There is considerable interest among policy-makers and academics regarding other potential arrangements to encourage the innovative activities of firms. This study aims to investigate whether R&D investments promote or impede the enhancement of patent innovation efficiency in China, and also to reveal the spatial patterns of patent innovation and its regional interdependencies and evolution, as well as its role in determining the effects of local innovation in China. The spatial autoregressive model is used to examine the effects of patent innovation efficiency. Results show that geographical proximity matters in the interregional flow of knowledge and technology; moreover, innovation in a region depends on its own R&D efforts, its innovative tradition and its e activities has demonstrated that policies enhancing ional R&D activities are probably to get a richer effectiveness on stimulating patent innovation
