University-industry linkages, regional entrepreneurship and economic growth: evidence from China

The role of universities, as the cradle for talents and knowledge development, has long been neglected by scholars, especially in emerging economies. In addition, the roles of startups and incumbents, as a channel through which the knowledge could contribute to the economic growth in transition economies, have not been well-explained in extant literature. This paper aims to fill these theoretical and practical gaps by examining the effects of university-industry linkages (including university technology transfer (UTT) and university-industry collaboration (UIC)) and enterprises’ activities (including startups and incumbent competitiveness (IC)) on economic growth in China. Our empirical analysis is based on Chinese provincial panel data from 2003 to 2015. Unlike findings from developed countries, we found that UTT is negatively associated with economic growth in fixed effect and ordinary least squares (OLS), whereas UIC shows no significant impact in fixed-effect but a significant positive effect in OLS. Startups and IC both affect economic growth positively, whereas IC has a greater effect on both estimations. The effects of university-industry linkages and entrepreneurship on economic growth before and after the 2008 financial crisis show heterogeneity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the final section.