In the increasingly fierce market competition, the state of being and the prospects of an industry depend on the quality of its ecosystem, especially that of its innovation ecosystem. Then, how can we evaluate the innovation ecosystem of an industry? Here are the four criteria for judging the innovation ecosystem of an industry.

Competitiveness of Innovation Subjects

Enterprise clusters are the main body of industrial innovation and the integrator of the innovation elements and resources of an industry. The competitiveness of innovation subjects reflects the ability and potential of an industrial innovation ecosystem to provide products (or service) to the market more effectively than the others. It can be measured in the following two important aspects. One is the competitive strength, which is an indicator of the comparative advantage of the innovation subjects in meeting the needs of the market at present. Competitive strength can be classified into “hard strength” and “soft strength”. “Hard strength” mainly refers to the comparative advantage of the innovation subjects in the financial indexes such as per-capita output value, ROE, the rate of new product output, etc., while “soft strength” primarily refers to the influence of the innovation subjects, such as the voice in developing industrial standards, the brand attractiveness, and the market reputation, etc. We should focus on the core enterprises in an industrial innovation ecosystem when we evaluate the competitiveness of innovation subjects. The other is the competitive potential, which indicates the potential of the innovation subjects to sustainably meet the needs of the market in the future. It is a comprehensive embodiment of the potential of the production, technology, sales, product (or service) innovation, etc. Its comparative advantage is mainly manifested in the growth of some key indexes of the innovation subjects, such as per-capita output value, the transaction volume of technology transfer, market share, the variety and the output value of new products (or new service), etc. When we evaluate the competitive potential of innovation subjects, we should focus not only on the core enterprises, but also on the small and medium-sized enterprises.

Suitability of Innovative Environment

The suitability of innovative environment refers to how various environmental elements of the innovation ecosystem of an industry meet the requirements of an innovation subject. Here we hold that the innovative environment of an industry can be evaluated in the following two aspects. One is the attractiveness of the software environment. The software environment consists of innovation policies and regulations, science, technology and finance services, intellectual property services, and innovative culture, etc. The attractiveness of a software environment indicates how the above environmental elements meet the requirements of innovation subjects, and it is directly affected by the execution of innovation policies and regulations, the timeliness of the science, technology and finance services, the effectiveness of the intellectual property services, and the influence of the innovative culture, etc. The more high-level innovative professionals and high-qualified enterprises and research centers that lead the industrial development there are, the more attractive the software environment of the innovation ecosystem will be. The other aspect is the support of the hardware environment. Hardware environment is composed of innovation infrastructures (such as specialized laboratories, engineering and technology centers, libraries, etc.) and innovative carriers (such as technology parks, pioneer parks, incubators, etc.). The support of the hardware environment in an innovation ecosystem will be more powerful if the innovation infrastructures are lager in size, higher in level, and more efficiently in use. It will also be more powerful if there are more small and medium-sized enterprises included in the innovative carriers and if they grow faster and yield more successful cases.

Rationality of Innovation Input

Among the various elements of innovation input, innovation talents, science and technology organizations, and innovation funds draw the most attention. The rationality of innovation input reflects how reasonable the structure and the efficiency of the innovation input of an innovation ecosystem are. Here we put forward three criteria for measuring the rationality of innovation input. The first one is the rationality of innovation talents, such as scientists and technicians and other people engaged in science and technology. The rationality of innovation talents mainly refers to how they meet the requirements of innovation subjects both in number and in quality; the number and the quality of innovation talents are determined by the market. Therefore, the more the high-level scientists and technicians and the higher the percentage of scientists and technicians and other workers engaged in science and technology, the greater the rationality of the innovation talents in an industry. The second one is the specialization of science and technology institutions. The innovation of innovation subjects can’t do without the support from science and technology institutions. In an industrial innovation ecosystem, the more specialized the science and technology institutions are, the more specialized science and technology service and consultation they can provide to the innovation subjects, and the better achievements of the innovative activities. The third one is the effectiveness of innovation funds. The innovation funds of an industrial innovation ecosystem consist of government funds, enterprise funds, and flowed-in external funds. The more government funds, enterprise funds and flowed-in external funds are invested in the innovative activities being carried out by innovation subjects, the greater innovation power an industrial innovation ecosystem will have.

Health of Innovation Output

The quality of innovation output has a direct bearing on the existence and sustainable development of an industrial innovation ecosystem. The health of innovation output reflects how the innovation output meets the needs of socio-economic development and the science and technology development. There are two criteria for evaluating the health of innovation output of an industrial innovation ecosystem. One is social responsibility and contribution, which reflects how the innovation output meets the needs of socio-economic development. We can measure it in the following aspects: the number of employees, the amount of various taxes, energy saving and emission reduction, and environmental protection, etc. If an industrial innovation ecosystem has no sense of social responsibility or its social responsibility and contribution cannot meet the expectation of the socio-economic development, it has lost the socio-economic basis for its existence. The other is industrial innovation performance, which indicates how innovation output meets the needs of science and technology development. While evaluating the innovation performance of an industrial innovation ecosystem, we need to focus on the innovation performance of enterprises and the influence of the knowledge innovation of universities and professional research institutions. The more comparative advantage of the enterprises in an industrial innovation ecosystem over those in other innovation ecosystems of the same kind in terms of new products, new technology, etc., the better innovation performance of the enterprises. In addition, the more positive influence the knowledge innovation has on the innovation of enterprises in and out of the innovation ecosystem, the better the knowledge innovation performance of the innovation ecosystem is.

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This article originally appeared in Jiefang Daily on the following website: https://newspaper.jfdaily.com/jfrb/html/2016-01/14/content_165667.htm