Prometheus in the Periphery? The Extent, Drivers, and Nature of Innovation in the Urban Peripheries of Chinese Cities

Despite recent correctives to established views on the urban rather than suburban location of innovatory processes, we still know very little about the extent, drivers, and nature of concentrations of innovation in urban peripheries. This article makes several contributions. First, it presents an exploratory spatial data analysis method for identifying innovation centers in urban cores and peripheries from both geographical and functional perspectives. Second, we offer an initial, admittedly simple, econometric testing of some of the most critical drivers of innovation in urban peripheries. Third, we bring greater specificity to conjecture on the nature of innovation activities found in urban cores and peripheries, respectively. Drawing on an extensive time series data set of more than 7 million geocoded patents that were applied for by Chinese applicants between 2009 to 2018, we find that China’s urban peripheries have become more innovative overall, with an increasing number of cities that have developed at least one peripheral innovation center and a growing share of innovation activities in peripheral innovation centers. Governmental interventions, including the planning of polycentric spatial structures, the construction of development zones, high-speed railway stations, and college towns in urban peripheries, are shown to be key drivers underlying the emergence of peripheral innovation centers. Innovation in urban peripheries differs significantly from that in urban cores, being more specialized, less technologically complex, and more reliant on intercity technological collaboration.