Abstract:

Innovation is an important research topic of agricultural cluster at present. However, existing research on agricultural industry cluster has focused on the evolution mechanism, innovation models and competitiveness of such clusters and studies on innovation efficiency of agricultural clusters are relatively few. Exploring the key influencing factors of innovation will play an important role in guiding the development of agricultural clusters. Innovation of agricultural industry cluster is often reflected in product innovation and benefit, mainly through investment in scientific research, developing innovation networks, among others. The two-phase DEA-Tobit model has been used to analyze efficiency and influencing factors of multiple inputs and outputs for national, regional, and agricultural innovation systems and is considered an effective quantitative analysis method. Based on survey data, this paper analyzes the innovation efficiency and influencing factors of the vegetable industrial cluster in Shouguang County, Shandong Province, China, using a two-phase DEA-Tobit model. The DEA model analysis shows that innovation in this vegetable industrial cluster is in a good condition, with the large enterprises being the best. The scale of the vegetable industrial cluster in Shouguang County is at approximately the optimal state, while the comprehensive innovation efficiency is only at the average level, not reaching the optimal state. The main reason for this is the pure technical inefficiency derived from the lack of scientific research and technology strength. Tobit regression analysis indicates that knowledge dissemination and absorption capacity of enterprises, financial support of the government, innovative spirit of entrepreneurs and enterprises' development extroversion strength have significant positive correlation with agriculture innovation, while the scale of enterprises do not have significant influence on the cluster's innovation efficiency. The knowledge dissemination and absorption capacity of enterprises not only enables enterprises to have innovation resources in the cluster innovation network, but also has effects on innovation efficiency. Financial support of the government has the greatest influence on industrial cluster innovation, and the government has an important role in innovation of agricultural industry cluster. The innovative spirit of entrepreneurs represents an attitude towards innovation and development, thereby affecting enterprise investment in research and innovation. The paper also presents suggestions for encouraging agricultural innovation. Through facilitating the development of the cluster's innovation network, strengthening support from government agencies and foreign investment and cultivating the innovative spirit of entrepreneurs, efficiency oriented enterprise resource utilization will prevail.

Key words: agricultural industrial cluster, innovation efficiency, DEA, Tobit regression analysis, Shouguang vegetable industrial cluster