中国科技体制改革的逻辑:一个制度理论的框架

Over some 40 years, reform has brought fundamental changes to China's science, technology and innovation systems, gradually transforming the country into a powerhouse in technological innovation. The needs for the country's economic and social development, the conventions of the existing S&T system, and the learning of the international innovation experience have jointly driven this change. Meanwhile, institutional adaptation and institutional inconsistency have coexisted in the promotion of China' s national S&T and innovation endeavor. Using institution as the basic starting point, this paper attempts to establish a theoretical framework including institutional changes, institutional learning, institutional adaptation and institutional inconsistency. It then investigates institutional changes in the process of reforming S&T system and proposes the institutional universalism and particularism impacts the outcome of institutional learnings. As institution can be universalistic or particularistic, institutional learnings form new institutional arrangements through institutional changes while leading to institutional adaptation or institutional inconsistency. The universalistic institution can be integrated into the endogenous system to become a new institutional arrangement, which adapts to the needs of technological, economic and social development; the particularistic institution may be incompatible with the existing system's cognition, norms and rules, thus causing institutional conflicts and making the adaptation difficult. The logic of the reform of China's S&T system does lie in the adaptation and conflict between enterprises and the government and the tension between the integration into the world and the consciousness of indigenousness. On the one hand, the main task of China's S&T system reform is to integrate S&T with the economy. Institutional learning and institutional adaptation of the national innovation system require enterprises to be the main body of innovation, but this is institutionally inconsistent with government - led resource allocation and such a configuration will exist for a long time. Learning from OECD countries has accelerated the structural transformation of China's enterprise - centered innovation system, but the institutional inconsistency between government's overwhelming role and its ineffectiveness in resource allocation has oriented the R&D system toward experimental development. On the other hand, in the context of the country's opening - up strategy, learning from the internationalization of the innovation system of developed countries basically adapts to China' s institutional setting and development stage, while the country's indigenousness has not only always existed but also been on the rise, thus forming a long - term symbolic relationship between China's integration into the world and its indigenous consciousness. In summary, China has striven to build an enterprises - centered innovation system in which the government still takes the lead. China's government - led innovation system places more emphasis on experimental development, in contrast to OECD countries with an enterprise - centered innovation system are oriented to scientific research. In the context of globalization, China has emphasized indigenous innovation and value appreciation in its process of being actively integrated into the global production and value chain. China needs to tackle these dilemmas in deepening the reform of its S&T system.