知识基础、补充性联系与长三角地区突破性创新

The generation and evolution of regional new technological activities is a classic proposition in economic geography. Taking the Yangtze River Delta region as a case study, this paper explores the impact of local knowledge base, inter-regional complementary linkages and their interactions on breakthrough innovations from the perspective of technological relevance, based on 4,119,100 granted patents in China from 2000 to 2020. The study finds that: (1) The level of breakthrough innovation in the study area had been increasing from 2000 to 2020, and the geographical distribution showed a significant core-edge structure. Moreover, the focus of breakthrough technological innovation has shifted from the traditional industries that met the basic societal needs of the society in the early stage to the knowledge-intensive and high-tech industries. (2) Technological unrelatedness is the core driving force of breakthrough innovation in this region, which can significantly promote the entry of breakthrough technologies in new fields and the growth of existing fields, while technological relatedness has a significant negative effect on the entry of breakthrough technologies and has no significant effect on the growth of these technologies. (3) Although interregional complementary linkages can foster the entry and growth of breakthrough technologies, their effect is not always positive. In fact, the interaction between complementary linkages and technological relatedness can hinder the entry of such technologies. The contribution of this paper is to explore the role of complementary external linkages in the generation and development of breakthrough technologies in the region, and the study provides policy implications for the development of breakthrough technological innovations in the Yangtze River Delta and other regions.