Regional Industrial Restructuring Research Articles

The Impact of Carbon Emission Trading Policy on Industrial Structure Adjustment: A Perspective of Sustainable Development

To mitigate the effects of climate change, carbon emission trading policy (CET) has emerged as a crucial policy instrument for nations. As the largest developing country, China confronts the pressing need to steer industrial restructuring and foster sustainable economic growth. Utilizing provincial panel data from 2005 to 2020, this study constructs a difference-in-differences model to examine the influence of CET on industrial structure adjustment (ISA) and corroborates these findings with robustness tests. The analysis reveals that: (1) CET substantially facilitates industrial restructuring; (2) CET inherently motivates enterprises towards technological innovation, thus advancing regional industrial restructuring; and (3) the effects of CET on industrial structures exhibit marked regional variability.

How does the coal-to-gas policy mitigate carbon emissions? The role of fintech development

As energy transition becomes an important way to achieve carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduction globally, this paper takes China as an example and uses the difference-in-difference (DID) model suitable for policy research to explore the impact of coal-to-gas (CTG) policy, which aims at promoting energy transition and reducing pollutant emissions, on CO2 emissions, and explores the mechanism of action and the spatial spillover effects of the policy. The results of the study show that, first, the implementation of the CTG policy can reduce CO2 emissions in China, and the results still hold under a series of robustness tests. Second, the CTG policy can achieve CO2 emission reduction through regional industrial restructuring, and the rapid development of financial technology promotes the process of CO2 emission reduction in China. Finally, the implementation of the CTG policy may cause the problem of CO2 leakage due to regional differences in the policy. This study not only provides a reference for setting global energy transition policies, but also provides new ideas for China's CO2 emission reduction and CO2 leakage, and provides data support for policy formulation.

A study of the economic growth effects of market integration: An examination of 27 cities in the Yangtze River Delta city cluster.

The city cluster of the Yangtze River Delta is a highly dynamic and competitive economic region in China. The integration of the market across the 27 cities is crucial in driving economic growth in the area. This paper aims to provide policymakers with recommendations on promoting regional integration, enhancing the structure, and improving overall performance. By utilizing the benefits and resources of each community more effectively, greater economic gains can be achieved. The findings of this study can also be applied to other Chinese towns or business areas. Market integration is a necessary foundation for regional integration, as it enables the seamless movement of goods and factors throughout the region while simultaneously reducing entry barriers and supporting the creation of a unified market. Unfortunately, the "vassal economy" model has impeded the region's economic growth. The integration of regional markets is crucial for economic growth. However, it is equally important to create industrial clusters with central towns as their hubs. The Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration is a prime example of one of six world-class city clusters demonstrating how market integration can result in high-quality economic progress. The paper's primary discoveries are threefold: firstly, there has been a progressive elevation in the level of market integration among the 27 cities within the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, characterized by increasingly intimate connections concerning trade, investment, and population mobility. Secondly, this heightened market integration exerts a catalytic impact on the real economic growth of the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, particularly concerning regional industrial restructuring, transformation, and upgrading. Finally, market integration is poised to expedite the industrial division of labor and synergistic development between the cities, thus promoting a concentration of advanced manufacturing and new industries in the central cities and furthering the development of profitable industries in the central individual cities.

Examining sectoral differences and locational determinants of acquisition target selection at the sub-national scale: Evidences from China

The role of corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in regional growth and industrial restructuring across spatial scales has been widely recognized, but the sectoral dynamics and locational determinants affecting sub-national acquisition target selection remain underexplored. This paper aims to examine the changing network properties of interregional M&As in various sectors and relevant drivers within the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), an emerging global city-region in China. Based on a dataset of 5764 announced M&A events from 2001 to 2016, the descriptive results reveal that M&As were unevenly distributed across sectors and regions, with manufacturing M&As more dispersed to the peripheral areas (or suburban counties) and service M&As more concentrated in a few major cities. The modeling results suggest that the improved locational accessibility and weakened administrative segmentation have largely promoted the intensity of cross-regional M&A connections at the sub-national scale. Place-specific attributes such as economic level, labor pool, innovative capacity, and policy setting still matter in acquisition target selection, but relevant roles varied across sectoral attributes of acquirers. The paper contributes to the understanding of the industrial dynamics and geographical mechanisms of M&As and their impacts on regional industrial restructuring within city-regions.

China's pilot free trade zone and green high-quality development: an empirical study from the perspective of green finance.

Achieving the integration of green and economic development has become the key to promoting high-quality economic development in China. In the context of dual-cycle development, a higher level of opening up will be an important prerequisite for achieving this goal. This article uses panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2008 to 2020 as the research sample and takes the establishment of the Pilot Free Trade Zone (PFTZ) as a quasi-natural experiment. By constructing the Green Dual-Cycle High-Quality Development (GDHD) indicator system, taking green finance as the starting point, industrial structure adjustment and technological innovation ability as the perspective of differentiation. This article uses the difference-in-differences method and the intermediary effect model to explore the impact of PFTZ on regional green high-quality development. The study found that establishing PFTZ has significantly promoted regional green high-quality development, and this effect remains valid under multiple robustness tests. Further research has found that, under the advantages of green finance in PFTZ, regional industrial restructuring and the improvement of green innovation capabilities are the main ways to achieve this goal. This study provides a new development path for China's PFTZ to promote high-quality regional development better.

Identification of Key Carbon Emission Industries and Emission Reduction Control Based on Complex Network of Embodied Carbon Emission Transfers: The Case of Hei-Ji-Liao, China.

Similar to the problems surrounding carbon transfers that exist in international trade, there are severe carbon emission headaches in regional industrial systems within countries. It is essential for emission reduction control and regional industrial restructuring to clarify the relationship of carbon emissions flows between industrial sectors and identify key carbon-emitting industrial sectors. Supported by the input-output model (I-O model) and social network analysis (SNA), this research adopts input-output tables (2017), energy balance sheets (2021) and the energy statistics yearbooks (2021) of the three Chinese provinces of Hei-Ji-Liao to construct an Embodied carbon emission transfer network (ECETN) and determine key carbon-emitting industrial sectors with a series of complex network measurement indicators and analysis methods. The key abatement control pathways are obtained based on the flow relationships between the chains in the industrial system. The results demonstrate that the ECETNs in all three provinces of Hei-Ji-Liao are small-world in nature with scale-free characteristics (varying according to the power function). The key carbon emission industry sectors in the three provinces are identified through centrality, influence, aggregation and diffusion, comprising coal mining, the chemical industry, metal products industry, machinery manufacturing and transportation in Liaoning Province; coal mining, non-metal mining, non-metal products, metal processing and the electricity industry in Jilin Province; and agriculture, metal processing and machinery manufacturing in Heilongjiang. Additionally, key emission reduction control pathways in the three provinces are also identified based on embodied carbon emission flow relationships between industry sectors. Following the above findings, corresponding policy recommendations are proposed to tackle the responsibility of carbon reduction among industrial sectors in the province. Moreover, these findings provide some theoretical support and policy considerations for policymakers.

Asset modification for regional industrial restructuring in times of economic crisis

ABSTRACT Contributing to the literature on regional industrial restructuring, this article presents findings on how firms modify assets to overcome an economic crisis. Empirically, this article draws on interviews with 33 firms in the oil and gas (O&G) industry in Southern Norway, which experienced a major crisis caused by a fall in global oil prices in 2014–2015. We investigate how the crisis affected the asset base of the local firms, how they modified their firm-level assets to restructure, and how and to what extent they drew on system-level assets to overcome the crisis. We find that the firms experienced a substantial asset drain. Asset reuse was the prevailing mode of asset modification in the early phase of the crisis, while asset bridging through collaboration with other organizations became more important in the later phase of the crisis. With exception of the local university, system-level assets were of little relevance to the firms. The study shows that during crises firms benefit from well-aligned firm- and system-level assets and from a regional industrial milieu that supports inter-organizational collaboration.

What can evolutionary economic geography learn from global value chain and global production network research on developing and emerging economies?

ABSTRACT Although evolutionary economic geography (EEG) and global production network (GPN) and global value chain (GVC) research into regional industrial restructuring and development have developed in parallel and with little mutual engagement, they provide important complementary insights. This article concentrates on what the EEG approach can learn from the GVC/GPN approach by focusing on extra-regional linkages, institutional contexts and firm heterogeneity. Analysing the role of these factors not only overcomes some weaknesses of the EEG approach but also plays an especially important role in understanding regional industrial dynamics in developing and emerging economies and in the conduct of policy-relevant research.

Firm Heterogeneities, Multi-Dimensional Proximities, and Systematic Dynamics of M&A Partnering: Evidences from Transitional China

Corporate investment strategies and decision-making processes are crucial for understanding the operation and evolution of socioeconomic systems. Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been the main mode of corporate investment, growth, and upgrading, deeply affecting corporate reorganization, regional industrial restructuring, and economic globalization. By building a database including 5543 M&A partnerings and 1.89 million M&A non-partnerings, this study aims to uncover the systematic dynamics of M&A partnering in regional China during different phases since the mid-1990s, with particular attention given to the effects of firm heterogeneities and multi-dimensional proximities. Although geographical, cognitive, organizational, and institutional proximity dimensions are significantly influential for M&A partnering, we find that the effects of multi-dimensional proximities differ across M&A types and involving firms. Specifically, organizational proximity matters more for large- and medium-sized acquirers, while institutional proximity plays a more vital role in the acquisition target selection of private-owned and small-sized acquirers. Cognitive proximity measured by industrial and technical relatedness is more crucial for horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate M&As that are tightly associated with the corporate product, technical, and functional upgrading. The results indicate that the benefits of cognitive proximity may offset the risks and costs resulting from long-distance M&As, demonstrating the interactive dynamics between proximity dimensions. Our findings suggest that firm heterogeneities, proximity dynamics, and contextual factors should be focused on when explaining the investment decision-making processes of individual corporations in emerging and transitional economies such as China.

Institutional work, regional key actors, and green industrial restructuring

ABSTRACT Departing from evolutionary economic geography, the objective of the article is to reveal the dynamics of institutional work by regional key actors with a need to achieve green restructuring in regions dependent on the oil and gas industry. The authors combine quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate how, why, and when regional stakeholders’ institutional work contributes, or not, to changing institutional logics that enable green industrial restructuring in the regional innovation systems of two adjacent petroleum-dominated regions in Norway. The main finding is that despite shared positive visions in both regions for green industrial restructuring, the processes of institutional work and related institutional logics respectively legitimize a green shift in Hordaland and delegitimize it in Rogaland. Consequently, there is a need to remain mindful of institutional work’s connection to regional and often taken-for-granted institutional logics. In conclusion, the authors argue that the findings challenge the current IW discourse within economic geography, which has tended to explain green regional industrial restructuring as outcomes of intended agency leading to successful outcomes.

A web text mining approach for the evaluation of regional characteristics at the town level

AbstractThe evaluation of regional characteristics can reveal the advantages of local industries that are significant to guide regional industrial restructuring and industrial layout. Detailed guidance requires fine‐grained evaluations of the regional characteristics, especially at the town level, since towns are the locations of industry. Existing evaluation methods, such as the location quotient and the Porter diamond model, depend on statistical data to compare the advantages of regional characteristics in different regions. Statistical data have fixed statistical items and spatial units that limit the content and granularity, respectively, of the evaluation. In existing methods, non‐covered industries and under‐counted units, especially at the town level and below, result in incomplete descriptions of the regional characteristics. In contrast, web text in the current internet era contains numerous descriptions of regional characteristics. Therefore, web text can potentially be used to evaluate these characteristics. This article proposes a novel web‐based method for the evaluation of regional characteristics (WERC). According to the features of the regional characteristics of the town in the web texts, the WERC method uses the term frequency method to extract the typical characteristics of the region by crawling text on websites and compares the relative advantage of the typical characteristics between different regions to determine the outstanding regional characteristics. WERC is used in a case study to evaluate the regional characteristics of 1,090 towns in Fujian Province, China, obtaining high precision (0.946) and recall (0.895). Unlike existing methods, the proposed method provides comprehensive quantitative town portraits to describe the regional characteristics. The town portrait not only shows the advantages of the typical characteristics of the town, but also quantifies the advantages using a ranking of the typical characteristics. The results can guide regional industrial restructuring and industrial layout and provide a novel approach for the evaluation of regional characteristics based on web text.

Cluster development and regional industrial restructuring: agency and asset modification

ABSTRACT The paper presents a novel theoretical framework to analyse the emergence and growth of industrial clusters. The framework focuses on the role of change agency for the modification of assets that initiate cluster development, which may also impact regional industrial restructuring. The authors distinguish between agency and assets at firm level and regional level, and argue that alignment of assets at the two levels may influence cluster development. The theoretical approach is illustrated and further advanced through a study of agency and asset modification in three recent cluster initiatives in western Norway. While the results of the empirical studies confirm the relevance of the theoretical approach, they also highlight the importance of specific regional and extra-regional contextual factors, as well as national policies and regulations, for clusters.

Asset modification for regional industrial restructuring: digitalization of the culture and experience industry and the healthcare sector

ABSTRACT This paper researches how firm- and system-level asset modification and alignment underpin and direct new path development from digitalization. It suggests that asset reuse mostly promotes path extension or path upgrading, while asset creation and asset destruction will be more evident in the process of path emergence. The empirics support asset modification as a key mechanism for regional restructuring from digitalization, but suggest that the typology should be more nuanced. Specifically, the empirics demonstrate asset upgrading as a key mechanism.

Regional industrial restructuring: Asset modification and alignment for digitalization

AbstractThis paper provides a conceptual framework to understand the innovation‐based restructuring of industries in a regional context. The framework includes how firms create new assets, reuse existing assets, and overcome hampering barriers to support innovation processes. The framework also covers how such asset modifications take place at the innovation system level. A core argument is that innovation activity is strengthened and regional restructuring supported when firms’ internal assets are aligned with assets at the regional innovation system level. We illustrate the framework with empirical examples of how digitalization as an innovation process takes place in firms in traditional manufacturing industries and in local newspapers in the Agder region in southern Norway.

The Effect of Regional Industrial Restructuring on the Resource Environmental Carrying Capacity in Jingjiang City, Jiangsu Province, China

Disordered industrial expansion in a given region leads to the excessive consumption of resources and environmental deterioration. Therefore, the influence of the regional industrial structure and layout on the resource environmental carrying capacity (RECC) is receiving attention. This study constructs a comprehensive analytical framework of the industries, population, the economy, resources, and the environment. This framework evaluates the importance of each industry with respect to regional socioeconomic development; furthermore, it classifies industries based on the evaluation results and assumes various development scenarios for industrial restructuring. Based on ArcGIS spatial analysis tool, this study analyzes the consumption of resources and the environment in each township under the current development scenario. In addition, this study provides basic support for the optimization of the industrial space layout. The RECC is assessed under different development scenarios, and the results provide a basis for industrial restructuring. The results show that the Jingcheng Subdistrict consumes the most resources and environment among all the township units. However, since it has the highest GDP, it consumes the least resources and the environment per unit GDP overall. The results also show that the RECC with the development of the petroleum, coking, and nuclear fuel processing products industry can maximize the RECC of Jingjiang. The analytical framework in this study effectively connects regional industrial restructuring to the RECC, which can enhance the operability of the decision support.

Agency and actors in regional industrial path development. A framework and longitudinal analysis

Despite significant interest in regional industrial restructuring in economic geography, surprisingly, scarce attention has been paid to the changing role of agency over time. The current paper develops a framework for understanding the role of multiple types of actors and the agency they exercise for regional industrial path development. The framework is employed in a longitudinal study of industry development in Värmland, Sweden, from forestry towards a bio-economy. The analysis highlights how actors exercise very different types of agency in different periods of regional industrial path development.

Njøs, Rune 2018. The Role of Multilevel Dynamics and Agency in Regional Industrial Renewal

The doctoral thesis makes a relevant contribution to scholarly discussions in evolutionary economic geography (EEG) about how regional industrial restructuring unfolds over time and in space. The t...

Regional industrial restructuring resulting from individual and system agency

The article discusses mechanisms and policy that stimulate regional economic restructuring. Economic restructuring is conceptualised through the notion of path development. The article distinguishes four types of path development: the extension and upgrading of existing regional industries are two types, diversification of existing industries and the creation of new industry paths are the two others and more substantial path developments. A main idea in the article is that new path development requires industry actors who initiate new firms or innovation activities in existing firms, i.e. firm level agency, but that restructuring also requires action by actors operating in the regional support system, i.e. system level agency. System level agency, understood as actions or intervention to transform regional innovation systems to better support economic restructuring, is particularly important for the two most ‘radical’ types of restructuring, i.e. path diversification and creation, and in regions with thin and specialised knowledge and industrial structure.

Changes in ecosystem service of soil conservation between 2000 and 2010 and its driving factors in southwestern China

Human activities significantly alter ecosystems and their services; however, quantifying the impact of human activities on ecosystems has been a great challenge in ecosystem management. We used the Universal Soil Loss Equation and county-level socioeconomic data to assess the changes in the ecosystem service of soil conservation between 2000 and 2010, and to analyze its spatial characteristics and driving factors in the southwestern China. The results showed that cropland in the southwestern China decreased by 3.74%, while urban land, forest, and grassland areas increased by 46.78%, 0.86%, and 1.12%, respectively. The soil conservation increased by 1.88 × 1011 kg, with deterioration only in some local areas. The improved and the degraded areas accounted for 6.41% and 2.44% of the total land area, respectively. Implementation of the Sloping Land Conversion Program and urbanization explained 57.80% and 23.90% of the variation in the soil conservation change, respectively, and were found to be the main factors enhancing soil conservation. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake was one of the factors that led to the degradation of soil conservation. Furthermore, industrial adjustment, by increasing shares of Industry and Service and reducing those of Agriculture, has also promoted soil conservation. Our results quantitatively showed and emphasized the contributions to soil conservation improvement made by implementing ecological restoration programs and promoting urbanization. Consequently, these results provide basic information to improve our understanding of the effects of ecological restoration programs, and help guide future sustainable urban development and regional industrial restructuring.

Tax Arrangement and Regional Industrial Restructuring: Evidence from Panel Data in China

Regional industrial restructuring has been one of the major items in the transformation of economic development mode. An exploration was made into the influence of tax arrangement on the regional industrial structure by setting up a panel data econometric model based on the evaluation and analysis of the regional industrial structure in China. It was shown that tax arrangement influenced the regional industrial restructuring in terms of three aspects. Microlevel: the turnover tax and income tax appeared with a U-path of influence on upgrading of the industrial structure while appearing with an inverted U-path of influence on rationalization of the industrial structure. In addition, the levy of resource tax had a negative impact on both upgrading and rationalization of the industrial structure. Mesolevel: taxation in the secondary and tertiary industries appeared with a U-path of influence on upgrading of the industrial structure. An increase of taxation in the secondary industry had a negative impact on rationalization of the industrial structure. The taxation in the tertiary industry appeared with an inverted U-path of influence on rationalization of the industrial structure. Macrolevel: the macrotax burden had a U-path of influence on both upgrading and rationalization of the industrial structure.