the efficiency was much lower than that without environmental considerations.Besides,the central and western regions were facing increasingly severe environmental problems,and there was a wide disparity in technology development efficiency among eastern,central,and western regions.(3)In the second phase of green technology commercialization,there were still more rooms for improvement in raising the efficiency of green technology innovation,and the efficiency in eastern,central,and western regions was ranked from highest to lowest.(4)Liaoning,Hebei,Heilongjiang,Xinjiang,Shanxi,Inner Mongolia,Yunnan,and Qinghai should focus on improving their technology;Jilin,Jiangxi,Anhui,and Guangxi should make their efforts to reduce resource redundancy;whereas Ningxia and Gansu should try to solve the above two issues.

Evaluation and Influence Factor of Green Efficiency of China’s Agricultural Innovation from the Perspective of Technical Transformation

Agricultural innovation is important for the green transformation of agriculture.Based on the perspective of technology transformation,this paper builds a theoretical analysis framework and evaluation index system for green efficiency of agricultural innovation,and discusses the evolution laws and influencing factors of the green efficiency of China’s agricultural innovation from 2005 to 2017 utilizing the DEA model,Malmquist index,and Tobit regression analysis.The results show that:1)The overall green efficiency of China’s agricultural innovation is not high,the green efficiency of agricultural innovation in eastern China is mainly driven by pure technical efficiency,while that in central and western China is mainly driven by the scale efficiency.The green efficiency of agricultural innovation shows significant spatial differences,and the low efficiency and relatively low-efficiency regions moved to central and southeastern China.2)Technical progress is the main force affecting the change of green total factor productivity of China’s agricultural innovation,seeing a trend of decrease followed by an increase.Pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency exhibit an increasing-decreasing trend,and gradually transform into key factors that restrict the improvement of the green total factor productivity of agricultural innovation.3)Agricultural technologies’diffusion,absorption,and implementation are three influencing factors of the green efficiency of agricultural innovation.The local level of informatization,the number of agricultural technicians in enterprises and institutions,average education level of residents,and the level of agricultural mechanization have positive impacts on the promotion of the green efficiency of agricultural innovation,promoting the diffusion,absorption and implementation of agricultural innovation technology can significantly improve the green efficiency of agricultural innovation.

Influence of technological innovation on regional green development efficiency in China(2004-2017):An empirical analysis based on the spatial Durbin model

Under the background of green development,the function direction of technological innovation to green development efficiency,which includes economy,resources and environment,needs to be observed by demonstration.In this paper,the green development efficiency of 30 provinces(cities and districts)in China from 2004 to 2017 is measured and its intertemporal changes,regional differences of green development efficiency are analyzed by using the super efficiency SBM model,further through theoretical analysis and empirical study,the influence of technological innovation on regional green development efficiency and its impact mechanism are investigated.The influence mechanisms of the technological innovation on green development efficiency are clarified and empirically tested by spatial econometric models from the perspectives of the growth sources and quantitative analysis.The results show that during the observation period,the green development efficiency in China exhibits a U-shaped variation,but there are huge regional differences with the obvious polarization in Eastern and Midwestern regions,and that technological innovation has some effect in promoting the regional green development efficiency,but not significant enough,which are heterogeneous according to the time periods and regions.

Coupling Relationship Among Technological Innovation,Industrial Transformation and Environmental Efficiency:A Case Study of the Huaihai Economic Zone,China

The 14th Five-Year Plan period is a critical period for China to achieve high-quality development. Based on super-efficiency slacks-based measure(SBM) model, grey-related analysis(GRA) and other models, this paper studies the heterogeneity of the coupling relationship among technological innovation, industrial transformation and environmental efficiency in the Huaihai Economic Zone during the period of 2005-2019. In addition, it analyzes the coupling mechanism of single and binary systems to the ternary system, which is of great significance for the collaborative symbiosis among systems. The findings are as follows. 1) The technological innovation, industrial transformation and environmental efficiency(TIE) systems of the Huaihai Economic Zone had significant spatial-temporal heterogeneity. Although their evaluation value fluctuated, the development trends are all positive. Ultimately, technological innovation is characterized by being high in the northeast and low in the southwest around Xuzhou, while other systems are relatively staggered in space. 2) The coupling of TIE systems is in transition, lack of orderly integration and benign interaction. However, the developing trend of interaction is also upward, and a spatial pattern driven by Xuzhou and Linyi as the dual cores has gradually formed. Moreover, the coupling is mostly manifested as outdated technological innovation and industrial transformation. Except for the final coordination of regenerative cities, the other resource types are all in transition. Cities in all traffic locations are still in transition. The overall system interaction of cities on Longhai Line(Lanzhou-Lianyungang Railway) is relatively optimal, and cities on Xinshi Line(Xinxiang-Rizhao Railway) are accelerating toward synergy. 3) The coupling status of TIE systems depends on the development of the single system and the interaction of the binary(2E) system. The coupling is closely related to technological innovation and Technology-Industry system,and is hindered by the inefficient interaction of Technology-Environment system. Specifically, the synergy of regenerative cities is attributed to the advantage of a single system and the effective integration of 2E systems. Beneficial from the advantages of environmental efficiency, the cities on Xinshi Line promote the synergy of the 2E and TIE systems. Therefore, while the Huaihai Economic Zone stimulates the development potential of the single and 2E systems, it is necessary to amplify the superimposition effect of systems in accordance on the basis of resource and location.

Advantage of populous countries in the trends of innovation efficiency

A flurry of studies indicates that population size has a positive effect on innovation,however,cross-country empirical evidence remains sparse.In this paper,we add to the literature by investigating the relationship between population size and innovation efficiency at the country level through constructing three relative indexes based on the datasets of patent applications and Research and Development(R&D)investment.Different from previous studies based on absolute innovation indicators,the relative indexes can reflect the core innovation efficiency of economies by excluding the impact from the difference of economic development level,with a view putting all economies into a comparable standard framework.For all of the three relative indexes,their long-term trends show significant correlations with population size,and the economy with a larger population usually has better and stable performance on the trends of innovation efficiency.In addition,we find that there is a critical population size,over which the economy would be more likely to have a spontaneous improvement on innovation efficiency.This study provides direct evidence in supporting the population size advantage on the trends of innovation efficiency at the economy level and provides new insight to understand the rapid development of innovation in a few populous countries.

Analysis on the Efficiency of Technology Innovation of Listed Companies in China's Machinery Manufacturing Industry

On the basis of the definition of technological innovation and efficiency,based on the DEA method,this paper takes the panel data of 20 listed companies in China's machinery manufacturing industry from 2011 to 2015 as samples,evaluating the technological innovation efficiency of listed companies in China's machinery manufacturing industry.Finally,it sums up and puts forward effective countermeasures to improve the technological innovation of listed companies in China's machinery manufacturing industry.It is hoped that it will play a guiding role in the technological innovation activities of listed companies in China's machinery manufacturing industry.

Technological Innovation Efficiency Evaluation of Equipment Manufacturing Industry--An Empirical Study of Shandong Province in China

Based on the statistical data of eight sub-sectors of equipment manufacturing industry in Shandong province from 2012-2016,DEA and Malmquist index were used to give the static and dynamic evaluation of technological innovation efficiency.The results show that the overall technological innovation efficiency of Shandong equipment manufacturing industry is higher due to the high pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency.As the technical regress and inefficient allocation of resources deepened,the total factor productivity of Shandong equipment manufacturing industry presents a dropped tendency.According to the innovation efficiency and its changes,different industries should adopt the specific development strategies.

The Relationship between Water Resources Use Efficiency and Scientific and Technological Innovation Level: Case Study of Yangtze River Basin in China

The Yangtze River Basin’s water resource utilization efficiency(WUE)and scientific and technological innovation level(STI)are closely connected,and the comprehension of these relationships will help to improve WUE and promote local economic growth and conservation of water.This study uses 19 provinces and regions along the Yangtze River’s mainstream from 2009 to 2019 as its research objects and uses a Vector Auto Regression(VAR)model to quantitatively evaluate the spatiotemporal evolution of the coupling coordination degree(CCD)between the two subsystems of WUE and STI.The findings show that:(1)Both the WUE and STI in the Yangtze River Basin showed an upward trend during the study period,but the STI effectively lagged behind the WUE;(2)The CCD of the two subsystems generally showed an upward trend,and the CCD of each province was improved to varying degrees,but the majority of regions did not develop a high-quality coordination stage;(3)The CCD of the two systems displayed apparent positive spatial autocorrelation in the spatial correlation pattern,and there were only two types:high-high(H-H)urbanization areas and low-low(L-L)urbanization areas;(4)The STI showed no obvious response to the impact of the WUE,while the WUE responded greatly to the STI,and both of them were highly dependent on themselves.Optimizing their interaction mechanisms should be the primary focus of high-quality development in the basin of the Yangtze River in the future.These results give the government an empirical basis to enhance the WUE and promote regional sustainable development.

A Study of Methods to Identify Industry-University-Research Institution Cooperation Partners based on Innovation Chain Theory

Purpose： This study aims at identifying potential industry-university-research collaboration（IURC） partners effectively and analyzes the conditions and dynamics in the IURC process based on innovation chain theory.Design/methodology/approach： The method utilizes multisource data, combining bibliometric and econometrics analyses to capture the core network of the existing collaboration networks and institution competitiveness in the innovation chain. Furthermore, a new identification method is constructed that takes into account the law of scientific research cooperation and economic factors.Findings： Empirical analysis of the genetic engineering vaccine field shows that through the distribution characteristics of creative technologies from different institutions, the analysis based on the innovation chain can identify the more complementary capacities among organizations.Research limitations： In this study, the overall approach is shaped by the theoretical concept of an innovation chain, a linear innovation model with specific types or stages of innovation activities in each phase of the chain, and may, thus, overlook important feedback mechanisms in the innovation process.Practical implications： Industry-university-research institution collaborations are extremely important in promoting the dissemination of innovative knowledge, enhancing the quality of innovation products, and facilitating the transformation of scientific achievements.Originality/value： Compared to previous studies, this study emulates the real conditions of IURC. Thus, the rule of technological innovation can be better revealed, the potential partners of IURC can be identified more readily, and the conclusion has more value.

Does Industry-University-Research Cooperation Matter? An Analysis of Its Coupling Effect on Regional Innovation and Economic Development

The dislocation between regional innovation and economic development directly influences the economic effect of regional innovation. However, no in-depth researches have been made on how to solve this problem. Using data from Henan Province, China,employing geographical detector technology, this paper focuses on testing whether the industry-university-research cooperation can contribute to coordinating the relation between regional innovation and economic development. It is shown that: 1) the industry-universityresearch cooperation in Henan Province is increasing gradually, and the network presents a core-edge structure, and the coupling degree between regional innovation and economic development is spatially unbalanced, which is similar to the spatial distribution of the intensity of industry-university-research cooperation;2) as an important approach to effectively connect scientific researches with market demands, the industry-university-research cooperation can help form an interactive, interconnected, coupled and coordinated virtuous relation between regional innovation and economic development. Compared with the cooperation between organizations of the same type and the separate innovation of organizations, the improvement of the industry-university-research cooperation level can better coordinate the relation between regional innovation and economic development;3) the cooperative innovation model between enterprises and universities can better promote the coupling between regional innovation and economic development, compared with many industryuniversity-research cooperation models. For underdeveloped areas lacking local knowledge base, industry-university-research cooperation should be considered as a long-term development strategy, especially using the knowledge sources of external universities and scientific research institutions to enhance innovation capability and achieve economic growth.

Research on Innovation-Driven Expansion of Regional OFDI: New Evidence From a Business Environment Perspective

This paper investigates the impact of provincial innovation-driven efficiency on the expansion of regional Outward Foreign Direct Investment(OFDI)flows within the context of China’s economy during the period 2011 to 2020 by measuring the innovation-driven efficiency and business environment index using the DEA-Malmquist index and the combined CRITIC weighting method from the new perspective of business environment improvement.The findings reveal that:(a)There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between provincial innovation-driven efficiency and regional OFDI flows.This increase in innovation-driven efficiency can promote OFDI expansion of the region by improving its business environment.(b)The improvement of the business environments plays a significant intermediary and synergistic role in OFDI expansion driven by improved innovation efficiency.(c)The study of regional heterogeneity suggests that the central region enjoys the longest window period in terms of innovation-driven OFDI expansion,followed by the eastern region while the western region has the shortest window period.The improvement of the business environment in the western region is more effective in driving regional OFDI expansion.This conclusion remained true after the robustness test.In conclusion,this paper offers a few policy recommendations that can help Chinese capital of various kinds go global more effectively.

Do smart city policies improve energy efficiency?Evidence from China

To address air pollution and offer a convenient and comfortable living environment,the Chinese government launched a smart city pilot(SCP)project in 2012,accompanied by a comprehensive set of environmental and energy-related laws and regulations.Although academic interest in smart cities has surged,there remains a notable gap in empirical research exploring the economic,environmental,and energy effects of such initiatives.Taking 232 prefecture-level cities from 2003 to 2017 as research subjects,this study measures energy effi‐ciency by using energy consumption per unit of GDP and adopts a difference-in-differences(DID)analysis to investigate the impact of SCPs on energy efficiency.The empirical results indicate that SCPs improved energy efficiency by promoting urban technological innovation capabilities and green total factor productivity,and this effect was more pronounced in cities that were more dependent on traditional fossil fuel energy sources and had more developed fiscal and financial levels.Studying the impact of smart city construction on energy utilization efficiency in developing countries,such as China,is not only significantly enlightening for China’s green and low-carbon transition but also provides reference opinions for constructing smart cities and the path to enhancing energy efficiency in other developing countries.The findings provide valuable insights into the global development of smart cities,urban sustainability,and high-quality economic growth.

Research on the Impact of Digital Finance on Energy Efficiency in China

Digital finance and green technology innovation(GTI)serve as powerful engines for promoting energy efficiency(EE)and economic development.This paper explores the mechanism by which digital finance impacts EE based on panel data from 30 provinces in China spanning from 2011 to 2019.The results demonstrate that digital finance can significantly enhance EE,with a particularly pronounced effect in the eastern region.Through mechanistic analysis,it is evident that GTI serves as the transmission pathway through which digital finance influences EE,accounting for 45.3%of the effect.The policy implication of this study suggests that China should expedite the digitization of financial markets to further harness the development of digital finance,particularly in pursuit of its technological innovation and green,lowcarbon environmental protection effects.

Innovation Ability of Traditional Chinese Medicine Graduates Cultivated by Industry-University-Research Institute Cooperation Program:A Case Study of Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine

Industry-university-research institute cooperation has important strategic significance and practical value for cultivating the innovation ability of graduate students.Taking Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine as an example,this paper analyzed the current status of the joint cultivation of industry-university-research institute,and explored an effective way to cultivate top-notch innovative talents with innovative spirit,entrepreneurial awareness and innovative entrepreneurial ability,in order to maximally stimulate talents to create the vitality of traditional Chinese medicine.

Monotricat, Innovative Displacement Hull High Hydrodynamic Efficiency and Energy Recovery, Navigating at Speeds of Planing Hulls on Spray Self-produced

The need to have naval units ever faster pushed the ship design to design hull shapes with increasingly higher performance thanks to the use of lightweight materials such as aluminum, and more powerful engines, etc., but without substantially modifying the traditional forms of hull. The hull patented Monotricat high hydrodynamic efficiency and energy saving it represents an evolution of the traditional architectures of the hulls, as its shape is adapted to recover wave formation engendered from the bow and sprays associated with it so as to reduce the resistance to the benefit of the speed, and navigating in displacement at speeds of planing hulls with an efficiency of about 20%. The patented hull Monotricat represents the overcoming of distinction between displacement and planing hulls, because, unlike previous solutions, the hull conventionally called Monotricat is the first displacement hull that can navigate at both displacement and planning speeds, with a resistance curve almost straight, maintaining the characteristics of a displacement hull, since it combines the characteristics of displacement and planning hull. It presents an innovative architecture that could be defined as a hybrid between a monohull and catamaran, navigating on spray self-produced. The combination of these three types of naval hulls allows it to ensure： safety, comfort navigation, best seakeeping and maneuverability in restricted waters, stability, reduction of resistance to motion, cost management, regularity on the routes even in adverse weather-sea. These characteristics of the hull have been studied, tested and validated by leading research institutes and universities with more ameliorative results in each subsequent experimentation, reported in the present work, which demonstrated a greater hydrodynamic efficiency compared to conventional hulls of 20%.

Research on the Influence of Government R&D Funding and Enterprise R&D Investment on the Innovation Efficiency of Pharmaceutical Industry

Objective To study the effect of government R&D funding and enterprise R&D input on innovation efficiency of China’s pharmaceutical industry.Methods Based on the inter-provincial panel data of China’s pharmaceutical industry from 2009 to 2019,the stochastic frontier analysis method was used to study the influence of government R&D funding and enterprise R&D input on the innovation efficiency.Results and Conclusion With 1%increase in government R&D funding,the innovation efficiency of enterprises will increase by 0.122%.When R&D investment increases by 1%,innovation efficiency will increase by 0.169%.Both government R&D funding and enterprise R&D investment promote the innovation efficiency of pharmaceutical enterprises,but the increase of enterprise R&D investment contributes more to the improvement of pharmaceutical innovation efficiency.

Evaluation and empirical research on the energy efficiency of 20 mining cities in Eastern and Central China

The gap of energy efficiency of eastern and central mining cities in China continues to expand, getting more attention from relevant departments. In this work, 20 mining cities in Eastern and Central China from 2010 to 2014 have been selected as research samples using data envelopment analysis(DEA).Research results show that the level of energy efficiency in mining cities is still low. China is in an extensive economic growth mode with high input, high consumption, low output and low efficiency. Mining cities in China have a huge potential to conserve energy and reduce emissions. China should optimize industrial structures, strengthen scientific and technological input and innovation, as well as implement energy-saving emissions reductions, and increase investment in environmental protection and ideological propaganda.

Research on Comparison of Enterprise Financing Efficiency under Layered Background

This paper takes the innovative enterprises with substantial financing in2014-2016 as the research sample,uses the foundation layer enterprises under the same conditions as the contrast,and uses the data envelopment analysis to do empirical research. By comparing the comprehensive technical efficiency,pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency of the sample enterprises and the controlled enterprises,and through the analysis of slack variables of non DEA efficient enterprises,the reasons for the low efficiency and the improvement direction are pointed out. The results show that the financing efficiency of innovation layer enterprises is obviously higher than that of the underlying enterprises,and the financing efficiency has also improved in recent years,but there are still unstable factors,main problem of which is poor operating capacity of funds.