Innovative talent agglomeration, spatial spillover effects and regional innovation performance—Analyzing the threshold effect of government support

Abstract

As the primary source of innovation in science and technology, the gathering of creative talent plays a significant role in fostering regional innovation and providing the impetus needed to realize the Chinese people’s aspiration of a great national rejuvenation. Using panel data from 31 provinces over a 12-year period between 2009 and 2020, the spatial Durbin model is constructed to examine the spatial spillover impact of talent agglomeration on the advancement of regional innovation performance, and the panel threshold model is identified and set up to consider whether the nonlinear effect between talent agglomeration and regional achievements in innovation is significant. The analysis demonstrates that: talent pooling has a non-linear effect on the level of innovation performance development, within a certain scale, talent pooling produces an increasing marginal contribution to innovation performance, but after exceeding the limit, it produces a diminishing marginal contribution; the double threshold effect of talent pooling on regional innovation performance is more significant, and government support as a moderating variable confirms that there is a structural mutation between talent pooling and innovation capability. The structural mutation, within a certain threshold range, plays the role of efficient promotion, providing reference for improving regional innovation level.