1. Introduction
On October 18, 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “China’s economy has shifted from a stage of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development”. The report of the 20th National Congress further proposed that “high-quality development is the primary task of building a socialist modernized country”. High-quality development can meet the growing needs of the people for a better life, it reflects the new development concept, which makes innovation the first driving force, coordination the endogenous characteristic, green the universal form, openness the inevitable way, and sharing the fundamental purpose. High-quality economic development is a stage-based breakthrough that takes place after economic development reaches a certain scale, it is a model that balances stability and health, it pursues economic growth while taking into account characteristics such as green, coordinated, and sustainable development in all aspects, it also aims to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, making all people live happier and more fulfilling lives. High-quality economic development requires transformations from pursuing quantity to focusing on quality, from expanding scale to optimizing structure, and from factor-driven to innovation-driven. High-quality economic development mainly covers the following contents: (1) stable and sustained economic growth; (2) improved efficiency and quality of economic development; (3) industrial upgrading and optimization of industrial structure; (4) green economic development.
High-quality economic development model is driven by innovation, pursuing high quality and high efficiency, that is, to promote changes in economic development quality and power with innovation. Innovation is the process of combining knowledge elements with production elements, applying scientific and technological research to production practice, and improving social productivity. Innovation generally involves workers proposing improvements or new methods for production technology or management level, or high-level intellectuals proposing unprecedented important theories in some fields. Technological innovation can bring qualitative improvement to productivity, while theoretical innovation serves the technological level and provides guidance for technological breakthroughs, ultimately increasing social labor productivity and promoting rapid economic development. Innovation is an important driving force for high-quality economic development. In the initial stage of high-quality economic development, it is more necessary to lead economic power change, efficiency change, and quality change through innovation. Innovation can improve the combination of factors, increase the efficiency of resource allocation and utilization, and promote sustained and stable economic growth. Innovation can enhance the effects of various factors, improve productivity, and benefit the quality of economic development. Innovation can also develop new technologies, new services and products to achieve industrial upgrading and structural transformation. Innovation can achieve resource conservation and industrial greening, which promote the transformation of the development model from a high-emission, high-pollution model to a circular and environmentally friendly model.
In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, Fujian Province, as one of the frontier areas of this policy, has gradually strengthened its economic power and become one of the most economically dynamic provinces in China. From the perspective of high-quality development, Fujian Province ranks among the top in the country in terms of economic strength, green development, and other aspects, but it also faces some problems such as insufficient technological innovation, slow industrial upgrading, and large regional disparities. These development characteristics have certain universality and typicality in the country, therefore, an in-depth study of the high-quality economic development, especially researching the impact of innovation-driven high-quality development in Fujian Province, has an important practical significance for other provinces and cities in China.
This paper uses the relevant data of nine prefecture-level cities in Fujian Province from 2011 to 2020, constructs an evaluation index system, applies the entropy method to quantitatively measure the level of innovation and high-quality economic development in Fujian Province, and explores the regional development differences among the cities. Based on the theoretical derivation of the impact mechanism, this paper uses the grey correlation method to explore the relationship between innovation and high-quality economic development in Fujian Province. The analysis of this paper aims to provide theoretical guidance and tailored policy recommendations for Fujian Province, which could improve the level of innovation, promote high-quality economic development, and form an innovation-driven model.
There are three marginal contributions of this article: firstly, based on the theoretical research of development economics and combined with the economic development situation of Fujian Province, this paper constructs an index system of high-quality economic development from five dimensions: economic, green, shared, coordinated, and livelihood, then selects 15 secondary indicators for specific measurement. Secondly, according to the development of innovation in nine cities in Fujian Province, this paper divides innovation capabilities into two primary indicators: innovation input and output, and divides these two primary indicators into 5 secondary indicators, providing a comprehensive measurement to analyze innovation capability. Thirdly, by using the grey correlation analysis method, this paper calculates the grey correlation degree value between innovation and high-quality economic development in Fujian Province, and evaluates the impact of each subsystem.
The remainder of the article is organized as follows: the second section reviews the existing literature; the third section conducts stylized facts analysis of high-quality economic development and innovation in Fujian Province; the fourth section constructs evaluation systems of the two key factors; the fifth section carries out an empirical analysis; and the last section summarizes the conclusions and puts forward corresponding policy suggestions.
2. Literature review
Since the reform and opening-up policy, China’s economy has experienced rapid development for decades, however, problems have also emerged, such as the decline of the demographic dividend, the large gap in income distribution, and the loss of growth momentum [
1,
2]. In this context, the government has proposed to change the economic development model and implement a high-quality development strategy, shifting the development focus from total growth to structural adjustment [
3,
4,
5]. Consequently, the issue of high-quality economic development has become a hot topic in the academic field [
6,
7]. Scholars have conducted research primarily from two aspects: the connotation of high-quality economic development, and the comprehensive evaluation methods of high-quality economic development. The interpretation of the connotation is built upon the earlier research on the quality of economic growth, Thomas [
8] pointed out that the quality of economic growth should also cover aspects such as welfare distribution, ecological environment, risk resistance, and governance, Barro [
9] included broader factors like life expectancy, environment conditions, political system, and religious beliefs. Scholars unanimously agree that the connotation of high-quality economic development is more abundant, including not only economic factors, but also other aspects of society [
10,
11,
12], it can be summarized as lower costs, higher levels, and more sustainable development which is greener and more coordinated [
13].
In terms of the quantitative measurement of high-quality economic development, some scholars use single indicators, such as per capita GDP, green total factor productivity, Solow residual, and contribution of technological progress to economic growth, etc. [
14,
15]. These literature has laid the foundation for subsequent research on high-quality economic development, but a single indicator could only reflect one aspect of economic development, and cannot fully reflect the connotation of high-quality development. Therefore, an increasing number of scholars have begun to pay attention to multiple indicators, measuring from different aspects. Chao et al. [
16] constructed an indicator evaluation system for the economic development quality from the aspects of economic model, resource sharing, and green environment; Yang [
15] constructed an evaluation index system based on the five development concepts: innovation, coordinate, green, open and sharing; Nie and Jian [
17] evaluate the high-quality development level of provincial regions from product and service quality, economic benefits, social benefits, ecological benefits, and economic operation status. With the gradual implementation of the new development concept, the key foundations for China’s high-quality economic development are innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing [
18], Li and Wang [
19] used the five development concepts as important evaluation dimensions for economic development, and compared the high-quality development of Jiangsu Province with several other provinces; Kong et al. [
20] also used a similar system to evaluate the high-quality development of cities along the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It is worth mentioning that most literature used the entropy value method or entropy weight TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution) method in the evaluation.
As one of the main driving forces of economic growth, innovation has received much attention from economists [
21,
22]. Gibson et al. [
23] found that innovation is the main driving force to enhance regional competitiveness and promote regional economic development. Jalles [
24] found a positive correlation between innovation-driven and various factor productivity of production units. In terms of the measurement indicators of innovation, some scholars used a single direct or indirect indicator to evaluate innovation [
25], such as Freeman et al. [
26] selected the index of STI (Science, Technolgy, and Innovation), Klomp et al. [
27] chose the input and output of innovation, and Leten [
28] used the number of new products as the evaluation indicator to study innovation. Grupp et al. [
29] suggested using a comprehensive evaluation method to measure innovation, while Zhao et al. [
30] selected five dimensions of innovation input, potential, environment, output, and contribution, Hua and Hu [
31] chose five dimensions of R&D investment, scientific and technological achievements, talent reserves, technology diffusion, and achievement transformation. In terms of research methods, Zhang et al. [
32] used the grey correlation analysis method, Objective weighting and cluster analysis, Zhang [
33] adopted the AHP entropy weight method to conduct empirical research on China’s technological innovation capabilities.
In terms of the correlation between high-quality economic development and innovation, scholars believe that innovation can promote high-quality economic development [
34], especially the progress of core technological innovation [
35], innovation is not considered as one of the main driving forces of economic growth [
36,
37,
38], but also the key driver of high-quality economic development. In empirical research, Chen and Zhuansun [
39] found there is a coupling coordination relationship between innovation and high-quality economic development; Wang et al. [
40] used the network WSBM (Weighted Stochastic Block Model) method to calculate the performance level of innovation-driven high-quality economic development in China; Xiao [
41] constructed an index system based on data from 30 provinces in mainland China, and found that there is a mutually reinforcing effect between innovation and high-quality economic development; Ran [
42] found that innovation capability represented by technological complexity can significantly promote regional high-quality economic development. Xiao et al. [
43] analyzed the relationship between the Economic Development Quality Index (EDQI) and the Innovation-Driven Index (IDI) using the entropy method, and the results showed that China’s innovation-driven strategy has played an important role in the quality of economic development.
Through literature review, it could be found that high-quality economic development is a pattern of economic development, which includes multiple influencing factors. There is no unified standard for evaluation system, but the method based on multiple major concepts is more common. Various researches have proved the strong correlation between China’s innovation and high-quality economic development, but most of the current research objects are concentrated at the national level, provincial level, or regional level of China, and there is still a lack of research on specific provinces. Therefore, this paper uses the entropy method and grey correlation analysis, which are commonly used, to study the regional and correlational characteristics of innovation and high-quality economic development in nine prefecture-level cities in Fujian Province, aiming to provide theoretical guidance and policy recommendations for better development.
3. Stylized facts of high-quality economic development and innovation in Fujian Province
3.1. The situation of high-quality economic development in Fujian Province
In recent years, the overall economic growth trend of Fujian Province has changed, it has entered a stable growth stage, which is a prerequisite for achieving high-quality economic development. During 2011-2020, the real GDP growth rate of Fujian Province had changed in magnitude, but overall maintained stable growth. The real GDP growth rate of Fujian Province was relatively high from 2011 to 2014, while it changed little and was relatively stable from 2015 to 2019, and affected by the epidemic, the real GDP growth rate in 2020 was relatively low.
Figure 1.
The actual GDP growth rate (%) of Fujian Province. Data source: compiled according to the "Statistical Yearbook of Fujian Province", and it will be the same in the following context.
Figure 1.
The actual GDP growth rate (%) of Fujian Province. Data source: compiled according to the "Statistical Yearbook of Fujian Province", and it will be the same in the following context.
With the stable growth of the overall economy, the proportion of various industries in Fujian Province has also changed accordingly. As shown in
Table 1, during 2011-2020, the industrial transformation of Fujian Province has changed significantly, the proportion of the primary and secondary industries has gradually decreased, while the proportion of the tertiary industry has gradually increased, indicating that the composition and structure of economic development in Fujian Province has been significantly optimized.
During 2011-2020, the per capita disposable income of Fujian Province increased steadily, compared with 2011, the per capita disposable income of Fujian Province residents had doubled by 2020. This shows that during the transformation of the development model, economic growth has increased people’s economic income, improved people’s living standards, and brought tangible and reliable benefits to the people.
Figure 2.
Per capita disposable income (yuan) of Fujian Province Residents.
Figure 2.
Per capita disposable income (yuan) of Fujian Province Residents.
3.2. The situation of high-quality economic development in various prefecture-level cities
High-quality economic development no longer only takes aspects related to quantity, such as economic growth rate and scale, as the main basis for consideration, but also pays more attention to the improvement of economic development quality. In the process of high-quality development, it is necessary to give more priority to developing areas related to people’s happy life. Due to the different focus, the economic growth rate at this time will not be faster than before, but the quality of people’s lives will be effectively improved. As can be seen from
Figure 3 to
Figure 5, the GDP of cities in Fujian Province has increased significantly in 2020, although the GDP growth rate declined, factors related to people’s happy life, such as per capita disposable income and green coverage area, have been vigorously developed.
In addition, it can be preliminarily seen from the figures that there are significant regional differences among the nine cities in Fujian Province. The economic development of Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Quanzhou is better, and their quality of economic development is far better than that of other cities. Therefore, it can be inferred that the basis for high-quality economic development is a certain level of the economic development of a city, when people’s lives are rich and material conditions are sufficient, it is easier to drive the economy towards high-quality development.
Figure 3.
GDP(trillion yuan) and growth rate(%) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 3.
GDP(trillion yuan) and growth rate(%) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 4.
Per capita disposable income (thousand yuan) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 4.
Per capita disposable income (thousand yuan) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 5.
Green coverage area (thousand hectares) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 5.
Green coverage area (thousand hectares) of cities in Fujian Province.
3.3. The overall situation of innovation development in Fujian Province
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the government has attached great importance to scientific and technological innovation, adhered to innovation at the first driving force for development, and placed innovation as the core of the development strategy. In this context, Fujian Province has always attached great importance to innovation. From 2011 to 2020, Fujian Province’s investment in innovation has gradually increased, the number of related practitioners has also increased significantly, indicating that Fujian Province has achieved remarkable results in attracting, retaining and utilizing talents. As can be seen from
Table 2, in 2020, Fujian Province’s local fiscal expenditure on science and technology was 3.7 times that of 2011, R&D internal expenditure was 3.8 times that of 2011, and the number of R&D personnel was 2.1 times that of 2011. The increase in innovation input also brought rich results of scientific and technological progress, table 3 shows that patent applications, technology market turnover, and sales revenue of new products of industrial enterprises above designated size have all achieved large-scale increases.
3.4. The situation of innovation development in various prefecture-level cities
Similar to the differences in economic development among various prefecture-level cities in Fujian Province, the degree of innovation development in various cities also significantly differs. Generally speaking, cities with better economic development, such as Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Quanzhou, have more funds invested in scientific and technological innovation, and the results achieved are also more significant. While cities with average economic development level, such as Sanming, Longyan, and Ningde, do not invest as much funds as developed cities, the proportion of innovation funds in GDP is gradually increasing. It can be seen that although the economic development level of each city in Fujian Province is different, they are all giving priority to developing science and technology and increasing investment, striving to narrow the development gap, and stimulate regional economic development vitality.
Figure 6.
R&D expenditure (thousand yuan) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 6.
R&D expenditure (thousand yuan) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 7.
Proportion of R&D expenditure (%) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 7.
Proportion of R&D expenditure (%) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 8.
Number of patent applications (thousand) of cities in Fujian Province.
Figure 8.
Number of patent applications (thousand) of cities in Fujian Province.
To sum up, Fujian Province’s economic development quality has gradually improved from 2011 to 2020, the financial support for innovation investment has increased year by year, and the results of innovation have also improved. However, the relationship between the two systems cannot be judged by simple data alone. Based on the connotation of high-quality economic development and innovation, this paper will establish an evaluation system by combining the data collected from 9 prefecture-level cities in Fujian Province, then use the entropy method and gray correlation method to analyze their correlation.
6. Conclusions and recommendations
6.1. Conclusions
Through literature review, this paper finds that there is relatively insufficient research on the relationship between economic high-quality development and innovation in provincial prefecture-level cities, especially in Fujian Province, which is an important economic province. Its characteristics of unbalanced regional development and lagging innovation are common in China, so the internal regional research of its prefecture-level cities will have typical social practice value and research significance for the analysis under the provincial perspective. Based on defining the connotation of economic high-quality development and innovation, as well as combined with the available data of Fujian Province, this paper analyzes the overall and regional development status, and finds that Fujian Province’s economic development model is in the process of transformation and restructuring. In this process, Fujian Province continuously strengthens the input of scientific and technological innovation.
This paper also constructs an evaluation index system of economic high-quality development and scientific and technological development level in Fujian Province, calculates the index weights and comprehensive scores by using the entropy method, and finds that from 2011 to 2020, although the innovation and economic high-quality development levels of various cities in Fujian Province have increased year by year, the situtation of various cities are uneven, and there is still a large gap. Among them, Quanzhou, Fuzhou, and Xiamen are far ahead in terms of development level. By using the grey correlation analysis method to calculate the correlation degree value, the results show that the correlation degree between the two is relatively high. Among the primary indicators of economic high-quality development influenced by innovation, the correlation degree is from high to low as follows: economy, coordination, green, sharing, and livelihood.
6.2. Recommendations
According to the empirical analysis results, at the level of innovation indicators, patent applications have the highest weight proportion, which shows that this indicator has the greatest impact on innovation capability. Therefore, cities can promote the improvement of innovation capability by strengthing intellectual property protection, optimizing the application progress, and raise the awareness of patent applicantion. At the level of economic high-quality development, indicators such as permanent population number, foreign trade direct investment amount, green coverage area, etc. have a high proportion of weight. Therefore, cities can adjust policies such as housing prices to encourage immigrants to settle down, actively introduce foreign investment, protect the environment while doing a good job in greening work, and improve their high-quality development level.
Generally speaking, there are differences in the development speed of various cities in Fujian Province, the indicators of cities with relatively high development level are far higher than those of backward cities. The unbalanced development leads to uneven economic high-quality level and different happiness index of residents’ lives in various cities. To this end, the government should increase its support for backward mountainous cities such as Nanping, Sanming, and Putian, encourage these cities to give priority to infrastructure development, encourage financial support for scientific and technological innovation input, promote efficiency reform, power reform and quality reform process of backward cities through regional coordinated development policies such as joint investment promotion, cooperative development, R&D sharing, etc. For medium-developed prefecture-level cities such as Zhangzhou, although their economic high-quality development level and innovation capability are not as good as developed cities, they also have development potential. Policies should guide these cities to increase financial support for innovation input and strive to narrow the gap with developed cities. For developed cities such as Quanzhou, Fuzhou, and Xiamen, although their economic high-quality development level and innovation capability are already at the forefront, there is still a gap between them and domestic advanced cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, etc. They should give full play to their geographical advantages of overlapping five regions (Fujian Free Trade Pilot Zone, Fuzhou New Area, “Maritime Silk Road” Core Area, National Ecological Civilization Experimental Zone, National Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone), actively innovate policies, provide more policy support for innovation, further improve their innovation capability, and comprehensively lead Fujian Province to achieve economic high-quality development.