Analyzing Urban Networks In Western China Through The Lens Of Corporate Linkages

The world economy has been developing to the network,flat pattern promoted by the globalization and informatization,which resulted in the formation of a complex urban network.Corporate location selection is the core strength to drive the urban spatial reorganization.With the rapid development of globalization and informatization,the trans-regional flow of production elements has been accelerating that promoted the change and adjustment of corporate spatial organization.Today,more and more companies have been developed from local to global as well as more cities have been brought into the world urban network.Corporate network and urban network has been the focus and hot issues of economic geography and urban geography.Corporate is the basic unit of social and economic development.It is the “actor carrier” of all kinds of socioeconomic activities.Meanwhile,city is the most important “spatial carrier” of all kinds of social and economic activities.In “flow space”,human beings complete various important activities in “spatial carrier” through “actor carrier” in various elements flow,which produce the formation of a complicated urban network by connecting various cities together.There have internal logic connections between location spatial pattern of corporate and urban spatial pattern,urban network and corporate network.The evolution progress of enterprise spatial pattern characterizes the urban space structure on micro level and induces the reconstruction of the urban space.And then,what is the intrinsic logic relation between the corporate network and the urban network? How to concept model build mathematically analytical model of the urban network based on the corporate network? What are the structural features,differences and mainly influent factors of the urban network in China western cities linked by World top 500 and China top 500 enterprises? In this thesis,we use empirical method and theoretical analysis to study the structural characters and the differences of Western China Urban network based on comparative perspective of corporate linkages.Based on Social Network Analysis theory(SNA),Actor Network theory(ANT),World Urban Network theory,and theories of Economic Geography and Urban Geography,we constructed a concept model and mathematically analytical model of coupling of enterprise network and urban network by modified the models of Taylor's Interlocking network and Alderson's Social network analysis.The structural features and differences of regional scale,city clusters and cities via industry dimension were discussed.In this thesis we have tried to innovate as followings:Firstly,mathematical analysis model of interlocking-subordinate network model is constructed based on Embeddedness,Flow space and Urban spatial interaction theories using ANT,SNA and Graph theoretic approaches according to the Taylor's Chain network model and Alderson's Social network analysis model.Secondly,the structural features and evolutional laws of the Chinese Western urban networks based on wide industry,manufacturing,producer services and life services in the World top 500 and China top 500 corporates are compared and analyzed.More accurate results are obtained by using analytical method of parent company-subcompany-sub-subsidiary.Thirdly,spatial and temporal characteristics of urban network are studied at a three-spatial scale of western region,western urban agglomeration and the city itself(Chengdu)and multi-temporal data of three selected years 2005,2010 and 2015.This thesis containing seven chapters,in which preface and theory basics,research hypothesis along with constructing quantitative analysis model were respectively described in the chapter 1 and chapter 2.Empirical part was presented in chapters 3-6.The last chapter is conclusion and outlook.The main research conclusions are described as followings:First,there are two basic characters which are differences and convergences between the distribution patterns of the world top 500 corporates and the China top 500 corporates in Western China Cities.The numbers of the branch offices of the world top 500 corporates in Western cities are small.The spatial agglomeration is obvious,and the firms location choices are more inclined to big cities,and the core-periphery structure is strengthening.However,the number of the branch offices of China top 500 enterprises is large.And the distributions are relatively dispersed and balanced.The location choices of both China's top 500 and the world's top 500 enterprises are becoming convergence.The spatial distributions of enterprises show a pattern as great decentralization and small agglomeration.Three cities including Chengdu,Chongqing and Xi'an have always maintained an absolute advantage forming an obviously gathering center.The core-periphery structure is also obvious.On the urban agglomeration scale,Chengdu-Chongqing,Guanzhong,Lanzhou-Xining,the central Yunnan and North Bay five urban agglomerations have been formed a five-urban group like as a diamond-shaped spatial structure based on the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration as the core.Enterprise density distributions show a character such as forming a high-density area in eastern and low-density area in the western boundary disputes between Hohhot-Yinchuan-Lanzhou-Chengdu-Kunming.Second,there are obvious differences and similarities between the urban networks standing on the corporate networks of the world top 500 enterprises and the China top 500 enterprises in China western cities.The urban network based on the global top 500 enterprise linkages show a low level of development,small density and obvious aggregation,low symmetry,strong grade,poor balance and weak adjacent diffusion effect,but the links between provincial capitals cities are stronger than other cities.The structures of urban networks are evolved from star structure to bird nest structure.However,the networks based on China top 500 corporate linkages are closely linked between these cities,the network level of development,the regional integration,the network density,the symmetry and the balance are high,the grade and the adjacent diffusion effect are obvious and the urban network structures are evaluated from bird nest-like structure to bird nest structure.At the same time,taking Chengdu-Chongqing as the core,there is a diffusion area in the eastern region of Hohhot-Yinchuan-Lanzhou-Chengdu-Kunming line.There is obvious characteristic as cross-administrative regional contact.As a result,Chengdu,Chongqing,Xi'an three cities have always been in a strong core in the two urban networks.The core-periphery structures are obvious.According to out-degree and indegree,the node cities can be divided into four categories: the integrated all-around type cities with high out-degree and high in-degree,the black hole type cities with low out-degree and high in-degree,the paradise type cities with low out-degree and low in-degree,and the sun type cities with high out-degree and low in-degree.Third,the convergences of the urban networks based on manufacturing corporate linkages are significant.There are very high convergences of the centrality of the cities between the urban networks based on whole industry corporate linkages and the urban networks based on manufacturing corporate linkages.The similarities between the two urban networks based on manufacturing linkages in world top 500 corporates and in China top 500 corporates are larger.The polarization phenomenon that strong one is stronger is obvious.The development degrees of the urban network based on corporate network of manufacturing in the China top 500 enterprises are higher than that based on the manufacturing linkages in world top 500 enterprises,the urban network connections are closer,and the structure and the equilibrium degree are higher.Fourth,the development degrees of the urban networks based on production services corporate linkages in China top 500 corporates are much higher than that based on production services in the world top 500 corporates.The centrality and density of the urban networks in western China based on production services linkages in the world top 500 are very low.They are in the early stage of the urban network.They are simple,they are radial or combination of radial and star,the core-periphery structures are obvious.The urban networks of western China cities based on production services in the China top 500 corporates are very similar with the urban network based on all China top 500 corporates,the urban networks are relatively mature,the hierarchies are significant,the linkages between provincial cities are stronger than the linkages between other cities,showing asymmetry character of large cities outflows,small cities inflows The five cities Chongqing,Chengdu,Xi'an,Nanning,Kunming are always in a strong core position.The urban network structures are evaluated from the nest structure to the nest structure.It shows that there is a strong Matthew effect,namely,the city with high out-degree also with high in-degree.Fifth,the degree of the urban networks development based on the corporate linkages of the life services in global top 500 corporates are far lower than that based on the life services in the China 500 corporates.The contacts of the city network linked with China top 500 life service industry are enhancing.The levels effects are obvious,the core-periphery structures are obvious,and the symmetries are increasing.That also shows asymmetry as outflows of large cities and inflows of small cities.The relationships between the capital cities are stronger than that of other cities.The diffusion effect is obvious in the province and the urban agglomeration,and the network structures evolve from radial to stellate and nest structure.Sixth,the differences of urban networks of western urban agglomerations characteristics are significant.The topological structures of 9 urban agglomerations networks based on the world top 500 enterprises are obviously different in spatial dimension and the degrees of development are great difference,but the differences between the network topologies on the time dimension are narrowing.Both the difference of the topological structure in spatial dimension and the difference in the time dimension of the nine urban agglomerations in the west of China are small.The developing degrees of the nine urban agglomerations urban networks based on the enterprise networks of world top 500 enterprises are not perfect.The contact matrixes are characterized by sparse matrix.The networks symmetries are low.The hierarchy and clustering characteristics are obvious.However,the network topological structures of the nine urban agglomerations based on the enterprise network of China top 500 enterprises are greatly developed.The network contact matrix evolves from the sparse matrix to the complete matrix,the symmetries of the nine urban agglomerations in the west of China are high and the network connection dispersion effect is obvious.In the western China urban agglomerations,based on the world top 500 industries,the internal network of Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration is closer,showing a certain degree of dual-core integrated network characteristics.They are weak and relatively loose in the rest of the urban agglomerations.They have a centrifugal contact making the provincial capitals as the core.The overall agglomeration networks development are low.However,the internal network connection increased in western urban agglomerations related to China top 500 enterprises.Chengdu-Chongqing,Lanzhou-Xining Guanzhong agglomerations show clear gathering cores.There are two key processes for the formation of the topological relations of the agglomeration: the direct link between the different level branches of enterprise in different cities,and space gathering of the high-level branches of of enterprise in the core cities of agglomerations.Seventh,Chengdu city networks are multi-core structure;powers and prestiges space polarizations are not obvious.The urban internal network lingkages of Chengdu based on the world top 500 industries are weak.The networks densities are very small and the structures stabilities are poor.The symmetries are low.The hierarchies are not prominent.The self-linkages are large,the urban networks belong to the low level of decentralized equilibrium state,and the urban network stuctures are gradually evoluting to the complex multi-core structure.On the contrary,the Chengdu urban networks based on China 500 enterprises are closely linked.The symmetries of the urban networks are good.The networks development degrees are high.The networks topologies tend to be perfect and relatively balanced.The contact activities of enterprises show good symmetrical two-way flows.There are multi-core network structures,and Wuhou,Jinniu and Qingyang have always been at the core of the urban networks.