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.

Spatial-temporal Evolution and Determinants of the Belt and Road Initiative: A Maximum Entropy Gravity Model Approach

The spatial interaction model is an effective way to explore the geographical disparities inherent in the Belt and Road Initiative(BRI) by simulating spatial flows. The traditional gravity model implies the hypothesis of equilibrium points without any reference to when or how to achieve it. In this paper, a dynamic gravity model was established based on the Maximum Entropy(MaxEnt) theory to estimate and monitor the interconnection intensity and dynamic characters of bilateral relations. In order to detect the determinants of interconnection intensity, a Geodetector method was applied to identify and evaluate the determinants of spatial networks in five dimensions. The empirical study clearly demonstrates a heterogeneous and non-circular spatial structure. The main driving forces of spatial-temporal evolution are foreign direct investment, tourism and railway infrastructure construction, while determinants in different sub-regions show obvious spatial differentiation. Southeast Asian countries are typically multi-island area where aviation infrastructure plays a more important role. North and Central Asian countries regard oil as a pillar industry where power and port facilities have a greater impact on the interconnection. While Western Asian countries are mostly influenced by the railway infrastructure, Eastern European countries already have relatively robust infrastructure where tariff policies provide a greater impetus.

Assessing the impacts of human activities and climate variations on grassland productivity by partial least squares structural equation modeling(PLS-SEM)

The cause-effect associations between geographical phenomena are an important focus in ecological research. Recent studies in structural equation modeling（SEM） demonstrated the potential for analyzing such associations. We applied the variance-based partial least squares SEM（PLS-SEM） and geographically-weighted regression（GWR） modeling to assess the human-climate impact on grassland productivity represented by above-ground biomass（AGB）. The human and climate factors and their interaction were taken to explain the AGB variance by a PLS-SEM developed for the grassland ecosystem in Inner Mongolia, China. Results indicated that 65.5% of the AGB variance could be explained by the human and climate factors and their interaction. The case study showed that the human and climate factors imposed a significant and negative impact on the AGB and that their interaction alleviated to some extent the threat from the intensified human-climate pressure. The alleviation may be attributable to vegetation adaptation to high human-climate stresses, to human adaptation to climate conditions or/and to recent vegetation restoration programs in the highly degraded areas. Furthermore, the AGB response to the human and climate factors modeled by GWR exhibited significant spatial variations. This study demonstrated that the combination of PLS-SEM and GWR model is feasible to investigate the cause-effect relation in socio-ecological systems.

Behaviour of Humans and Behaviour of Models in Dynamic Space

This paper addresses new trends in quantitative geography research. Modern social science research--including economic and social geography--has in the past decades shown an increasing interest in micro-oriented behaviour of actors. This is inter alia clearly reflected in SIMs （spatial interaction models）, where discrete choice approaches have assumed a powerful position. This paper aims to provide in particular a concise review of micro-based research, with the aim to review the potential--but also the caveats---of micro models to map out human behaviour. In particular, attention will be devoted to interactive learning principles that shape individual decisions. Lessons from cognitive sciences will be put forward and illustrated, amongst others on the basis of computational neural networks or spatial econometric approaches. Particular attention will be paid to non-linear dynamic spatial models, amongst others, in the context of chaos theory and complexity science. The methodology of deductive reasoning under conditions of large data bases in studying human mobility will be questioned as well. In this context more extensive attention is given to ceteris paribus conditions and evolutionary thinking. The relevance of the paper will be illustrated by referring to various spatial applications in different disciplines and different application areas, e.g. in geography, regional science or urban economics.

Exploring tourism networks in the Guangxi mountainous area using mobility data from user generated content

Tourism-led economic growth and tourism-driven urbanization have attracted increasing attention by provinces and regions in China with abundant tourism resources.Due to low data availability,the current tourism literature lacks empirical evidence of the tourism network in lessdeveloped mountainous regions where the development of transport infrastructure is more variable.This paper aims to provide such evidence using Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in China as a case study.Using User Generated Content(UGC)data,this study constructs a tourism network in Guangxi.By integrating social network analysis with spatial interaction modelling,we compared the impact of two different transport infrastructures,highway and high-speed railway,on tourist flows,particularly in less-developed mountainous regions.It was found that the product of node centrality and flow could best describe the significant pushing and pulling forces on the flow of tourists.The tourism by high-speed railway was sensitive to the position of trip destination on the whole tourism network but self-drive tourism was more sensitive to travelling time.The increase of high-speed railway density is crucial to promote local tourism-led economic development,however,large-scale karst landforms in the study area present a significant obstacle to the construction of high-speed railways.