Evaluating the scientific and technological innovation efficiency of universities in China: evidence from the global Malmquist–Luenberger index model

ABSTRACT

The evaluation of the scientific and technological (S&T) innovation efficiency of universities is important for the ‘double first-class’ construction in China. However, related research often only considers desirable outputs while ignoring undesirable ones, which tends to produce biased evaluation results. For this reason, this study takes the ratio of unemployed graduates as undesirable output, and uses the global Malmquist – Luenberger index method to evaluate the S&T innovation efficiency of 31 relevant universities in China during 2013–2017, then develops a panel Tobit model to analyse its influencing factors. The results reveal that: first, during the sample period, the S&T innovation efficiency of those universities improved overall, and technical progress was the main driver. Second, excluding undesirable output will result in an overestimate of the S&T innovation efficiency of universities. Third, the S&T innovation efficiency of universities features regional distribution, with high efficiency in the west and low efficiency in the east. Moreover, different regions have different drivers for the improvement of S&T innovation efficiency of universities, with technical progress for the east and technical efficiency changes for the central and west. Finally, the ‘double first-class’ construction proposal in China has significantly promoted the improvement of S&T innovation efficiency in universities.

KEYWORDS:

• Global Malmquist–Luenberger index
• double first-class construction
• scientific and technological innovation efficiency
• Tobit model
• university

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 71704050), Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China (no. 2022JJ30180), Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education (no. 2020ZAC5), Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Reform Project in Hunan Province (no. 2020JGZD018) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Hunan University (no. 531107050748).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2022.2097185.

Notes

¹ http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/s5987/201904/t20190412_377692.html.

² http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/s271/201808/t20180824_346059.htm.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71704050]; Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Reform Project in Hunan Province [2020JGZD018]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Hunan University [531107050748]; Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province of China [2022JJ30180]; Chinese Society of Academic Degrees and Graduate Education [2020ZAC5].