Unfolding policies for innovation intermediaries in China: A discourse network analysis

Abstract

China initiated the innovation intermediaries’ policies as early as the reform of the science and technology regime in the 1980s, but it is still difficult to figure out how these policies worked. Incubator policies are employed to test this hypothesis, while articles in People’s Daily (1995–2014) are used to explore the interactive mechanism between central and local government in the context of policy experimentation and tournament system. Behind all continuity and discontinuity, it is found that the invitation-oriented idea is never changed, and the incubators are framed to be the panacea to achieve similar economic output when falling behind even with the input of the same policies. The problem roots deeply in the diffusion of ‘model experience’ advocated by the central government, where the conduct and creativity of local governments are so profoundly shaped or even constrained during the benchmarking, that it is forgotten that adjustments must be made for local conditions.