Effects of Government Innovation Support on the Innovation Ability of Universities: Evidence from the Quasi-Natural Experiment of China’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Pilot Demonstration Policy

Although there have been many studies on the factors influencing university innovation, few focused causal relationship between government innovative support and innovation ability of universities (IAU). To fill this research gap, based quasi-natural experiment perspective pilot policy entrepreneurship demonstration-bases (IEDB), study uses difference-in-differences spatial-autocorrelation model mediating-effect to influence mechanism IAU, Project 211’s panel data consisting 104 provinces ministries in China, from 2009 2018. The results showed that: (1) IEDB has a significantly positive effect its robustness is verified; (2) university–industry cooperation (UIC) intensity partial mediating IAU; (3) shows more significant impact IAU research-oriented than non-research-oriented universities.