Research on the Mechanism of Regional Innovation Network in Western China Based on ERGM: A Case Study of Chengdu-Chongqing Shuangcheng Economic Circle

Abstract

Innovation is the engine for the sustainable development of cities and regions, and an innovation perspective is used to study the collaborative innovation relationship between regional cities and the evolution mechanism of regional innovation network formation. Based on the social network analysis method and spatial analysis method, we explore the characteristics of the regional research cooperation network and its spatial pattern, as well as analyze the formation mechanism of the network using the exponential random graph model. The study finds that the scale of the regional innovation network is expanding, the overall network density is gradually increasing, but the nodes are loosely linked, and the regional innovation network is in the stage of deepening development. There is spatial heterogeneity in the regional innovation network, with a dumbbell-shaped distribution of “double-core dominance and central collapse”. During the formation of the regional innovation network, the endogenous structure of the innovation network is multi-connected under the path dependence, and the network development tends to be complicated; the economic strength and scientific research capability of cities and multi-dimensional proximity have a positive influence on the formation of the innovation network, and geographical proximity, social proximity and cognitive proximity can promote intra-regional innovation cooperation.