IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v11y2024i1d10.1057_s41599-024-02850-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does large-scale research infrastructure affect regional knowledge innovation, and how? A case study of the National Supercomputing Center in China

Author

Listed:
  • Haodong Yang

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Li Liu

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

  • Gaofeng Wang

    (University of Science and Technology of China)

Abstract

Large-scale research infrastructures (LSRIs) are widely acknowledged as a crucial instrument for venturing into the uncharted territories of science and technology, as well as contributing to the well-being of society. However, only a limited number of literature have scrutinized the impact of LSRIs, founded upon a causal inference framework. Moreover, the function of LSRIs in the advancement of innovation at the regional level remains inadequately identified. Drawing on the resource-based view, this study develops a conceptual framework that links the scientific effect of LSRIs to innovation resources in order to assess their impact on knowledge innovation (KI). Taking China’s National Supercomputing Center (NSC) as a case, three major mechanism hypotheses are proposed for the impact of NSC on KI, including basic effect, network effect, and technology effect. Using panel data from 283 cities in China from 2000 to 2020, we employ a spatial difference-in-differences estimation model to examine the impact of NSC on KI. The research finds that: (1) The construction of NSC stimulates KI in local and surrounding areas. (2) The main mechanisms by which NSC promotes KI include the increase in fiscal investment and talents in science, the improvement of digital infrastructure, as well as the enhancement of urban network centrality and innovation efficiency. (3) Geographical proximity, cooperation proximity, and digitization proximity constitute the main channels of policy spillover. (4) NSC has not shown significant promotion of regional innovation convergence, and its radiation influence needs further improvement. (5) The knowledge innovation effects of NSCs manifest heterogeneity based on the distinct knowledge orientation and innovation environment, with this impact being notably pronounced in application innovation-oriented cities such as Shenzhen. The results of this study reveal the positive yet limited impact of NSC on KI and provide a reference for other economies in the areas of LSRIs, digital infrastructure, and the formulation of place-based innovation policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Haodong Yang & Li Liu & Gaofeng Wang, 2024. "Does large-scale research infrastructure affect regional knowledge innovation, and how? A case study of the National Supercomputing Center in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-02850-8
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-02850-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-024-02850-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-024-02850-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sala-i-Martin, Xavier X, 1996. "The Classical Approach to Convergence Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(437), pages 1019-1036, July.
    2. Liu, Dayong & Xu, Chunfa & Yu, Yongze & Rong, Kaijian & Zhang, Junyan, 2020. "Economic growth target, distortion of public expenditure and business cycle in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. Alberto Alesina & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, 2011. "Segregation and the Quality of Government in a Cross Section of Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(5), pages 1872-1911, August.
    4. Dmitry Arkhangelsky & Susan Athey & David A. Hirshberg & Guido W. Imbens & Stefan Wager, 2021. "Synthetic Difference-in-Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 111(12), pages 4088-4118, December.
    5. Junjun Tang & Xing Zhao, 2023. "Does the new digital infrastructure improve total factor productivity?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 895-916, October.
    6. Erkan Erdil & İbrahim Semih Akçomak & Umut Yılmaz Çetinkaya, 2022. "Is There Knowledge Convergence Among European Regions? Evidence from the European Union Framework Programmes," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(2), pages 1243-1267, June.
    7. Albert N. Link & John T. Scott, 2021. "Scientific publications at U.S. federal research laboratories," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(3), pages 2227-2248, March.
    8. Bughin, J. & Jacques, J. M., 1994. "Managerial efficiency and the Schumpeterian link between size, market structure and innovation revisited," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 653-659, November.
    9. Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2014. "US Food Aid and Civil Conflict," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1630-1666, June.
    10. Lu, Hongyou & Liu, Min & Song, Wenjing, 2022. "Place-based policies, government intervention, and regional innovation: Evidence from China's Resource-Exhausted City program," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    11. Jie Tang & Wenyue Cui, 2023. "Does urban agglomeration affect innovation convergence: evidence from China," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 563-578, May.
    12. Liu, Changqing & Li, Lei, 2021. "Place-based techno-industrial policy and innovation: Government responses to the information revolution in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    13. Bollen, Johan & Fox, Geoffrey & Singhal, Prashant Raj, 2011. "How and where the TeraGrid supercomputing infrastructure benefits science," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 114-121.
    14. Ge, Shuang & Liu, Xielin, 2022. "The role of knowledge creation, absorption and acquisition in determining national competitive advantage," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    15. Amitrajeet A. Batabyal & Peter Nijkamp, 2016. "Digital technologies, knowledge spillovers, innovation policies, and economic growth in a creative region," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5), pages 470-484, July.
    16. Majumdar, Sumit K, 1998. "Assessing Comparative Efficiency of the State-Owned Mixed and Private Sectors in Indian Industry," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 96(1-2), pages 1-24, July.
    17. Thiago Caliari & Márcia Siqueira Rapini & Tulio Chiarini, 2020. "Research infrastructures in less developed countries: the Brazilian case," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 122(1), pages 451-475, January.
    18. Fenghua Wen & Shan Yang & Daohan Huang, 2023. "Heterogeneous human capital, spatial spillovers and regional innovation: evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    19. Ruiyang Ma & Boqiang Lin, 2023. "Digital infrastructure construction drives green economic transformation: evidence from Chinese cities," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    20. J. Paul Elhorst, 2014. "Matlab Software for Spatial Panels," International Regional Science Review, , vol. 37(3), pages 389-405, July.
    21. Fatima, Samar & Desouza, Kevin C. & Dawson, Gregory S. & Denford, James S., 2022. "Interpreting national artificial intelligence plans: A screening approach for aspirations and reality," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 378-388.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pan, An & Cao, Xuekang, 2024. "Pilot free trade zones and low-carbon innovation: Evidence from listed companies in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    2. Xiyi Yang & Xiaoyu Zhou & Cong Cao, 2024. "Beamtimes and knowledge production times: how big-science research infrastructures shape nations’ domestic and international science production," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shunbin Zhong & Huafu Shen & Ziheng Niu & Yang Yu & Lin Pan & Yaojun Fan & Atif Jahanger, 2022. "Moving towards Environmental Sustainability: Can Digital Economy Reduce Environmental Degradation in China?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-23, November.
    2. Gao, Kang & Yuan, Yijun, 2022. "Government intervention, spillover effect and urban innovation performance: Empirical evidence from national innovative city pilot policy in China," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Can Zhang & Tengfei Liu & Jixia Li & Mengzhi Xu & Xu Li & Huachun Wang, 2023. "Economic Growth Target, Government Expenditure Behavior, and Cities’ Ecological Efficiency—Evidence from 284 Cities in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-30, January.
    4. Jun Wu & Tianyi Chen, 2022. "Impact of Digital Economy on Dual Circulation: An Empirical Analysis in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-15, November.
    5. Zhang, Zhengyong & Xu, Zefeng & Ding, Yi, 2023. "Do economic growth target constraints affect firm innovation?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 373-388.
    6. Wang, Lianghu & Shao, Jun, 2024. "The energy saving effects of digital infrastructure construction: Empirical evidence from Chinese industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    7. Mao, Wenfeng & Cai, Siyuan & Lu, Jun & Yang, Haotian, 2023. "What triggered China's urban debt risk? Snowball effect under the growth target constraint," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1-13.
    8. Cong Yu & Linke Hou & Yuxia Lyu & Qi Zhang, 2022. "Political competition, spatial interactions, and default risk of local government debts in China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(3), pages 717-743, June.
    9. Huang, Xiaoqi & Liu, Wei & Zhang, Zhan & Zou, Xinyu & Li, Pujuan, 2023. "Quantity or quality: Environmental legislation and corporate green innovations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PB).
    10. Shuoqi Chen & Longfei Ding & Yingbing Ni, 2024. "Government Employment Target Pressure and Labor Investment Efficiency in China: A Political Economy Perspective," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 11495-11532, September.
    11. Minjie Li & Mengjun Meng & Yihui Chen, 2024. "The impact of the digital economy on green innovation: the moderating role of fiscal decentralization," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 1-33, April.
    12. Yu, Yongze & Li, Ke & Duan, Shenglan & Song, Chenchen, 2023. "Economic growth and environmental pollution in China: New evidence from government work reports," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    13. Zhao, Mingxuan & Lv, Lianhong & Wu, Jing & Wang, Shen & Zhang, Nan & Bai, Zihan & Luo, Hong, 2022. "Total factor productivity of high coal-consuming industries and provincial coal consumption: Based on the dynamic spatial Durbin model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    14. Lingzhang Kong & Jinye Li, 2022. "Digital Economy Development and Green Economic Efficiency: Evidence from Province-Level Empirical Data in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-26, December.
    15. Zhenhua Chen & Kingsley Haynes, 2015. "Multilevel assessment of public transportation infrastructure: a spatial econometric computable general equilibrium approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 54(3), pages 663-685, May.
    16. Thiemo Fetzer & Samuel Marden, 2017. "Take What You Can: Property Rights, Contestability and Conflict," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(601), pages 757-783, May.
    17. Dreher, Axel & Fuchs, Andreas & Langlotz, Sarah, 2019. "The effects of foreign aid on refugee flows," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 127-147.
    18. Amuedo-Dorantes, Catalina & Arenas-Arroyo, Esther & Sevilla, Almudena, 2018. "Immigration enforcement and economic resources of children with likely unauthorized parents," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 63-78.
    19. Gerring, John & Thacker, Strom C. & Lu, Yuan & Huang, Wei, 2015. "Does Diversity Impair Human Development? A Multi-Level Test of the Diversity Debit Hypothesis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 166-188.
    20. Nikolov, Plamen & Adelman, Alan, 2019. "Do private household transfers to the elderly respond to public pension benefits? Evidence from rural China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:11:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-024-02850-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.