Does Industrial Agglomeration Promote Regional Innovation Convergence in China? Evidence From High-Tech Industries

The literature examining the importance of industrial agglomeration in innovation performance has expanded greatly in recent years, but the impact of industrial agglomeration, especially high-tech industrial agglomeration on regional innovation convergence, has been neglected. Using quantitative data from 30 provinces in China pertaining to the period 2005–2016, in this article, we analyze regional innovation convergence by focusing on three different types of convergence: σ-convergence, absolute σ-convergence, and conditional β-convergence. On the basis of the spatial effects, this article empirically investigates the impact of high-tech industrial agglomeration on regional innovation convergence in China by using spatial econometric models. The empirical results show that there is significant spatial autocorrelation in regional innovation. Thus, in the assessment of regional innovation convergence, the spatial effects should not be neglected. Moreover, our results demonstrate that regional innovation exists three different types of convergence (i.e., σ-convergence, absolute β-convergence, and conditional β-convergence). In addition, high-tech industrial agglomeration can promote regional innovation convergence. Finally, the grouping of high-tech industries into five subindustries shows that industrial agglomeration has different effects on regional innovation convergence. Overall, our findings provide convincing empirical evidence of the relationship between the high-tech industrial agglomeration and regional innovation convergence and valuable insights into how to realize regional innovation convergence.