Impact of coupling coordination development of port and city environments on urban economic competitiveness:Evidence from the coastal port cities in eastern China

Promoting the coupling coordination development of port and its hinterland city environments is an important way to improve urban economic competitiveness.Based on relevant data of 13 coastal port cities in eastern China from 2000 to 2018,this study explores the coupling coordination development of port and city environments and its impact on urban economic competitiveness by constructing the coupling coordination degree model and the panel threshold model.The research results show that:(1)In terms of the coupling coordination development of port and city environments,most coastal ports and their hinterland cities are in a state of moderate or serious disorder.Overall,the degree of coupling coordination of port and city environments needs to be further improved;(2)The coupling coordination degree of port and city environments has a significant impact on urban economic competitiveness,and this effect gradually increases with the development of the ports and the urban economy.Among the variables that impact the urban economic competitiveness,fixed assets investment and foreign trade are significant factors that can enhance urban economic competitiveness.(3)At present,there is a“U-shaped”relationship between the coupling coordination degree of port-city environments and the urban economic competitiveness.This relationship lies on the right side of the inflection point of the“U-shaped”curve.Therefore,following the concept of assigning priority to ecological development,expanding fixed assets investment and actively developing foreign trade can further enhance the urban economic competitiveness.

Comprehensive Assessment and Promotion Policy of Producer Services' Competitiveness in Beijing City:A Comparative Analysis among Beijing,Tianjin,Shanghai,Guangzhou and Shenzhen

The five central cities-Beijing,Tianjin,Shanghai,Guangzhou and Shenzhen-of the three most important strategic regions in China,namely Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan region,the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta,are taken as a comparative analysis on urban producer services' competitiveness,especially focusing on the comparative advantages and disadvantages of producer services in Beijing.Firstly,based on an integrated indicator system including one objective hierarchy,four standard hierarchies and 35 indicator hierarchies,the study applies factor analysis model and analytic hierarchy process model reformed by entropy technology to measure the comprehensive competitiveness of producer services in the above five cities.Secondly,Beijing has comparative advantages of capital resource,industrial base,scientific research resource and market scale,since it takes the first place of the five cities in the comprehensive competitiveness of producer services,the competitiveness of industrial development,business environment and living environment,only inferior to Shanghai in the competitiveness of talent capital.Thirdly,Beijing has comparative disadvantages in the level of producer services development,urban innovation capability and living environment.Finally,five proposals are put forth to enhance the competitiveness of producer services in Beijing,namely perfecting the system of laws and statutes,supporting the development of industry association,implementing scientific development planning,introducing preferential fiscal and taxation policies and strengthening human capital reserve.

Defining Cities by Water: Addressing Capital Misallocation in a Race to Conserve Resources

As part of its efforts to promote a sustainable and high-quality development,China has pledged to reduce water consumption and create a water-efficient society.On the basis of identifying the institutional root causes of excessive capital allocation and excessive water consumption in China’s water-intensive industrial sectors,this study elaborates how the national water-efficient cities assessment contributes to optimized capital allocation.Our research shows that national water-efficient cities assessment has motivated local governments to compete for water efficiency.To conserve water,local governments regulated the entry and exit of water-intensive enterprises,discouraged excessive investments in water-intensive sectors,and phased out obsolete water-intensive capacities within their jurisdictions.This approach has resulted in mutually beneficial outcomes,including improved allocation of capital,enhanced water efficiency,and reduced emissions.This paper offers policy recommendations for establishing a water-efficient society throughout the 14^(th) Five-Year Plan(2021-2025)period by presenting empirical evidence on the policy effects of resource efficiency evaluation.

The Fuzzy Synthesizing Evaluation of City's Environmental Quality Based on GIOWA Operator:A Case of 13 Cities of Jiangsu Province

In this paper, the generally induced ordered weighted averaging (GIOWA) operator is used to construct the fuzzy evaluating system of the quality of a city’s environment including air, water and noise. Based on the part data of air, water and noise of the 13 cities under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu provincial government in 2002, a case study is given. The evaluating results show that the evaluating system of the quality of a city’s environment based on the GIOWA operator can reflect the condition of pollution controlled and environmental quality of a city in a period of time.

INFLUENTIAL FACTORS COMBINATION AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES IN STAGES OF URBAN COMPETITIVENESS——Case Study of Suzhou in China

The urban competitive advantages rely on the combination and interaction of influential factors. As a dynamic progressive process, the city at different time has different competition influential factors combination. Because of this, the urban competitive advantages take on time-series characteristics. Stages of urban competition can be summed up into three ones, the basic factor-driven, the investment-driven and the innovation-driven. The finding of the study on the stages of urban competitive advantages in Suzhou is that in the current stage of Suzhou its competitive advantage is the investment-driven. The investment, especially FDI, plays remarkable functions for Suzhou competition with other cities.

Analysis of Porter’s Five Forces Competitive Model in China’s Property Rights Trading Market

In recent years,China’s property rights trading market has been extremely competitive,but there are also new contradictions and challenges.This paper aims to analyze the external and internal competitive market of the property rights market through Porter’s five forces competition model,then find out the problems and defects in the development,thereby promoting the better development and progress of China’s property rights trading market.

Analysis on Competitiveness of China's Refineries

The paper reviewed the refining and marketing business of both domestic and international oil companies, and tried to figure out the gap of domestic refining enterprises in terms of the refinery scale, processing unil configuration, stream factor and competitive edge as compared to overseas refineries. The paper also concluded that the net margin of domestic refineries is about $ 1.0/bbl lower than that of the overseas refineries, and proposed some ideas to sharpen the competitive edge of Chinese refining industry.

Core Competitiveness as the Fundamental Guarantee for Sustainable Development of Geo-parks

With the booming development over the past years,geo-parks have achieved impressive progress together with a series of problems.Most importantly,geological tourism is not in prosperity.How to prosper geological tourism and achieve the sustainable development of geoparks is the top concern of workers engaged in tourism geology in China.This article discusses the problem from the perspective of core competitiveness of geo-parks,particularly from three aspects of subject,object and medium,and puts forward methods to form the core competitiveness.

Putting Places First in Competitive Urban Transformation European Urban Creativity Perspectives and the City of Sarajevo

The inter-urban competition seems to be of paramount importance for city-development today. The extensive reliance of competitiveness-oriented urban governance agendas on the knowledge-based, ＂new＂ economy, introduced the notion of ＂creativity＂ into discussion on the future of urban development. Though still on the margins of serious urban theory, the discourse on ＂creative cities＂ that emerged in the early 2000s, has already had massive influence on the ways in which cities are managed and transformed in Europe. After examination of how the competitiveness-oriented strategies based on creativity and related to the qualities of place increase cultural and social sustainability of urban transformation and development, this paper briefly rethinks the current urban development policy of the city of Sarajevo in relation to the notion of ＂place＂, by leaning on the contemporary European urban development paradigm. The conclusion points out that the sustainable increase of urban competitiveness in Sarajevo should be pursued by the development projects of urban transformation promoting creative knowledge sector, based on the inclusive cultural urban narratives related to places, thus assuring simultaneous growth of creative knowledge industries and preservation of diverse social geography.

China's Shipbuilding Competitiveness

At the end of the Eighth Five-Year Plan period,a gloriousnew page was added to the historyof Chinese shipbuilding:for thefirst time China exported two 10,000ton bulk cargo carriers to Japan,the leading shipbuilding nation inthe world,with their delivery andlaunch held at the TianjinShipbuilding Company.In 1995,the China Shipbuilding IndustryCorporation received new shiporders of over 2.4 million tons,With a value of US＄1.5 billion.Ofthem,the exported ships accountedfor 99 percent and orders fromdeveloped countries and regionsaccounted for 90 percent.Atpresent,the Corporation’saggregated shipbuilding output isover 1.7 million tons,twice as muchas that of the 1980s,and its placein the world’s shipbuilding outputhas risen from the 16th to the 4th.

Further Enhancing the International Competitiveness of China's Chemical Industry

Foreign-oriented Economy Entering a New Stage The Eighth Five-year Plan period saw the fastest development of the foreign-oriented economy in China’s chemical industry, with an accumulated import and export value of US$100 billion, including US$38.3 billion of exports. In 1996 the total import and export value reached US$30 billion, including US$12 billion of exports. Now, more than 300 chemical enterprises and institutes have obtained foreign

A Study on the Belt and Road Initiative and the Promotion of International Competitiveness of China's Culture Industry

China's pioneering the Belt and Road initiative not only provides a broad space for China's culture industry to enhance international competitiveness, but also puts forward a major project. It includes: optimize and integrate strategic resources through connectivity, cultivate export-oriented cultural enterprises to promote the main body of the industry, optimize the structure of cultural trade by expanding cultural services exports, and build win-win cooperation networks through the connections between Silk Road Cities. This will both contribute to the global distribution and resource allocation of China's culture industry, and benefit the construction of mutually beneficial and cooperative international culture industry communities, so the countries and people of the Belt and Road regions can share their cultural wealth.

A new approach to assessing the science and technology competitiveness of China's provincial academies of sciences

Purpose： This study aims to establish a new framework for evaluating science and technology （S＆T） competitiveness that is appropriate to meet the needs of provincial academies of sciences （PASs） in China.Design/methodology/approaches： An evaluation index, including such assessing indicators as research strength, research impact, research development and trends, and regional contributions, is developed for China＇s PASs. Taking the Jiangxi Academy of Sciences （JXAS） as an example, we first explain how to apply this framework to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of PASs in China. Then, we compare the results of all 17 PASs in order to get a comprehensive understanding of their competitiveness.Findings： Our results show the development path, current status, innovation advantages, and weaknesses of JXAS very clearly. Based on our comparative analysis, we ranked the 17 PASs from the perspective of different dimensions, by which their competitiveness strengths and weaknesses can be highlighted for improvement.Research limitations： In this analysis, we did not take S＆T policies, S＆T systems, or historical factors into consideration. Thus, we may have ignored the influence of the soft individual differences of different PASs in China..Practical implications： The evaluation index developed in this paper provides a useful insight into an analytical method that can be used by PASs or other provincial research institutions （PRIs） to assess their competitiveness.Originality/value： Compared with existing evaluation frameworks, our method has two main characteristics： First, we added three new dimensions, including the PASs＇ applicable research outputs, regional contributions, and comparative advantages; second, we conducted a comparative analysis of local research institutes in their different advantaged industrial areas, which makes our analytical method more comprehensive for local research institutions.

The Analysis of Competitiveness of China's Textiles and Clothing

This essay,starting with the development of the textile trade in China,analyzed the competitiveness of China's textiles and clothing industry,by means of two indexes:international market share and competitiveness index,combining with the factors of influencing the trade of China's textiles,finally got the conclusion.

URBAN COMPETITIVE PATTERN AND ITS CHANGES IN CHINA

With the national economy’s transition from a planning one to a market one, the factors affecting regional economic pattern has changed greatly. In this paper we first construct an index system for evaluating competitiveness of Chinese cities based on modern competitive advantage theory. With principal component analysis and cluster analysis methods, we compare the factors affecling cities’ integrated competitiveness in 1990 and 1997. We find that four major factors are capital (including investment, FDI and urban financial revenue ), urban ithestructure (transporiation and communication, urbanization level, education etc. ), industrial performance and structure, degree of market openness and that these factors have become more advanced and complicated since 1990. Most Chinese cities are transforming from productive factors-oriented type to investment-oriented type and a few are becoming innovation oriented. The integrated competitiveness is closely related to cities’ scale, urban function, regional policy and degree of market openness and displays an uneven spatial pattern. The difference between the south and the north and the difference between the west and the east co-exist bul the former has been more larger. Finally, we discuss the mechanism behind the pattern and attribute the unevenness to change of factors dominating the cities’ compehtiveness regional innovation capacity and geographical differenceof traditional culture.

Developing a Subjective Evaluation Scale for Assessing the Built Environments of China’s Hygienic City Initiative

Objective To develop a preliminary subjective evaluation scale for assessing the built environments of China’s Hygienic City Initiative and to evaluate its reliability and validity.Methods The initial items of the scale were determined based on a review of policy documents and consultations with experts. The final items of the scale were confirmed through individual interviews with residents combined with the discretetrend method, critical ratio method, correlation coefficient method, and factor analysis method. Then, the dimensions of the scale were determined using exploratory factor analysis(EFA). The Cronbach’s α coefficient, split-half reliability coefficient, and confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) were used to assess the reliability and validity of the scale.Results A scale containing five dimensions with 22 items was established, including urban lifestyle,governance, basic functions, environmental sanitation, and amenities. The Cronbach’s α coefficient of the scale was 0.876, and the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.796. The CFA results indicate that each inspection level was within the standard limit.Conclusion The preliminarily subjective evaluation scale for assessing the built environments of China’s Hygienic City Initiative demonstrates a high level of reliability and validity. Additional empirical studies should be carried out to further verify the value of the scale in terms of practical application.

Rank-size Distributions of Chinese Cities: Macro and Micro Patterns

A large number of studies have been conducted to find a better fit for city rank-size distributions in different countries. Many theoretical curves have been proposed, but no consensus has been reached. This study argues for the importance of examining city rank-size distribution across different city size scales. In addition to focusing on macro patterns, this study examines the micro patterns of city rank-size distributions in China. A moving window method is developed to detect rank-size distributions of cities in different sizes incrementally. The results show that micro patterns of the actual city rank-size distributions in China are much more complex than those suggested by the three theoretical distributions examined(Pareto, quadratic, and q-exponential distributions). City size distributions present persistent discontinuities. Large cities are more evenly distributed than small cities and than that predicted by Zipf′s law. In addition, the trend is becoming more pronounced over time. Medium-sized cities became evenly distributed first and then unevenly distributed thereafter. The rank-size distributions of small cities are relatively consistent. While the three theoretical distributions examined in this study all have the ability to detect the overall dynamics of city rank-size distributions, the actual macro distribution may be composed of a combination of the three theoretical distributions.

Quantification of anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria in enrichment cultures by quantitative competitive PCR

The anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing （ANAMMOX） bacteria were enriched from a sequencing batch biofilm reactor （SBBR）. A quantitative competitive polymerase chain reaction （QC-PCR） system was successfully developed to detect and quantify ANAMMOX bacteria in environmental samples. For QC-PCR system, PCR primer sets targeting 16S ribosomal RNA genes of ANAMMOX bacteria were designed and used. The quantification range of this system was 4 orders of magnitude, from 10^3 to 10^6 copies per PCR, corresponding to the detection limit of 300 target copies per mL. A 312-bp internal standard was constructed, which showed very similar amplification efficiency with the target amxC fragment （349 bp） over 4 orders of magnitude （10^3-10^6）. The linear regressions were obtained with R^2 of 0.9824 for 10^3 copies, 0.9882 for 10^4 copies, 0.9857 for 10^5 copies and 0.9899 for 10^6 copies, respectively. Using this method, ANAMMOX bacteria were quantified in a shortcut nitrification/denitrification-anammox system which was set for piggery wastewater treatment.

Purchase willingness of new energy vehicles: A case study in Jinan City of China

Speeding up the promotion of new energy vehicles is an important measure to optimize the energy structure,promote energy conservation and emission reduction,and develop the economy sustainability.The research uses a questionnaire survey to analyze the residents’willingness to purchase new energy vehicles in Jinan Gty of China,and utilizes the binomial logistic regression model and Global Moran's I to explain the impact of three factors(including responden ts'personal characteristics and subjective cognition,products,and social environment)on the purchase willingness of new energy vehicles.According to the survey,75.12%of the responden ts consider buying new energy vehicles in the future,but only 11.66%of the respondents know new energy vehicles well.It can be seen that the respondents in Jinan City generally have an insufficient understanding of new energy vehicles.It may lead to a decline in residents’trust in new energy vehicles,which will in turm affect their purchase willingness.Based on the survey,we find that women who live far from the city center enjoy high incomes and have a low-carbon awareness,generally exhibit a higher willingness to purchase new energy vehicles.Spatial distribution of the purchase willingness has certain aggregation characteristics,showing a positive spatial correlation pattern.Purchase willingness has a certain positive diffusion effect in space,and areas with a higher purchase willingness have a positive driving effect on their surrounding regions.Spatial distribution of the purchase willingness can be used as one of the breakthroughs in promoting new energy vehicles.In addition,safety,price,after-sales service,and infrastruicture of new energy vehicles are important determinants of people's purchase willingness.Among the types of subsidies,financial subsidy is most effective on the residents’purchase wilingness.Our research provides an impor tant information for the promotion of new energy vehicles in the region.