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The dynamics of the studies of China’s science, technology and innovation (STI): a bibliometric analysis of an emerging field

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Abstract

Since 1978, alongside China’s rise as a leading country in science, technology and innovation (STI), the studies of the country’s STI have been emerging as a field attracting increasing scholarly attention. Using the bibliometric method and the data from the Web of Science (WoS), this paper seeks to provide a comprehensive picture of the studies of China’s STI. The findings show that scholarly interests in China’s STI started in 1995 and have since developed rapidly; institutions in China, the U.S. and the U.K. are main contributors to the field, contributing 50%, 27.2% and 12% of the scholarship respectively, with Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences being three major institutional contributors. Seminal works have been focused on STI issues at the macro or national, meso or industrial and regional, and micro or organizational and firm levels. A possible agenda for further research is to develop new theories based on China’s practice paying specific attention to issues including R&D expenditure, S&T performance evaluation, regional innovation ecosystem, SOEs in innovation and the role of the Chinese Communist Party in innovation.

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Notes

  1. Most of the literature on China’s STI has been published in local journals in Chinese, which are not catalogued by SSCI/SCI that favors journals published in English (Van Leeuwen et al. 2001). These publications are excluded from the analysis.

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Acknowledgements

This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71922005 and 71774091), and Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program (XLYC1907068).

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  1. School of Economics and Management, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China

    Yutao Sun

  2. Faculty of Business, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China

    Cong Cao

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Sun, Y., Cao, C. The dynamics of the studies of China’s science, technology and innovation (STI): a bibliometric analysis of an emerging field. Scientometrics 124, 1335–1365 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03500-x

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