Performance Evaluation of Chinese Regional Innovation Systems Based on Data Envelopment Analysis

Innovation systems can be defined in a variety of ways: they can be national, regional, sectoral, or technological. Among these definitions, the concept of regional innovation system (RIS) has recently become popular among academics of various disciplines and has evolved into a widely used analytical framework that generates the empirical foundation for innovation policy making. Since participants in a region share a common culture, history, and political and social institutions, which serve to foster interactions among participants in the region, it is helpful to research innovation system from the standpoint of regions. In this paper, effort is made to have an overall view of RIS of different Chinese provinces and to analyze their innovative efficiency. Firstly, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is introduced and employed as a quantitative method to compare the RIS efficiency of 30 Chinese provinces. Then setting up an index system and collecting data from statistical yearbooks (2000-2003), the paper analyzes the inputs and outputs situation of the provinces and gets the efficiency scores of all provinces mentioned above. Furthermore, it evaluates the efficiency performance of the sample provinces. Finally, this paper concludes with a brief summary of the main findings