International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 10, No. 4, November 2020 Research on Patent of Chinese Central Cities: From the Perspective of Cooperative Networks Yang Peng and Zhang Runqiang revolution and industrial change, the patent innovation Abstract—In the context of a new round of scientific and cooperation among central cities is becoming a significant technological revolution and industrial change, patent engine driving an economy to achieve innovative cooperation innovation between central cities has increasingly development, improve quality and efficiency as well as become an important path for central cities to obtain innovative resources and achieve innovative development. This paper transform and upgrade. As the world's largest developing takes 20 typical central cities in China as research objects, and country, China is in a critical period of transition from a studies its patent application, patent structure, patent high-growth stage to a high-quality development stage [6]. At input-output situation, and patent cooperation in central cities. present, at this critical period of transition in this stage of The study found that the patent application, structure, and economic development, how do the innovation merits of input-output situation of Chinese central cities showed typical China’s central cities perform? What are the internal regional imbalances, and that the regional imbalances were mechanisms and important characteristics of innovation significantly linked to the imbalances of patent cooperation in central cities of China. This paper considers that the research cooperation in Chinese central cities? Answering the above on the patent innovation performance of Chinese central cities questions has important guiding significance for improving based on cooperation networks is more reasonable. It also the innovation performance of the central city industry, provides important inspiration and reference for cross-regional enhancing the core competitiveness of the central city cooperation among innovation subjects. industry, and promoting the high-quality development of the Chinese economy. In addition, it can also provide an Index Terms—Central cities, patent innovation, China, cooperation network. important reference of patent innovation cooperation for central cities of other countries in the world. I. INTRODUCTION II. DATA AND METHODOLOGY The salient feature of the fourth industrial revolution is the extensive application of cyber physical systems in the A. Data manufacturing environment [1], whose basic background is The data in this article are mainly from the two databases the deep integration of intelligence and network systems [2]. of China Intellectual Property Network (CNIPR) and China It can be seen that the concept of "network" has become an National Intellectual Property Office Patent Search Platform important keyword for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. (SIPO). Some of the data are from China Statistical Yearbook With the rapid development of economic globalization and of Science and Technology and China Statistical Yearbook. regional integration, it has gradually formed a cooperation In addition, data retrieval is also a more specialized retrieval network with major countries or major cities and technology. Thus, this study is mainly based on fields such as multinational companies in each country as the main body patent number, application number, patentee, inventor, around the world. Besides, this cooperation network is more classification number, invention name, date, etc. reflected in the area of R&D so that some scholars call it "Global R&D Network" or "Global Innovation Network" as B. Methodology well [3], [4]. The formation and development of the global This paper mainly uses the social network analysis method innovation network is a response to the increasingly fierce to study the patent innovation cooperation network of competition in the global industrial development. The fierce Chinese central cities. Social network analysis (SNA) can competition in the global industry is more reflected in the scientifically analyze the correlation between subjects and competition among cities, such as the layout of industrial their related attributes. As a highly applicable research manufacturers, the joining of professional talents, and the method, it has attracted increasing attention. The social creation of an innovative environment [5]. The core focus of network analysis method was first proposed by Barnes competition among cities is the city's innovation ability; the (1954). The research of Freeman (1979), Scott (1988) and city's patent is also a direct reflection of the city's innovation Wasserman (1993) further enriched the concepts and performance. In the context of a new round of technological methods of social network analysis [7]-[10]. It has been widely used in related fields, such as inter-organizational Manuscript received December 24, 2019; revised May 2, 2020. This work relations (Noel, 1979), political and social fields (Knoke, was supported in part by the National Social Science Fund of China for the 1990), and engineering project alliance (Stephen, 2004), etc. western project "Experiential Study of Economic and Social Development in [11]-[13]. Social network analysis is based on the premise of Southwest Ethnic Regions and Its Mechanism"(Item number: 11XMZ058). Yang Peng is with the Regional Institute of Guangxi Academy of Social the interconnectedness and interaction of determinable social Sciences, Guangxi 530022 CHN, China (e-mail: [email protected]). relationships. It is considered that the world is composed of Zhang Runqiang is with the Business School of Wenzhou University in networks rather than groups. The main tools are Ucinet, Zhejiang, Zhejiang 325035 Chn, China (e-mail: [email protected]). doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2020.10.4.1024 108 International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 10, No. 4, November 2020 Netdraw, AUREKA, etc., and Ucinet is the most commonly related to the industrial structure in the area. used and objective analysis tool for the analysis of the From the perspective of specific central cities, the number relationship between social networks. Therefore, this article of patent applications in Shenzhen has grown the fastest. By mainly uses Ucinet software for social network analysis, and 2018, the number of patent applications in Shenzhen has far uses Netdraw for visualization analysis of patent innovation surpassed Beijing and has become the city with the largest cooperation in central cities. number of patent applications, which also indicates that Shenzhen has become the core innovation city in China. In C. Study Sample Cities addition, the number of patent applications in Beijing and The subjects of this study are Chinese central cities. The Shanghai still maintains the top three among the central cities, central cities are generally considered to be large cities and showing the three regional innovation poles of Beijing, mega-cities that have a comprehensive function or multiple Shanghai and Shenzhen in geographical space. The patent leading functions and play a pivotal role in a certain area and applications in Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Guangzhou in the in the national economic and social activities. This paper eastern China and the southern China showed an increasing systematically studies 4 municipalities, 15 sub-provincial trend, and gradually evolved into new innovation centers cities and one key city which are especially focused on, after Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. However, it is namely Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Tianjin, Harbin, regrettable that the number of patent applications in Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, Dalian, Jinan, Qingdao, Nanjing, Changchun, Dalian, Shenyang in Northeast China, and Hangzhou, Ningbo, Xiamen, Xi'an, Wuhan, Chengdu, Qingdao and Xiamen in eastern China and southern China is Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Changsha. In 2018, the relatively small, which have gradually evolved into marginal cumulative GDP of the above 20 urban areas reached 28.79 cities of innovation. The reasons for this are worth pondering. trillion yuan (RMB), accounting for 31.98% of Chinese GDP. Studying the above-mentioned central cities has important typicality and representativeness. III. RESULT This article studies the internal mechanism of the patent innovation cooperation network of Chinese central cities from the aspects of the status of patent applications in the center cities, the structure of patent applications in the center cities, the comparison of patent output and R&D investment, and the patent cooperation networks of Chinese center cities. A. Research on the Status of Patent Application in Chinese Central Cities First, the number of patent applications in Chinese central Note: This chart is based on the patent applications (units) of Chinese central cities and their internal evolution are studied. According to cities in 2000, 2010 and 2018. Different colors represent different regions in Fig. 1, it can be seen that the number of patent applications China. The data comes from the State Intellectual Property Office of China. and the internal evolution law of Chinese central cities show Fig. 1. Comparison of the number and ranking of patent applications in Chinese central cities. the characteristics of an increasing number of patent applications but a gradually steady trend of dynamic ranking changes. In terms of the number of patent applications, the B. Comparative Study of Patent Application Structure in number of