Drivers for Inter-city Innovation Networks Across Chinese Cities:Modelling Physical Versus Intangible Effects

Cross-region innovation is widely recognized as an important source of the long-term regional innovation capacity.In the recent past,a growing number of studies has investigated the network structure and mechanisms of cross-region innovation collaboration in various contexts.However,existing research mainly focuses on physical effects,such as geographical distance and high-speed railway connections.These studies ignore the intangible drivers in a changing environment,the more digitalized economy and the increasingly solidified innovation network structure.Thus,the focus of this study is on estimating determinants of innovation networks,especially on intangible drivers,which have been largely neglected so far.Using city-level data of Chinese patents(excluding Hong Kong,Macao,and Taiwan Province of China),we trace innovation networks across Chinese cities over a long period of time.By integrating a measure on Information and Communications Technology(ICT)development gap and network structural effects into the general proximity framework,this paper explores the changing mechanisms of Chinese innovation networks from a new perspective.The results show that the structure of cross-region innovation networks has changed in China.As mechanisms behind this development,the results confirm the increasingly important role of intangible drivers in Chinese inter-city innovation collaboration when controlling for effects of physical proximity,such as geographical distance.Since digitalization and coordinated development are the mainstream trends in China and other developing countries,these countries'inter-city innovation collaboration patterns will witness dramatic changes under the influence of intangible drivers.

Urban Hierarchy of Innovation Capability and Inter-city Linkages of Knowledge in Post-reform China

The 2000s has witnessed increasing interests in cities′role of innovation in the era of knowledge-based economy.Compared with substantial empirical analysis on the world city hierarchy of innovation,this paper attempts to examine the national urban hierarchy of innovation capability in China,in terms of ranking systems,spatial pattern and inter-city linkages of knowledge during the post-reform period since the late 1970s.Based on quantitative analysis such as principal component factor analysis and clustering analysis,this paper identifies the five-tier hierarchy of in-novation,which is headed by Beijing and Shanghai,followed by the capital cities of each province and regional centre cities.The development of China′s urban hierarchy of innovation capability has been driven by such factors as the scale of innovation,scientific scale,innovation potential and innovation environment.The paper further investigates the inter-city linkages of knowledge measured by the number of co-authored papers among the cities.Beijing is positioned in the central position of the knowledge diffusion and knowledge cooperation innovation.More knowledge diffusion among high level cities has occurred than that among the low level cities as well as between the low level cities and high level cities,and provincial capital cities and the regional central cities.

Revisiting the gravity laws of inter-city mobility in megacity regions

Inter-city mobility is one of the most important issues in the UN Sustainable Development Goals,as it is essential to access the regional labour market,goods and services,and to constrain the spread of infectious diseases.Although the gravity model has been proved to be an effective model to describe mobility among settlements,knowledge is still insufficient in regions where dozens of megacities interact closely and over 100 million people reside.In addition,the existing knowledge is limited to overall population mobility,while the difference in inter-city travel with different purposes is unexplored on such a large geographic scale.We revisited the gravity laws of inter-city mobility using the 2.12 billion trip chains recorded by 40.48 million mobile phone users’trajectories in the Jing-Jin-Ji Region,which contains China’s capital Beijing.Firstly,unlike previous studies,we found that non-commuting rather than commuting is the dominant type of inter-city mobility(89.3%).Noncommuting travellers have a travel distance 42.3%longer than commuting travellers.Secondly,we developed more accurate gravity models for the spatial distribution of inter-city commuting and non-commuting travel.We also found that inter-city mobility has a hierarchical structure,as the distribution of inter-city travel volume follows Zipf’s law.In particular,the hierarchy of non-commuting travel volume among the cities is more in line with an ideal Zipf distribution than commuting travel.Our findings contribute to new knowledge on basic inter-city mobility laws,and they have significant applications for regional policies on human mobility.

Spatial Development Mechanism of the Transport-oriented Inter-city Railway Station Area

The paper starts with a survey on the demands of train passengers from Shanghai to Nanjing on facilities surrounding the railway station, initiating a discussion on the direction of industrial transformation in the station area. Then, on the basis of a questionnaire on passengers' choice of traveling modes and affordable time to various facilities, the paper studies the scale of spatial layers of railway stations, the distribution characteristics of industries, as well as the related land-use pattern, through an analysis on the traveling distance features of passengers. In the end, with a case study on Changzhou station on the Shanghai-Nanjing high-speed railway line, the paper suggests a method defining the land development intensity degree that is based on the capacity of local transportation. Moreover, the study on the spatial development mechanism for transport-oriented inter-city railway station area that is conducted in the paper will efficiently coordinate and optimize the spatial development and the efficiency promotion, and balance the relationship between the concentration of city functions and the degree of transportation convenience, which possess guiding significance to the planning and construction of station areas along the inter-city railway.

Innovation and Firm Co-ownership Network in China’s Electric Vehicle Industry

Firms are embedded in complex networks,where diverse ideas combine and generate new ideas.Shareholders of firms are of-ten seen as critical external resources that have significant influence on firm innovation.The current literature tends to focus on the rela-tionship between firms and their shareholders,while paying less attention to the connections between firms with the same shareholders.This article identifies two types of network spillover effects,intra-city network effect and inter-city network effect,by visualizing the co-ownership networks in China’s electric vehicle(EV)industry.We find that firms with the same shareholders,which are defined as co-owned EV firms,are more innovative than non-co-owned ones.Furthermore,there are two dominant types of firm co-ownership ties formed by corporate and financial institution shareholders.While corporate shareholders help exploiting local tacit knowledge,financial institutions are more active in bridging inter-city connections.The conclusion is confirmed at both firm and city levels.This paper theor-izes the firm co-ownership network as a new form of institutional proximity and tested the result empirically.For policy consideration,we have emphasized the importance of building formal or informal inter-firm network,and the government should further enhance the knowledge flow channel by institutional construction.

Externalities, Transport Networks and the Economic Growth of Urban Clusters

This article uses network analysis tools and new economic geography theory to modify the rico-classical model of regional economic growth, establishes an economic growth model of urban clusters based on externalities and transport networks through a differentiation of transaction costs, and uses the 1990-2008 data of some Chinese cities and the VAR model to test the model. Our empirical study shows that under the influence of transport networks, central cities rely on factor agglomeration for growth, while peripheral cities catch up quickly; that improved transport networks expedite the factor agglomeration of central cities; and that when some newly-added factors are reserved, increasing the node clustering coefficient and reducing peripheral cities＇ transport costs will promote these cities＇ application of externalities, expedite their economic growth, and facilitate the coordinated growth of central and peripheral cities. Therefore, in building the transport infrastructure, equal emphasis should be placed on linking central cities with peripheral ones and on linking peripheral cities with each other.