A comparative study of the effects of internal and external technology spillovers on the quality of innovative outputs in China: The perspective of multistage innovation

This study compares the extent to which external technology spillovers, represented by foreign direct investment (FDI), and internal technology spillovers, represented by university-institute-industry cooperation (UIC), influence the quality of innovative outputs. Through a combination of the three-stage innovation value chain approach and econometric modelling of the knowledge production function, a panel regression is used to analyse the effects of FDI and UIC on the quality of innovative outputs during each stage, using data for 2006-2015 on 30 provinces in China. By comparing UIC with FDI, we find that UIC has a higher coefficient and stronger significance level than FDI in the knowledge innovation and product innovation stages, while institute-university linkages exhibit a negative association with the quality of innovative outputs in the technology innovation stage. However, from a regional perspective, it is found that only institute-university linkages in the knowledge innovation stage show a positive association with journal paper quality in coastal regions.