Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity and Driving Force Analysis of Innovation Output in the Yangtze River Economic Zone: The Perspective of Innovation Ecosystem

The Yangtze River Economic Zone (YREZ) is a major corridor of national science and innovation culture, an innovation-driven region that fosters new drivers of growth and leads transformation and development, and plays an important strategic support and exemplary leading role in the overall pattern of regional development. This paper analyzes the spatiotemporal differentiation characteristics of innovation output of 110 cities of YREZ from 2008 to 2018 by using Gini coefficient, coefficient of variation (CV), geographical weighted regression, and other methods. The factors affecting innovation output are selected from the perspective of innovation ecosystem. The results show the following. (1) Innovation output showed an increasing trend, and the high-value concentration cities in downstream areas gradually became prominent, the geographical concentration degree fluctuated and declined, and the distribution of innovation output gradually became balanced. (2) The global Moran’s I index of innovation output shows a fluctuation pattern of “M” shape and an overall upward trend. The analysis of local spatial correlation indicates that spatial distribution pattern of innovation output has not changed significantly. (3) There is obvious regional heterogeneity under different impacts of factors of innovation ecosystem on innovation output. Enterprises have the greatest impact, followed by financial resources and infrastructure environment.