中国网络游戏产业合作网络特征及其多维邻近性机制

Characteristics and multi-dimensional proximity mechanism of the online game industry cooperative network in China

数字经济时代,依托互联网平台构建的虚拟空间对实体地理空间的影响不断加剧。论文基于2016—2020年中国网络游戏项目数据,运用社会网络分析和负二项式重力模型等探究网络游戏产业的城市合作网络结构及其多维邻近性机制,以揭示数字技术对文化产业空间组织的影响,为探索新时期文化产业的高质量发展模式提供参考。研究发现:(1)数字技术的发展强化了网络游戏产业的分散化和集聚趋势,外部网络在网络游戏项目运作中占据主导地位,中小城市对跨地域合作网络更为依赖;(2)城市间基于网络游戏产业价值链分工合作的联系比较稀疏,合作网络呈现不均衡的“菱形”格局,网络层级基本遵循中国现有的城市体系,核心节点高度集中在北京、上海、深圳、广州等城市,地方行政中心在合作网络中也发挥了重要作用;(3)社会邻近性、认知邻近性、城市产业规模、对外连通性、人力资本等对网络游戏产业合作网络的构建具有正向促进作用,数字技术广泛应用下地理邻近性和制度邻近性作用不显著。

In the era of digital economy, digital technology has brought profound changes to the production system of creative industries. The influence of virtual space built on Internet platforms on physical geographical space is increasing, which destroys the old spatiotemporal relationship, new socioeconomic organization geospatial pattern is created, and the changing importance of geographical proximity and its role in the decentralization of cultural production remain to be explored. In order to examine the impacts of new digital technologies on the geographies of cultural production and to provide a reference for exploring the high-quality development model of cultural industry in the new era, this study applied social network analysis and negative binomial gravity model to examine the urban cooperative network structure and multi-dimensional proximity mechanism of the online game industry, based on the data of Chinese online game projects from 2016 to 2020.The conclusions are as follows: First, the new digital technology has strengthened the decentralization and agglomeration trend of the online game industry. The findings demonstrate the dominant role that external networks play in the operation of online game projects. Small and medium-sized cities rely more on crossregional cooperation networks in particular, because they lack strong and influential local companies. Second,the connections between cities based on the division of value chain of the online game industry are relatively sparse, the cooperative network presents an uneven diamond-shaped connection pattern, the spatial pattern of the network is highly imbalanced, and the industry is mainly concentrated in the economically developed eastern coastal region. There is a mismatch between the influence of cities in the network and the scale of local clusters.The network hierarchy basically follows that of China’s existing urban system, and the core nodes are highly concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou. Local administrative centers also play an important role in the cooperation network. Social proximity, cognitive proximity, urban industrial scale, external connectivity, and human capital have positive effects on the establishment of cooperative network in the online game industry, while the wide application of digital technology makes the effects of geographical proximity and institutional proximity insignificant. At present, the main channel for enterprises in remote areas to obtain resources is still the dominant cultural production centers, which is related to the complex and diverse urban structure system in China.