Abstract
The city is arguably where innovations concentrate. Agglomeration and diversity are two major explanations for why innovations concentrate in the city. Existing studies tend to focus on knowledge dynamics, in particular interfirm networks, while paying insufficient attention to the process of urban development in which knowledge dynamics are materialized. We concur that the city itself does not possess such a power for innovation (Shearmur, 2012). Rather, it is an arena where various actors exert impacts on knowledge dynamics. In a view from China, we reveal why bio-tech innovations concentrate in particular places and what political economic processes contribute to such concentration. We highlight the need for a political economic analysis in economic geographical studies of innovation.
Highlights
The concentration of economic innovation in the city has almost ‘become a research premise’ as opposed to a research question (Shearmur, 2012)
Given that there is a fruitful literature of relational economic geography (Bathelt, Malmberg, & Maskell, 2004; Martin & Sunley, 2006; Rutten, 2017; Yeung, 2005), it is the right time to rethink the connection between innovation and cities (Shearmur, 2012)
We tentatively provide a view from China, in particular biotech innovation
Summary
The concentration of economic innovation in the city has almost ‘become a research premise’ as opposed to a research question (Shearmur, 2012). Given that there is a fruitful literature of relational economic geography (Bathelt, Malmberg, & Maskell, 2004; Martin & Sunley, 2006; Rutten, 2017; Yeung, 2005), it is the right time to rethink the connection between innovation and cities (Shearmur, 2012). We try to explain why biotech innovation in China is heavily concentrated in major cities and their high-tech parks. As an emerging market in the global South, China has recently experienced economic restructuring and is striving to develop innovation capacities (Fu, Pietrobelli, & Soete, 2011; Grimes & Du, 2013; Zhang & Wu, 2012). We conclude with the importance of political economic analysis within economic geographic studies of innovation
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