Research on the effects of regional R&D cooperation among enterprises, universities and research institutes on their innovation performance in China

Using cross-sectional data of 31 provinces in China, this paper empirically analyzes the effects of regional R&D cooperation among enterprises, universities and research institutes on their innovation performance, and examines the moderating role of organizational absorptive capacity. The result shows that: (1) The R&D cooperation of enterprises with research institutes has significant positive effects on their patent applications and output value of new products, while the cooperation with universities has significant negative impacts. In contrast, the R&D cooperation between universities and research institutes has positive influences on each other´s publications and patent applications; however, their R&D cooperation with enterprises has negative effects. (2) For enterprises and universities, the absorptive capacity significantly moderates the impact of R&D cooperation on their innovation performance; when the absorptive capacity is at a lower level, enterprises and universities would get more benefits from R&D cooperation. However, for research institutes, their absorption capacity has no significant moderating role on R&D cooperation and innovation performance. Finally, some policy implications are discussed.