Against the new wave of technological revolution and the new pattern of global competition, it is critical to accelerate the construction of high-energy global S&T innovation centers.The rise, replacement, and multi-polarization of global S&T innovation centers are the products of economic long waves, institutional innovation, and technological change interwoven in the spatial-temporal environment.The construction of a global S&T innovation center is a systematic project.The S&T innovation center formed by different driving subjects and coupling of condition elements is very different in growth path and energy level.Existing research has initially answered "what made Silicon Valley", which has inspired academic attention to more complex and systematic open innovation ecosystems.However, there is a lack of research on laws that reveal objectivity, inevitability, stability, and repeatability.
In this regard, this study carries out in-depth research in three aspects from the theoretical perspective of innovation ecosystem and complexity emergence : first, the necessary order and bottleneck level of preconditions for global S&T innovation centers are empirically verified; then a qualitative comparison is made between the configuration evolution path of global S&T innovation centers.finally, combined with innovation theory, the study further refines the evolution mechanism of the energy level advancement of global S&T innovation centers, providing theoretical guidance and experience reference for the construction of China′s different levels of S&T innovation centers.
A configuration model is refined to explain the configuration differences of global S&T innovation centers at different energy levels.There are 96 influential global S&T innovation centers selected as case samples, and by the NCA and fsQCA methods, it is found that there are universal configuration rules and common evolution mechanisms in the global S&T innovation centers: the energy level upgrade needs to be in the necessary order of preconditions and reach the corresponding level, 30%, 40%, 50%, and 80% of the innovation energy levels require 7% of the innovation environment conditions, 1.7% of the talent agglomeration conditions, 0.7% of the basic research conditions, and 27.6% of the innovation industry conditions, respectively.There is no bottleneck level for government-driven conditions, which runs through all fields and processes of global S&T innovation center construction; the identified high-energy dominant scene-driven industry-research integration paths and hub-type scene-supporting innovation paths, government-driven scene-creation paths, knowledge-source innovation paths, talent-aggregation knowledge innovation paths, identified non-high-energy potential government-strong-led paths and node-type government-support talent highland construction paths, and innovation cultivation paths are from both positive and negative sides and they verify that the closed loop of "technology-industry-technology" path combination is the key symbol for building a high-energy global S&T innovation center; the eight key paths corresponding to the four energy level configurations reveal the evolution mechanism of single-factor dominant driving, dual-factor balanced driving, and multi-factor symbiotic driving for the energy level advancement of S&T innovation centers.
This research has important policy implications for the systematic and global construction of high-energy global S&T innovation centers in China.Foremost, it is essential to improve the top-level design of the system, highlight the foresight and breakthrough of the layout, establish a national innovation system with the S&T innovation center as the core carrier, clarify and sort out the S&T innovation management system, coordinate the construction of national S&T innovation centers, and jointly formulate the "three-step" plan for the energy level advancement of local S&T innovation centers in 2025, 2030 and 2035.Then, in order to activate regional innovation ecosystems, the government should coordinate and promote the construction of global S&T innovation centers at different levels in different regions, carry out S&T innovation center cultivation work based on their own geographical advantages, and achieve industrial base advancement and industrial chain modernization by embedding into the global value chain.Last but not least, it is significant to optimize the configuration structure of elements, continuously create an innovative environment, establish a stable government investment mechanism for basic research and high-precision talent recruitment, release the cumulative effect of knowledge and intellectual capital to form disruptive innovation emergence diffusion, and promote the development of strategic emerging industry integration clusters.