State–Firm Relations in Knowledge Sourcing for Regional Innovation: The Rise of the Robotics Industry in Dongguan, China

Abstract:Amidst a wave of automation in the manufacturing sector in China and around the world, the robotics industry has gained strength in Dongguan as a locomotive for the industrial upgrading of this "world's factory." Informed by the scholarship of regional innovation systems in general, and the perspective of differentiated knowledge bases in particular, we examine in this article how the rise of Dongguan's robotics industry is mediated by the interplay of the state and firms during their involvement in various attempts within and across the city's boundaries to construct and combine the two knowledge bases required for robotics innovation, namely, analytical and synthetic ones. As our empirical analysis reveals, both the state and firms have initiated actions to enrich the knowledge bases, but neither of them dictates the knowledge dynamics of regional innovation. Rather, their actions are often informed by the interests of, or constrained by the responses from, the other party.