IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i12p5478-d1678762.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Study on the Impact of the Digital Economy on the Industrial Collaborative Agglomeration of Manufacturing and Productive Service Industries

Author

Listed:
  • Lu Tang

    (School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing, Beijing 100083, China)

  • Lei Tong

    (School of Management, China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing, Beijing 100083, China)

Abstract

The digital economy has profoundly reshaped industrial organizational structures and the spatial distribution of cooperative agglomerations in the manufacturing and productive service sectors. To support the coordinated and sustainable development of China’s industries, it is essential to clarify how the digital economy influences industrial cooperative agglomeration. This study first constructs a comprehensive index system capturing the quality, quantity, and synergy of industrial cooperative agglomeration, enabling an evaluation of collaborative agglomeration levels across 30 Chinese provinces. Second, the relationship between the digital economy and industrial collaborative agglomeration is examined using both static and dynamic spatial panel models. Finally, the paper investigates regional disparities in this relationship across eastern, central, and western China. The results reveal the following findings: (1) The digital economy has a significant inhibitory effect on industrial collaborative agglomeration overall. (2) Dynamic spatial lag model results show an inverted U-shaped relationship, where the digital economy initially promotes but later inhibits industrial agglomeration, with notable temporal lags and spatial spillover effects. (3) In eastern China, digital economy growth suppresses local agglomeration while promoting it in neighboring regions; in the central region, it enhances local agglomeration but dampens it in adjacent areas; and in the western region, the relationship is nonlinear and U-shaped.

Suggested Citation

  • Lu Tang & Lei Tong, 2025. "A Study on the Impact of the Digital Economy on the Industrial Collaborative Agglomeration of Manufacturing and Productive Service Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(12), pages 1-24, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:12:p:5478-:d:1678762
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/12/5478/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/12/5478/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weijun He & Yizhan Li & Xu Meng & Mengfei Song & Thomas Stephen Ramsey & Min An, 2024. "Will green technological progress help industrial collaborative agglomeration increase regional carbon productivity: evidence from Yangtze River Delta urban agglomerations," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(10), pages 26019-26046, October.
    2. Wei Zhang & Jing Cheng & Xuemeng Liu & Zhangrong Zhu, 2023. "Heterogeneous industrial agglomeration, its coordinated development and total factor energy efficiency," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(6), pages 5511-5537, June.
    3. Ellison, Glenn & Glaeser, Edward L, 1997. "Geographic Concentration in U.S. Manufacturing Industries: A Dartboard Approach," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(5), pages 889-927, October.
    4. Max Nathan & Henry Overman, 2013. "Agglomeration, clusters, and industrial policy," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 29(2), pages 383-404, SUMMER.
    5. 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.
    6. Bei Xiong & Ruimei Wang, 2020. "Effect of Environmental Regulation on Industrial Solid Waste Pollution in China: From the Perspective of Formal Environmental Regulation and Informal Environmental Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-17, October.
    7. He, Xijun & Dong, Yanbo & Wu, Yuying & Wei, Guodan & Xing, Lizhi & Yan, Jia, 2017. "Structure analysis and core community detection of embodied resources networks among regional industries," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 479(C), pages 137-150.
    8. Guo, Bingnan & Wang, Yu & Zhang, Hao & Liang, Chunyan & Feng, Yu & Hu, Feng, 2023. "Impact of the digital economy on high-quality urban economic development: Evidence from Chinese cities," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    9. Shanlang Lin & Ziyang Chen & Ziwen He, 2021. "Intra-City Industrial Collaborative Agglomeration, Inter-City Network Connectivity and Green Technology Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-25, August.
    10. Gao, Jie & Li, Zhizhuo & Nguyen, Thithuha & Zhang, Wentao, 2025. "Digital transformation and enterprise employment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    11. Lee, Lung-fei & Yu, Jihai, 2010. "Estimation of spatial autoregressive panel data models with fixed effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 154(2), pages 165-185, February.
    12. Nathan Nunn & Nancy Qian, 2014. "US Food Aid and Civil Conflict," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(6), pages 1630-1666, June.
    13. Meiyu Liu & Haiyan Li & Chengyou Li & Zhaojun Yan, 2023. "Digital transformation, financing constraints and enterprise performance," European Journal of Innovation Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(4), pages 1472-1497, December.
    14. Kai Chang & Huijia Zhang & Boyang Li, 2024. "The Impact of Digital Economy and Industrial Agglomeration on the Changes of Industrial Structure in the Yangtze River Delta," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(2), pages 9207-9227, June.
    15. Xiaoxuan Li & Ying Liu, 2024. "The Economic Spillover Effect of the Collaborative Agglomeration between Manufacturing and Producer Services," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-19, June.
    16. Huang, Jie & Lu, Hongyang & Du, Minzhe, 2025. "Can digital economy narrow the regional economic gap? Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    17. Donald J. Lacombe & James P. LeSage, 2018. "Use and interpretation of spatial autoregressive probit models," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 60(1), pages 1-24, January.
    18. Sijia Li & Lihua Wu, 2024. "Can regional integration promote industrial green transformation? Empirical evidence from Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 14(1), pages 117-134, March.
    19. Ge, Yuanqin & Xia, Yifan & Wang, Tongyu, 2024. "Digital economy, data resources and enterprise green technology innovation: Evidence from A-listed Chinese Firms," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    20. Lange, Steffen & Pohl, Johanna & Santarius, Tilman, 2020. "Digitalization and energy consumption. Does ICT reduce energy demand?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    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. Zhu, Qing & Ma, Dan & He, Xin, 2023. "Digital transformation and firms' pollution emissions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    2. Hongbo Lei & Caihong Tang & Yunfei Long, 2024. "Study on the impact of digital economy on industrial collaborative agglomeration: Evidence from manufacturing and productive service industries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(8), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Yue Fan & Xin Shen, 2025. "Research Regarding the Impact Mechanism of Digital Economy Development on Economic Resilience—Mediating Effect Based on Upgraded Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(13), pages 1-22, June.
    4. Shuang Guo & Xiaodong Yan, 2025. "Investigation of Industrial Structure Upgrading, Energy Consumption Transition, and Carbon Emissions: Evidence from the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-30, May.
    5. Askarov, Zohid & Doucouliagos, Hristos, 2015. "Spatial aid spillovers during transition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PA), pages 79-95.
    6. Fuming Deng & Lu Cai & Xiaolei Ma, 2024. "Does digital transformation restrict the carbon emission intensity of enterprises? Evidence from listed manufacturing enterprises in China," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(2), pages 364-384, May.
    7. Rongwu Zhang & Wenqiang Fu & Yingxu Kuang, 2022. "Can Digital Economy Promote Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in Heavily Polluting Enterprises? Empirical Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-21, August.
    8. Du, Juntao & Shen, Zhiyang & Song, Malin & Zhang, Linda, 2023. "Nexus between digital transformation and energy technology innovation: An empirical test of A-share listed enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    9. Guo, Panting & Bi, Jiefeng & Zhu, Mengnan, 2025. "Enterprise digital transformation and investment efficiency: Empirical evidence from listed enterprises in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    10. Cheng, Zhonghua & Li, Xiang & Zhu, Yeman & Wang, Meixiao, 2023. "The effects of agglomeration externalities on urban green total-factor productivity in China," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    11. Alberto Gude & Inmaculada Álvarez & Luis Orea, 2018. "Heterogeneous spillovers among Spanish provinces: a generalized spatial stochastic frontier model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 155-173, December.
    12. Xiaoqin Chen & Shenya Mao & Siqi Lv & Zhong Fang, 2022. "A Study on the Non-Linear Impact of Digital Technology Innovation on Carbon Emissions in the Transportation Industry," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    13. Chengming Li & Meiyu Wen & Shaoxiang Jiang & Huaxing Wang, 2024. "Assessing the effect of urban digital infrastructure on green innovation: mechanism identification and spatial-temporal characteristics," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    14. Lyu, Yanwei & Xiao, Xuan & Zhang, Jinning, 2024. "Does the digital economy enhance green total factor productivity in China? The evidence from a national big data comprehensive pilot zone," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 183-196.
    15. Du, Jiayue & Gao, Haoyu & Wen, Huiyu & Ye, Yanyi, 2024. "Public data acces and stock price synchronicity: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    16. Sun, Na & Long, Wei, 2024. "Does mineral resource consumption reduce by energy transition and fossil fuel energy intensity? Moderating role of financial inclusion and digitalization," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    17. Mao, Jianhui & Yu, Bo & Guan, Chao, 2025. "Digital economy, official promotion pressure, and firm innovation," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    18. Ren, Jianyu & Xu, Zhitao & Hu, Mingzhi, 2023. "Digital economy and settlement intention of migrants in urban China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).
    19. Wenhui Luo & Gennian Tang & Peiling Yang & Chunxia Jia & Ruize Yang, 2024. "RETRACTED ARTICLE: Examining Digital Economy’s Role in Urban Green Development: A Study of the Yangtze River Delta Region," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 11250-11285, September.
    20. Yu, Lingzheng & Wang, Jiannan & Lou, Shiyan & Wei, Xiahai, 2024. "To leave or to stay: Digital economy development and migrant workers’ location," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:17:y:2025:i:12:p:5478-:d:1678762. 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.