Regional Difference and Evolution and Convergence of Innovation Capability in China: Research on Space and Factorial Levels

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Nowadays, in China, there exist obvious regional economic differences. However, narrowing such differences involves solving the problem of regional innovation differences. Furthermore, regional innovation capability disparity is an important factor in explaining the imbalances between regional economic development and international economic development. Hence, the study first adopts the Theil index decomposition formula to analyze innovation difference and evolution law in China and its four regions during 1998–2013 from the perspective of high-tech industries. The study explains the reasons for the differences in regional innovation capability on the spatial and factorial levels. The study then analyzes the convergence of innovation capability on different space-scales by applying the spatial panel of the β convergence model. The analyses show that 2007 was the important inflection point in China’s regional innovation capability difference pattern; since then, the convergence speed of regional innovation capability has accelerated significantly.