Development Research, Based On The Transformation Of The Old Industrial City Of Knowledge To Absorb

As 21st century's first decade was drawing to a close, Lehman Brothers, a 158 years old world famous investment bank declared bankruptcy and drastically upgrade the Wall Street financial turmoil. The financial crisis of the United States quickly swept through the closely integrated global economy including China. Under the impact of the crisis, the internal problems of China's economic development also became apparent. For a long time, China's economy depends heavily on excessive resources input and export demand. This development model brings about the problems of high external dependence, waste of resources, environmental destruction and so on. As the investment in R & D and design is insufficient, traditional industries still maintain simple manufacturing process with low added value and technological innovation. In order to survive, they have to rely on cheap labor resources and sacrificing of the environment. This lack of competitiveness makes them very vulnerable under the impact of the crisis. Restructuring and transformation has become an urgent issue faced by both national and regional enterprises.Structural reform is particularly imminent for those old industrial zones, which come from the early stage of industrialization and are encumbered by industrial declination, lack of endogenous growth ability, high unemployment rate, etc. Based on the study of interaction mechanism between knowledge absorption, industrial innovation and urban area transformation, this dissertation builds up a theoretical framework of knowledge absorption. It analyzes the impact factors of urban area's knowledge absorption and its contribution to industrial innovation and economic development. Under this framework, this dissertation analyzes the problems and bottlenecks in the development of old industrial zones, and puts forward three possible paths and associated condition. Then, using the case study of Yangpu old industrial zone, this dissertation proposes possible transformation paths for the old industrial zones. This dissertation studies the issues of urban area economic development and transformation from the perspective of knowledge spillovers and knowledge absorption. The essence and impact factors of knowledge absorption, the interaction of urban areas and promotion of leaping structural transformation of the old industrial zones are the main line of this dissertation. Chapterâ… introduces the main ideas and logic of this dissertation. It introduces the research background, theoretical and practical significance of the topic. It also explains the content and the main ideas of the dissertation.Chapterâ…¡is the literature review of knowledge absorption and regional development theory. It reviews the evolution of knowledge spillovers theory, analyzes the connotation, affecting factors and flow path of knowledge spillovers, the mechanism and measurement of knowledge absorption. It clearly shows the positive correlation between knowledge absorption and innovation capability under the same spillover condition. Combining the endogenous growth theories of regional development, this chapter also analyzes the relationship between industrial structure, elements endowment and regional development, and discusses the interaction of knowledge absorption and urban development. In light of the three spiral theory, benign interaction exists between University knowledge and urban development. While the urban development will provide a better environment for knowledge absorption, knowledge absorption will promote the economic development of urban areas by stimulating the technological innovation.Chapterâ…¢analyzes the endogenous and exogenous influence factors of knowledge absorption respectively. The endogenous factors include knowledge base, R&D investment, human capital, urban environment and organization system, etc. The exogenous factors include the distance between urban areas, the technology gap, the exchange of information, location, institutional factors, etc. Using empirical study, this chapter also investigates the quantitative impact of these factors, and recommends that local governments should pay more attention to human talent, knowledge related expenditures and strive to improve the knowledge absorption environment.Chapterâ…£explores interaction mechanism between knowledge absorption, industrial innovation and urban area transformation. This chapter analyzes the knowledge absorption path based on the source of knowledge spillovers. It shows that by utilizing both the local knowledge elements and external knowledge spillovers, the knowledge absorption capability can be effectively enhanced. This chapter establishes the analytical interactive framework by studying the benign interaction between knowledge absorption, industrial innovation and transformation of urban area. Then, based on the empirical analysis of Shanghai's knowledge absorption, industry upgrade and economic development, this dissertation suggests that in order to achieve the goal of industry upgrade, government should focus on improving the productivity of FIRE industry and ICE industry, and attract more talents with high level of technology and skills.Chapterâ…¤investigates the current situation and bottleneck of old industrial zones. It is based on the theory of knowledge absorption and urban development. Currently, most of the old industrials zones suffer from the problems of industrial declination, low income, high unemployment rate, lack of endogenous growth ability, low knowledge absorptions rate, etc. According to the characteristics of industrial development, it puts forward three different paths for the transformation of old industrial zone: exit, progressive and leap-type. Premises and conditions of the three paths are analyzed respectively.Chapterâ…¥is the case study of Yangpu district, a typical old urban industrial zone. In light of the industrial development history of Yangpu, this chapter analyzes her current situation and predicament. As the resources, elements and environment all change dramatically, Yangpu choose the leap-type transformation path. Leveraging her local knowledge elements and absorbing external knowledge spillovers, Yangpu enhances her knowledge base. By optimizing the regional institutional and urban environment, improving public services, Yangpu upgrades her knowledge absorption capability. With the institutional innovation, the three spiral zone effect promotes the urban innovation development and brings about the benign interaction between knowledge absorption and urban development,Chapterâ…¦is the conclusions and recommendations part. By summing up the findings of the above six chapters, it comes up with the conclusion that knowledge absorption is the core factor to promote the transformation of old industrial zones. It also suggests that leap-type path should be adopted in the transformation of old urban industrial zones. To achieve this goal, government should put more emphasis on the improvement of urban environment, innovation in institution and mechanism, magnify the knowledge absorption elements and increase the interactive effects of knowledge, industry, city and people. The originality and new ideas of this dissertation:1. Explore the transformation path of old industrial zones under the circumstances of knowledge economy. Closely combine the fundamental issues of economic development (such as the economic growth model and driven force) with the transformation of old urban industrial zone.2. From the perspective of knowledge absorption, analyze the transformation effect innovatively. Study how the factors, such as human capital, environment and institutions influence the innovation process through the effect of knowledge absorption. Put forward recommendations to improve the knowledge absorption environment.3. A clear description of the knowledge absorption based transformation framework and related conditions.