| The continuous rise in labor costs in China causes its manufacturing industry face the diversion effect of countries with lower labor costs on the one hand,and the impact of the intensified manufacturing policies in developed countries on the other hand.Especially under the stimulus of the new crown epidemic and the trend of accelerated global decoupling in 2020,Western countries,especially the United States,have increased the blockade and sanctions on China's manufacturing industry.At the same time,the manufacturing industry in big coastal cities declines excessively fast in the process of economic transformation,which has brought about a great negative impact on China's international competitiveness.Therefore,how to realize the breakthrough in the way of manufacturing development and promote the positive industrial evolution has become an important issue concerned by the academia and industrial policy makers.Among them,strengthening regional links,especially national links,has been frequently used as an important policy means to promote the development of regional manufacturing industry.However,the national links have been weakened caused by neo-crowning epidemic.And thus,the regional links between domestic units are to be more important in reinforcing the "endocyclic" economy.In fact,regional links are always important in industry strategy of China,but the practical effects are a mixed bag.Some regions achieve industrial transformation and upgrading through regional links,some regions are stuck in the lower end of the production chain due to industrial division of labor,while some regions reduce the role of regional links due to local protection,which makes the policies related to regional links be questioned.Unfortunately,the research focuses on the spatial distribution and network characteristics of regional ties for now,as well as the impact of local industrial linkage on industrial evolution.It is impossible to solve the practical problems,that is,whether regional ties can definitely bring positive industrial evolution.In order to advance this research,this paper introduces regional links into the analytical framework of local industrial evolution,and suggesting that regional links play an important role in local industrial evolution.The role will be influenced by the stage of the industry,the size of the city and the proximity between the linked industries.To be specific,can industrial regional linkages lead to positive industrial evolution? Is there heterogeneity in the influence of industrial regional linkages on industrial evolution under different city sizes? Since there may be differences in technology,society,system and distance between regional industries,will such differences affect the efficiency of industrial regional linkages?Taking the example of manufacturing industry as the subject of the study,with local industry as the main focus,and based on the investment data of manufacturing enterprises from 2003 to 2015,firstly,this paper summarizes it into the city-industry scale and describes the basic reality of inter-regional industrial investment connection.Secondly,based on the intensity and proximity(technological proximity,social proximity,institutional proximity and distance proximity)of inter-region industrial linkages,this paper defines the inter-region connections between industries and other industries in the network.Finally,this paper divides the industrial evolution into three aspects based on the industry life cycle,namely,the entry of new industries,the development of leading industries and the exit of declining industries,and examines the influence of inter-region industrial connections on the industrial evolution,as well as the existence of heterogeneity in cities of different sizes.Moreover,this paper also examines the empirical results through a case study of the evolution of manufacturing industries in Suzhou.Main findings are as follows:Firstly,from the perspective of the spatial distribution of inter-region industrial connections,the spatial distribution of inter-region industrial investment is uneven,highly centralized in megacities.The inter-region industrial investment has obvious hierarchy,forming a diamond frame with Beijing,Shanghai and Shenzhen as the apex.In the meantime,industrial inter-region investment is characterized by technological proximity,social proximity and institutional proximity,and insufficient distance attenuation characteristic.However,high-level cities are not restricted by distance,especially the long-distance connection between the three major city clusters with Beijing,Shanghai and Shenzhen as the core,forming an investment "heat island" around 1200 km.Secondly,from the perspective of the entry of new industry,the inter-region industrial investment connection is conducive to industry entry,and the effect is stronger in small cities.Inter-region connections between technological proximity and industry with short distance facilitate industry entry.The positive effects of inter-region connections between social proximity and institutional proximity are stronger in smaller cities.The effect of inter-region industrial connection on industrial entry is negative in small cities and positive in big cities.Thirdly,from the perspective of the development of leading industries,the intercity industrial connection is conducive to the development of industries,and this effect will be enhanced in big cities.The positive effect of technological proximity and interregion industries on industrial development is stronger in large cities,while the positive effect of the inter-region connections between cultural proximity and industries with short distance on industrial development is stronger in small cities.The connection between adjacent industries is conducive to industrial development in both large and small cities.Fourthly,from the perspective of the exit of declining industry,there is city heterogeneity in the influence of inter-region industrial connection on the withdrawal of industry,negative in small cities and positive in big cities.The connection between technological proximity,social proximity and industries with short distance can reduce the probability of industry exit,which is stronger in small cities.Inter-region connection between distant industries can also reduce the probability of industry exit,which is stronger in large cities.Fifth,based on the study of Suzhou,electrical manufacturing industry as a new industry in Suzhou,the number of links with other regions is stable,but the strength are increasing,especially the links to the related technological industries,or the same culture regions,the same provinces,or close regions.Computer manufacturing industry as a main industry in Suzhou,the number and strength of links with other regions are increased,especially the links to the tech-related industries,and Yangtze River Delta,Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Pearl River Delta industries are closer.Textile industry as a declining industry in Suzhou,has experienced a decline in both the number and intensity of its linkages with other regions,and the industry only retains the links to tech-related and distance-closed industry.The innovation of this paper lies in: firstly,this paper,in terms of theroy,investigates the influence of inter-region connections on industrial evolution.In view of the heterogeneity of this influence in cities of different sizes,this paper finds the existence of the regulation effect of city size,which is reached on the premise that the endogeneity problem is better solved by using instrumental variables in this paper.Secondly,in terms of method,this paper uses a gravity model to fit the instrumental variables of regional links to address the reverse causality between regional links and local industrial evolution.Moreover,the paper also validates the empirical results through the case of Suzhou.Thirdly,in terms of data,the existing inter-region connection research based on enterprise investment mainly uses the data of listed companies,while they are a small part of enterprises,while this paper acquires equity investment data of listed companies and unlisted companies through data crawling,which is more comprehensive and can more accurately reflect the relationship between cities.The findings of this paper are of great importance to the policy implications for practice.To some extent,inter-region industrial connections provide new growth drivers for the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing sector,and provide feasible schemes for promoting regional integration.Whereas,it is necessary to consider the development stage of industries in the process of strengthening regional ties,as well as the technical,social,institutional and proximity of inter-region industrial connections,so as to obtain more efficient industrial connections.Meanwhile,regional links also take into consideration the differences between cities of different sizes.For small cities,strengthening the connections between new industries,declining industries and industries related to technology,in the same cultural areas and the same province can promote the development of new industries and declining industries and narrow the gap with big cities.For big cities,strengthening the connections between leading industries,declining industries and industries related to technology,as well as Beijing,Shanghai and Shenzhen,is conducive to further improving their competitiveness and realizing industrial transformation. |
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