中资律师事务所全球扩展及其网络空间结构演变

The global expansion and spatial networks structure evolution of Chinese law firms

运用链锁网络模型,分析了1993～2015年间中资律师事务所全球布局的时空演化特征,及其全球网络的空间结构演变特征。研究发现:中资律师事务所在西欧、北美和亚太三大区域重点布局的基础上,全球空间覆盖范围迅速扩展,全球布局同时考虑全球金融型中心城市和政治型中心城市等多种类型区位;中资律师事务所的全球网络,在北京、上海、广州、深圳、香港、纽约、伦敦、迪拜等核心城市构成的骨干网络的基础上不断扩展,其网络的全球化程度也不断增强;中资律师事务所的全球扩展对北美、西欧、非洲、中东以及东欧等区域城市的全球网络联系影响较大,对空间临近的亚太地区影响相对较小。这与以往的研究结论存在一定的差异。

The global operation of advanced producer services is crucial to the globalization of national and world economy.This important role makes the spatial distribution of advanced producer service firms an important proxy for the research of the world city network.Current research of this kind mainly focuses on the global spatial patterns of Anglo-American leading producer service firms,especially financial firms,and their contribution to the formation of the world city network.The effects of the rising and globalizing producer service sectors in emerging economies like China are generally undervalued.Based on the changing global distribution of Chinese law firms,and adopts the method of interlocking network analysis,this paper inquires the evolution of the spatial pattern of the global expansion of Chinese law firms and the structure of the their global network.It is revealed that:1)Chinese law firms expand fast worldwide in recent five years.During their early global expansion,Chinese law firms exclusively chose the three main regions of West Europe,North America,and Pacific Asia.With these three regions as main base,they then expand to broader regions around the world.Chinese law firms not only choose financial centers,but also global political centers in their global location choice.2)The world city network interconnected by Chinese law firms developed on the basis of bone-network consisted by key city nodes both in China and abroad.With the spatial expansion of the network,the globalization level of the city network also increases greatly.3)The global expansion of Chinese law firms have shed great effect on the global connection of cities in North America,West Europe,Africa,Middle East,and East Europe,while the pacific Asia,which is spatially close to China is relatively with lower global connection.This is unique for some certain comparing with existing research.