The local variations in regional technological evolution: Evidence from the rise of transmission and digital information technology in China's technology space, 1992–2016

Abstract

While earlier studies have extensively evidenced the path-dependent character of technological evolution - whereby the rise of new technologies is heavily constrained by the portfolio of preexisting technologies in a certain city, surprisingly little is known about the local variations in the degree of path-dependency and the factors underlying this spatial heterogeneity. Based on a case study of transmission and digital information technology (H04L patents) in China, we perform a geographically and temporally weighted regression to unveil the local variations in regional technological path-dependency. To explain these variations, we further dissect the extent to which local actors may dislodge regional economy from path-dependent technological regimes, and the extent to which their path-breaking capabilities may diverge geographically. The model reveals that while all cities in China are subject to path-dependency in the development of H04L technology, the effect of technological relatedness is especially pronounced in the southern coastline, where industrial innovation enables a much larger impact of technological relatedness on H04L technological progress. By contrast, the technological path-dependency withers in the vicinity of eastern coastline, particularly in the Jing-Jin-Ji area, Yangtze River Delta and their western hinterlands, where university innovation exerts a relatively higher degree of path-breaking effect on H04L technology. Additionally, local governmental support is also conducive to inducing H04L technological discontinuities for latecomers by dislodging them from path-dependent technological regimes.