The relationship between knowledge potential matching and innovation performance of university-enterprise cooperation: the moderating effect of geographic proximity

ABSTRACT

University-enterprise cooperation has experienced nearly 30 years of development in China, there are still a large number of failure cases in practice, and academic research often presents a unilateral situation of ‘enterprise-university’. This study starts with the bilateral matching between enterprises and universities, using data on invention patents jointly applied for by Chinese enterprises and universities from 2010 to 2020, discusses the influence of university-enterprise knowledge potential matching on the innovation performance of university-enterprise cooperation and the influence of university level and enterprise R&D investment intensity on the innovation performance of university-enterprise cooperation when the knowledge potential difference is similar. The results show that: (1) knowledge potential matching has a significant effect on the innovation performance of university-enterprise cooperation: the smaller the knowledge potential difference, the higher the innovation performance; (2) with similar knowledge potential difference, the level of the university has no significant impact on the innovation performance, and the R&D investment intensity of enterprises is positively correlated with the innovation performance of university-enterprise cooperation; (3) geographical proximity has a significant inverted U-shaped moderating effect on the relationship between knowledge potential matching and the innovation performance of university-enterprise cooperation.

KEYWORDS:

• Knowledge potential
• matching
• innovation performance
• geographic proximity

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support of Planning subject for the 13th five year plan of Hunan education sciences[XJK17QGD020] and Hunan Education Reform Project in 2017; National education scientific planning projects[CIA210271].

Conflict of interest statement

All authors disclosed no relevant relationships.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Compilation of science and technology statistics of institutions of higher learning in 2019. Beijing: Higher Education Press, 2020:6.

2 211 project refers to the construction of about 100 universities and a number of key disciplines facing the 21st century. 985 project refers to the major decision made to build a first-class university with world advanced level.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Education Scientific Planning Projects [Grant Number CIA210271]; Hunan Education Reform Project in 2017; and Planning Subject for the 13th Five Year Plan of Hunan Education Sciences [Grant Number XJK17QGD020].

Notes on contributors

Junru Shang

Junru Shang is studying for a master’s degree at the Business School of Central South University of Forestry and Technology. Her research direction is business management and innovation management.

Kun Zhang

Kun Zhang is an Associate Professor at the Department of Business of the Central South University of Forestry and Technology. He received his Ph.D degree in in Business Administration from Central South University. His research area is business management, innovation management, etc.

Shan Liu

Shan Liu is studying for a master’s degree at the Business School of Central South University of Forestry and Technology. Her research direction is business management.