Does science–industry cooperation policy enhance corporate innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed firms

We examine science–industry collaborations by identifying how academician workstations – joint platforms by listed firms and academicians under provincial governments – influence corporate innovation. We discover that academician workstations (i) significantly increase firms’ innovation input, quality and efficiency, even after controlling for endogeneity issues; (ii) primarily promote corporate innovation by attracting more talented human capital rather than through funding support; and (iii) are even more significant among state-owned companies and large companies. These results indicate that government policies on bridging the gap between star scientists and firms could be an important non-financial incentive to partially explain China’s rapidly growing capacity for innovation.