Asymmetries in Chinese Cities’ Knowledge Collaborations: Dynamics of Providing and Receiving Cooperation Within and Beyond Urban Regions

Knowledge cooperation underpins innovation systems, yet it is rarely balanced: some actors predominantly generate knowledge, while others primarily adopt and adapt it. We extend this insight geographically by examining how cities function as providers or receivers of innovative knowledge. Challenging reciprocal views of cooperation, we develop an asymmetry-sensitive indicator that combines geographic niche overlap with social network analysis to position cities along provider–receiver spectra and to capture direct and indirect spillovers across scales. Using co-patent flows in China (2008–2022), we trace intercity knowledge exchange within, across, and outside urban regions. Results reveal pronounced directional imbalances: a few cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Wuhan consolidate dominance as providers, with their influence intensifying at larger geographic scales, while many other cities’ provider roles attenuate beyond home regions. Cities’ roles are strongly shaped by their positions within innovation networks and by the regional spatial structures in which they are embedded. This work offers a new lens for understanding urban innovation networks by framing knowledge exchange as directional and asymmetric. It calls for further research on power dynamics of asymmetric cooperation, sectoral differentiation, and international co-patenting, paving the way for a more nuanced analysis of knowledge flows in urban innovation systems.