Does University-industry innovation community affect firms’ inventions? The mediating role of technology transfer

The university-industry (U-I) innovation community is a boundary-bounded group wherein universities and firms have long-term collaborations and engage in the technology transfer. The increasing community-innovation phenomenon in university–industry collaboration (UIC) is considered crucial in facilitating universities’ technology transfer, thus improving member firms’ invention output. Most studies examine UIC from the perspective of network or dyadic relationships, paying less attention to the community level, preventing a thorough understanding of the structure and dynamics of U-I innovation communities. Moreover, much remains to be understood about the role of U-I innovation community dynamics in promoting member firms’ invention performance. This study maps the U-I innovation community using network community identification based on innovation community theory and social network analysis and investigates the role of U-I innovation community dynamics in the invention productivity of member firms. Using U-I co-patenting data from the China National Intellectual Property Administration between 2000 and 2017, we find that a moderate turnover rate among U-I innovation community members can enhance the invention performance of member firms. We also find that the scale of university technology transfer within the community mediates the relationship between community dynamics and firms’ invention performance. This study expands our understanding of the U-I innovation community and sheds new light on its stakeholders.