The influence of enterprise-university-research institute collaboration on innovation: Empirical study on new energy industry in China

The recent 12^th Five-year Plan of China has given a strong focus and support on developing the energy industry in China. As an emerging industry, the new energy firms seem to encounter fewer constraints than those of conventional industries, their dominant position in the enterprise-university-research institute collaboration innovation is not yet clearly known. This paper, based on a survey and later seminars to new energy firms in Zhejiang province, China, explores the new energy firms´ position in enterprise-university-research institute collaboration innovation. It carries out principle components analysis and categorizes the new energy firms´ main body innovation positions into three types. The statistical analysis shows that different types of firms as main body reveal different influence on innovation within the enterprise-university-research institute collaboration network. The paper further takes the successful Geely Automobiles as a case to summarize the firm-leading enterprise-university-research institute collaboration pattern and strategy for firms in the new energy industry.