Harmony or conflict?

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the coordination of Chinese technology policy and assess its contribution to technology progress and economy development.Design methodology approach - A method was developed to assess the coordination and its tendency of technology policy based on technology policy quantification. In addition, econometric models were built to estimate performance of technology policy coordination.Findings - Chinese technology policy coordination shows significant characteristics in different periods; the level of policy coordination is promoted rapidly because the institutional path-dependence and the competition of benefits among departments have aggravated an already unbalanced emphasis on the wording of the technology policy during the process of economic and political reform. The coordination among departments, coordination of policy goals and coordination of policy means play different roles in technology progress and economy development.Research limitations implications - Because of the limitation of data and time, the paper cannot assess the coordination among policy goals and policy means. Also, it is necessary to study the interaction of different principals and agencies during technology policy formulation and execution.Practical implications - The methods in the paper can easily be used by decision makers evaluating the situation of technology policy coordination, and optimize policy based on the relationship of different policy targets and policy implements, especially the interaction of different principals and agencies.Originality value - The paper develops a method to assess technology policy coordination based on technology policy quantification and builds econometric models to assess its contribution to technology progress and economy development.