Network centrality, support organizations, exploratory innovation: Empirical analysis of China's integrated circuit industry

Exploratory innovation is critical to the breakthrough of core technologies in the integrated circuit (IC) industry, and cooperative innovation is a promising form of IC industry development. According to the viewpoint of social network, this paper constructs intercity networks of the IC industry by using a data set of cooperation patents from 2011 to 2020 in China. We uncover the evolution characteristics of the innovation networks, explore the relationship between network centrality and exploratory innovation in a city, and consider universities and development zones, named support organizations, as moderating variables. The results of the social network analysis (SNA) and dynamic panel system generalized method of moments model (System-GMM) are given as follows: Cities are increasingly inclined to collaborate with counterparts over time for innovation, but the overall network scale remains small. Beijing occupies core position in the networks. A cooperative innovation model driven by peripheral cities has been formed as the number of the peripheral cities has gradually increased. The network centrality of a city has a positive effect on its exploratory innovation. Both universities and development zones positively moderate the effect of network centrality on exploratory innovation. Based on the characteristics of the network, our study reveals the importance of taking the internal structure of the network and the node support environment into the same framework, which provides guidance for the innovative development of the world IC industry.