Abstract:  The allocation structure of innovation factors is critical in affecting regional economic development, and the imbalance of factor structure is a major challenge that restricts regional development. Therefore, the issue of how to optimize the structure of innovation factors has attracted wide attentions from the practical and academic areas in recent years. Extant researches have classified innovation factors from different perspectives. Some scholars propose that the narrow concept includes R&D personnel and R&D personnel input, while the broad concept includes innovation subject, innovation resource and innovation environment. Because the narrow concept only pays attention to resource factors, it does not take key factors such as innovation environment into consideration. In this paper, we adopt the broad concept of innovation factors, in which innovation subject refers to the main body participating in regional innovation, mainly including enterprises, universities, research institutions and the government; innovation resource refers to the object dominated by the subjects in regional innovation, mainly including talent, capital, knowledge and information; innovation environment refers to policies, institutional environment and cultural atmosphere conducive to the implementation of regional innovation activities.
As for the allocation structure of innovation factors, it includes not only the allocation of input factors such as scientific and technological personnel, R&D capital and knowledge capital stock in the knowledge production function, but also the collocation and proportion relationship between and within the factors. Previous studies have shown that factor structure has different manifestations and connotations at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels. Among them, the micro-level factor structure is mainly manifested in the scale of innovation factor inputs such as talents, capital, and the ratio of innovation inputs to innovation output etc. Meso-level factor structure is mainly manifested in the interaction formed in the process of innovation activities carried out by micro-innovation subjects such as government and enterprises, they interact with resources such as technology, knowledge and talent. The macro-level factor structure is mainly manifested in the allocation of innovation subjects, innovation environment and other factors within the region, as well as the mobility of innovation factors among regions. The imbalance of factor structure refers to the unreasonable structure of the allocation of innovative factors, which fail to achieve optimal combination because excessive or insufficient factors. At different levels, the innovation factors and the imbalanced structure of innovation factors have different forms.
By systematically reviewing the literature and defining the concept of innovation factors, this paper explores the forms of factor structure imbalance from micro-, meso- and macro-levels. This paper also points out the mechanism and process of factor allocation at three levels, and puts forward an analytical framework for optimizing the allocation of innovation factors. Based on this framework, we take Northeast China, a less developed region, as an example to propose optimization strategies for structural imbalance. There are inherent obstacles to economic transformation in Northeast China, such as the proportion of state-owned enterprises, heavy historical burden, heavy economic structure and strong color of planned economy. But there are also important manufacturing bases and regional advantages, national strategic opportunities for revitalizing the old industrial bases in Northeast China. At present, Northeast China is in the key period of optimizing its economic structure and transforming its growth momentum. There is an urgency to replace, upgrade and update traditional factors by innovative factors. The optimization strategy of Northeast China is mainly based on static and dynamic factors. The implementation of strategies requires the collaborative participation of the government and other micro-innovators.
There are some suggestions for optimization with regards to static innovation factors. Firstly, the government should continue to give full attention to the investment-driven economic development, continuing to expand and optimize effective investment, especially focusing on the direction of emerging industries. Secondly, the government should proactively promote supply-side structural reform, implement the national “zombie enterprise” market clearance policy, and set up a special group to supervise and coordinate arrangements in the process of eliminating backward production capacity. Thirdly, Northeast China should seize the opportunity of development in the digital age, develop new technologies and promote the innovation-driven transformation from social production to enterprise operation. Fourthly, Northeast China is facing the dilemma of market shrinkage and enterprise migration. It is urgent to expand the market by introducing private capital. In addition to the large proportion of state-owned capital, the business environment in Northeast China is required to optimize. There are also some suggestions for optimization with regards to dynamic innovation factors. Firstly, the government should design and launch policies from top-down level to strengthen the aggregation of innovation factors into the region. For example, drawing lessons from the practices of developed cities such as Hangzhou, formulating talent policies in line with the Northeast China, providing a good development space for talents, granting R&D subsidies and incentives to talents etc. Secondly, the region of Northeast China is close to Russia, Korea, Japan and other countries. It has regional advantages in the Belt and Road initiative trade cooperation, which is conducive to the construction of an economic circle with regional characteristics. Specifically, it includes promoting the construction of free trade zones and foreign cooperation and exchange platforms among enterprises. In addition, there are Shenyang, Dalian, Changchun and other big cities in Northeast China. Inter-provincial urban agglomerations should be established to carry out regional cooperation among cities. Thirdly, the government can launch preferential policies to encourage the establishment of more intermediaries. Financial and technological intermediaries can also invest in policy opportunities in Northeast China to achieve their own development. Developing regional innovation platforms such as strategic alliance of industrial technology innovation to strengthen the flow of innovation resources such as technology and knowledge among enterprises, universities and research institutions.

Key words: regional innovation, innovation factor allocation, factor structure imbalance