Do International Technological Spillovers Facilitate Regional Innovation Performance in China? Evidence from the Provincial Panel Data

Based on the provincial panel data put forward by National Bureau of Statistics of China, over the period 2000-2006, this paper empirically investigates the impacts of different channels for international technological spillovers on regional innovation performance, using regional innovation performance as dependent variable, and the channels for international technological spillovers as independent variables. The empirical results in this paper indicate that learning-by-exporting and learning-by-importing have positive effects on regional innovation performance in China, and that foreign R&D activities by multinational enterprises in China have positive and statistically significant effects on regional innovation performance. In addition, absorptive capability is an important driving factor for increasing the regional innovation performance in China. Research results indicate that both international technological spillover sources and indigenous efforts, including domestic R&D intensity and absorptive capacity jointly determine the regional innovation performance in China.