Protection of Innovative Achievements, Spatial Spillover, and Internal Structural Upgrading of the Productive Service Industry—Empirical Evidence from 28 Provinces in China

This study measured the level of innovation achievement protection and the degree of internal structural upgrading of the productive service industry in 28 provinces of China from 2000 to 2022. Exploratory spatial analysis methods were used to test the spatial correlation between the two variables, and the spatial impact of innovation achievement protection on the optimization of the internal structure of the productive service industry was examined at the national and sectoral levels. The results showed three main aspects of this system. (1) The agglomeration level of innovation achievement protection and internal structure optimization of the productive service industry between regions in China continued to increase during the sample period, and there was a clear similarity and synchronicity in the spatial evolution of the two variables. (2) The overall improvement in the protection level of innovative achievements is conducive to promoting the internal structural upgrading of China's productive service industry. However, there are significant differences in the degree to which the protection of innovative achievements affects the internal structural upgrading of the productive service industry in the four major regions of the East, Central, Northeast, and West. The protection of innovative achievements in the East and Central regions significantly promotes the internal structural optimization of the productive service industry, while this effect is not significant in the western and northeastern regions. (3) The results of the robustness test indicate that the impact of internal structural upgrading of the productive service industry in the previous year on the level of innovation achievement protection is not significant. The interference from abnormal values of the internal structural upgrading of the productive service industry in various regions and the influence of municipalities directly under the central government on the regression results are not significant. After replacing the main variable, the coefficient of the innovation achievement protection level remained significantly positive. The conclusions of this study supplement and improve the theory of innovation achievement protection and industrial transformation and upgrading, providing decision-making support for improving the level of innovation achievement protection and promoting the internal structural upgrading of the productive service industries in China.