IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2021i1p150-d709964.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Has the Digital Economy Changed the Urban Network Structure in China?—Based on the Analysis of China’s Top 500 New Economy Enterprises in 2020

Author

Listed:
  • Bo Chen

    (Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

  • Huasheng Zhu

    (Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China)

Abstract

The rapid development of the new generation of information technology makes digital enterprises and the digital economy important forces in promoting the sustainable growth of the world economy. Under the influence of the digital economy, the original urban network may undergo drastic changes. There have been studies that have arrived at conflicting conclusions. This paper primarily illustrates whether or not the digital economy has changed the urban network structure. China’s digital economy is developing rapidly, becoming a new engine for the high-quality development of the Chinese economy. Therefore, this paper demonstrates the impact of China’s digital economy on the urban network structure by using data from China’s Top 500 New Economy Enterprises in 2020 and the headquarter–subsidiary ownership method. The results show that (1) China’s urban network has changed significantly. Compared with APS enterprises and listed companies, the urban network of the digital economy has become more polarized, and Beijing has become the absolute control center. (2) Chinese cities have been reshuffled in the era of the digital economy. Beijing, Hangzhou, and Chengdu, with their industrial foundations in the digital economy, have performed better within the network. Simultaneously, some heavily industrialized cities, such as Wuhan, Shenyang, and Chongqing, have been declining due to the difficulties associated with transformation. (3) Although the digital economy has reshaped China’s urban network structure to a certain extent, the original urban pattern still plays a dominant role in the new system. The network spatial pattern of dense east and sparse west still exists, and provincial capitals and subprovincial cities still play a more significant role in the network than ordinary cities. (4) Network diffusion is typically a hierarchical diffusion between core nodes. Geographical proximity has a low constraint on network diffusion, and subsidiaries expand outward through hierarchical diffusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Bo Chen & Huasheng Zhu, 2021. "Has the Digital Economy Changed the Urban Network Structure in China?—Based on the Analysis of China’s Top 500 New Economy Enterprises in 2020," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:150-:d:709964
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/150/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/1/150/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Peter J. Taylor & Ben Derudder & James Faulconbridge & Michael Hoyler & Pengfei Ni, 2014. "Advanced Producer Service Firms as Strategic Networks, Global Cities as Strategic Places," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 90(3), pages 267-291, July.
    2. Peter J. Taylor & Ben Derudder & James Faulconbridge & Michael Hoyler & Pengfei Ni, 2014. "Advanced Producer Service Firms as Strategic Networks, Global Cities as Strategic Places," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 90(3), pages 267-291, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kirsten Martinus & Matthew Tonts, 2015. "Powering the world city system: energy industry networks and interurban connectivity," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(7), pages 1502-1520, July.
    2. Senhua Huang & Wenzhong Ye & Feng Han, 2023. "Does the Digital Economy Promote Industrial Collaboration and Agglomeration? Evidence from 286 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-24, October.
    3. Wang, Hongzheng & Lu, Xinhai & Feng, Lianyue & Yuan, Zhihang & Tang, Yifeng & Jiang, Xu, 2023. "Dynamic change and evolutionary mechanism of city land leasing network—Taking the Yangtze River Delta region in China as an example," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    4. Christoph Stich & Emmanouil Tranos & Max Nathan, 2023. "Modeling clusters from the ground up: A web data approach," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(1), pages 244-267, January.
    5. Tuochen Li & Dongri Han & Shaosong Feng & Lei Liang, 2019. "Can Industrial Co-Agglomeration between Producer Services and Manufacturing Reduce Carbon Intensity in China?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-15, July.
    6. Fangzhou Li & Zhiming Feng & Peng Li & Zhen You, 2017. "Measuring directional urban spatial interaction in China: A migration perspective," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.
    7. Thomas J Sigler & Kirsten Martinus, 2017. "Extending beyond ‘world cities’ in World City Network (WCN) research: Urban positionality and economic linkages through the Australia-based corporate network," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(12), pages 2916-2937, December.
    8. Fenghua Pan & Wenkai Bi & James Lenzer & Simon Zhao, 2017. "Mapping urban networks through inter-firm service relationships: The case of China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(16), pages 3639-3654, December.
    9. Kirsten Martinus & Thomas Sigler & Iacopo Iacopini & Ben Derudder, 2019. "The role of tax havens and offshore financial centers in Asia-Pacific networks: evidence from firm-subsidiary connections," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(5), pages 389-411, November.
    10. Marta Degl'Innocenti & Roman Matousek & Nickolaos G Tzeremes, 2018. "Financial centres' competitiveness and economic convergence: Evidence from the European Union regions," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(1), pages 133-156, February.
    11. Jana Kleibert, 2017. "On the global city map, but not in command? Probing Manila’s position in the world city network," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(12), pages 2897-2915, December.
    12. Maëlys Waiengnier & Gilles Van Hamme & Reijer Hendrikse & David Bassens, 2020. "Metropolitan Geographies of Advanced Producer Services: Centrality and Concentration in Brussels," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(4), pages 585-600, September.
    13. Dariusz Wójcik & Vladimír Pažitka & Eric Knight & Phillip O’Neill, 2019. "Investment banking centres since the global financial crisis: New typology, ranking and trends," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(3), pages 687-704, May.
    14. Zachary P Neal, 2017. "Well connected compared to what? Rethinking frames of reference in world city network research," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(12), pages 2859-2877, December.
    15. Xu Zhang, 2018. "Multiple creators of knowledge-intensive service networks: A case study of the Pearl River Delta city-region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(9), pages 2000-2019, July.
    16. Peng Gao & Dan He & Zhijing Sun & Yuemin Ning, 2020. "Characterizing functionally integrated regions in the Central Yangtze River Megaregion from a city‐network perspective," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 1357-1379, September.
    17. van den Buuse, Daniel & Kolk, Ans, 2019. "An exploration of smart city approaches by international ICT firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 220-234.
    18. Liena Kano & Eric W. K. Tsang & Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2020. "Global value chains: A review of the multi-disciplinary literature," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(4), pages 577-622, June.
    19. Tianling Zhang & Panda Su & Hongbing Deng, 2021. "Does the Agglomeration of Producer Services and the Market Entry of Enterprises Promote Carbon Reduction? An Empirical Analysis of the Yangtze River Economic Belt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-21, December.
    20. Xu Zhang & Yajuan Li, 2019. "Serving the culture: Spatial interactions between cultural industries and advanced producer services in mainland China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 51(2), pages 374-392, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:150-:d:709964. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.