Do external or internal technology spillovers have a stronger influence on innovation efficiency in China?

In this study, we bridge an important gap in the literature by comparing the extent to which external technology spillovers, as indicated by foreign direct investment (FDI), and internal technology spillovers, as indicated by university-institute-industry cooperation (UIC), influence innovation efficiency in China. We divide the innovation process into two sequential stages, namely the knowledge creation and technology commercialization stages, and employ a network data envelopment analysis approach to measure innovation efficiency at each stage. The spatial analysis of the distribution of knowledge creation efficiency and technology commercialization efficiency reveals the heterogeneity of innovation efficiency at the provincial level. Then, a panel data regression is used to analyze the effect of FDI and UIC on innovation efficiency at each stage, using data from 2009 to 2015 for 30 provinces in China. By comparing FDI with UIC, we find that FDI has a higher coefficient and stronger significance level at the knowledge creation stage, while only industry-institute linkages exhibit a stronger association with innovation efficiency at the technology commercialization stage.