Service Industry Agglomeration Research Articles

Analysis of the spatial characteristics and driving forces of underground consumer service space in Chinese megacities based on multi-source data

Underground consumer service spaces (UCSS) offer new solutions for urban residents’ daily needs, but existing studies on their distribution and driving forces are often fragmented and overshadowed by research on other underground spaces, lacking targeted analysis. This study examines UCSS in the central urban areas of seven representative Chinese megacities. Using spatial analysis methods like kernel density estimation, multi-distance spatial clustering, and geographical detectors, the spatial characteristics and driving forces of UCSS are analyzed alongside aboveground consumer service spaces (ACSS). Results show that both ACSS and UCSS exhibit multi-centered, concentric spatial patterns, though UCSS demonstrates higher spatial aggregation. Unlike other underground public spaces (UPS), UCSS relies more on service industry agglomeration and market factors, while other UPS are more influenced by surrounding development intensity. UCSS follows the core principles of central place theory but deviates from the market-driven patterns typical of ACSS. Socioeconomic conditions and transportation infrastructure form the foundational basis for UCSS distribution, while service industry agglomeration, market dependence, and land development intensity exert more direct influence. The commercial atmosphere and existing underground space development play critical roles in UCSS distribution. Two key spatial scales for understanding UCSS distribution are the strong influence zones of shopping malls and metro stations, and high-density urban areas.

Spatial spillover effect of service industry agglomeration on industrial structure upgrading: Evidence from China

The industrial structure upgrading is a significant indicator in the High-quality economic development. Despite the crucial role that the cluster of service sectors play in improving the industrial system, the research on the impact of service industry agglomeration on industrial structure upgrading is scant, especially the spatial correlation between them. This paper aims to discuss this objective. The current study employs the Spatial Durbin Model to examine the association between service industry gathering and the advancement of industrial systems based on the panel data of Chinese provincial units for the years 2000 to 2020. Findings from the empirical analysis disclose that the concentration of service-related activities in the same province plays a notable role in the optimization of the industrial framework. Moreover, service industry agglomeration demonstrates a noteworthy spatial spillover effect. The gathering of the service industry breaks through geographical constraints and facilitates the enhancement of industrial framework in adjacent regions through radiation effect. Subsequently, the enhancement of the industrial framework in neighboring areas further stimulates the local industrial configuration through spill-over impacts. This research provides a theoretical framework for analyzing the spatial correlation between the service industry group and the enhancement of the industrial framework, and presents practical reference for local authorities to foster the transformation of industrial structure.

Cross border e-commerce development and enterprise digital technology innovation—empirical evidence from listed companies in China

As the main form of digital trade, cross-border e-commerce plays an important role, allowing China to expand its opening-up and promote the optimal foreign trade structure. It also provides opportunities for Chinese enterprises to develop digital technology. From the perspective of the establishment of China's cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone (CBECPZ), this article uses the multi-period DID method to examine the effects of cross-border e-commerce on enterprise digital technology innovation based on listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2007 to 2020. The CBECPZ dramatically promotes enterprise digital technology innovation. The mechanism test shows that the CBECPZ promotes digital technology innovation by financing constraint alleviation, digital transformation, and producer service industry agglomeration. The heterogeneity test shows that the direct effect is more significant in the enterprises of large-scale, non-state-owned, with high ICT correlation and in areas with strong government resource allocation capabilities. The research findings have important reference value for how to utilize cross-border e-commerce to promote digital technology innovation, and they also provide directional references for other developing countries to develop cross-border e-commerce.

Transportation infrastructure upgrading and green development efficiency: Empirical analysis with double machine learning method

In order to deal with the environmental problems such as pollution emissions and climate change, sustainable development in the field of transportation has gradually become a hot topic to all sectors of society. In addition, promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of China's transportation is also an important issue in the new era. Thus, it is particularly important to correctly identify the green effect of high-speed rail. However, the traditional causal reasoning model faces several challenges such as ‘dimensional curse’ and multicollinearity. Based on the panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2019, this study uses the double machine learning model to explore the impact of transportation infrastructure upgrading on the efficiency of urban green development in China. The research shows that the upgrading of transportation infrastructure can effectively improve the efficiency of urban green development by 4%. Service industry agglomeration and green innovation are verified as two mediating channels. Moreover, the synthetic difference in difference model is employed to evaluate the regional impact of high-speed rail, and finds that the regional impact of transportation policies often exceeds the impact of individual cities. We further apply the conclusions of this paper to the research at the micro enterprise level. Goodman-Bacon decomposition and a variety of robustness tests confirm the validity of our conclusions. The study's comprehensive empirical analysis not only validates the positive effects of transportation upgrades on green development, but also offers novel insights into the underlying mechanisms and policy implications of transportation upgrading.

Spatial Effects of Service Industry’s Heterogeneous Agglomeration on Industrial Structure Optimization: Evidence from China

Elucidating the impacts of service industry’s agglomeration on the optimization of industrial structures holds paramount significance in advancing urban economic growth and fostering the coordinated and sustainable development of city economies. This study leverages panel data encompassing 251 prefecture-level cities spanning from 2003 to 2019, employing a spatial Dubin model to scrutinize the influence of distinct types of service industry agglomeration on industrial structure optimization. The results show that specialized agglomeration within the service sector significantly inhibits the rationalization of industrial structures and their underlying fundamentals. Conversely, heightened levels of agglomeration in diversified service industries facilitate the rationalization of industrial structure, predominantly driven by regional spatial spillover effects. Further analysis reveals heterogeneity in service industry agglomeration across cities of varying sizes concerning industrial structure optimization, notably accentuating underutilized spatial spillover effects in smaller cities. In light of these insights, this paper advocates for cities to capitalize on the agglomeration and spillover effects between the service industry and other sectors, strategically selecting optimal service industry agglomeration modes to propel industrial structure optimization.

The impact of digital infrastructure construction on carbon emission efficiency: Considering the role of central cities

This paper delineates the impact of digital infrastructure construction (DIC) on carbon emission efficiency (CEE) within the ambit of China's "Broadband China" pilot policy (BCP). A quasi-natural experimental framework reveals direct effects, indirect influences, non-linear relationships, and spatial heterogeneity of DIC on CEE. The research distills several pivotal insights: (1) DIC exerts a markedly positive impact on CEE, as evidenced by comprehensive robustness analyses. (2) The digital service industry agglomeration and green technology innovation act as key mechanisms through which DIC influences CEE. (3) The intensity of BCP exhibits an "inverted U-shaped" relationship with CEE. As the level of CEE increases, the impact of DIC on CEE gradually rises, demonstrating a marginal increasing effect. (4) The spatial spillover effects of DIC on CEE vary with increasing distance, revealing a dichotomy: an "agglomeration shadow" within 200 km of policy pilot cities and a pronounced stimulative effect on CEE within a 200–300 km radius. (5) The efficacy of DIC in enhancing CEE is augmented by proximity to central cities, with the optimal radius of influence for central cities determined to be 200 km, beyond which a diminishing gradient effect is observed, forming a "core-peripheral" spatial pattern. The findings endorse the strategic augmentation of digital infrastructure as a lever for economic and environmental co-benefits, steering towards carbon neutrality and equitable regional development.

Productive services agglomeration: An accelerator of manufacturing servitization output?

This study empirically investigates the impact of productive service agglomeration on manufacturing servitization and the heterogeneity of this impact. We found that (1) the productive service industry's agglomeration facilitates manufacturing servitization with a heterogeneous feature. Furthermore, (2) agglomeration of the private productive service sector is more conducive to promoting manufacturing servitization than the state-owned productive service sector. Finally, (3) the agglomeration of labor- and capital-intensive productive service industries has a more pronounced role in boosting manufacturing servitization. These findings contribute to optimizing industrial upgrade policies and corporate servitization strategies.

The influence of knowledge-intensive service industry agglomeration in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration on regional economy

Knowledge-intensive service industry has become an important part of social economy, which not only promotes the innovation of modern service industry, but also promotes the upgrading and transformation of manufacturing industry. The agglomeration of knowledge-intensive service industry is not only the inevitable result of economic growth, but also the premise of sustained economic growth. Moreover, China's national economy is transforming from an industrialized economy to a service-oriented and knowledge-based economy, and the importance of knowledge-intensive service industry is increasing day by day. This paper constructs a theoretical framework of the influence of population agglomeration on the economic development of urban agglomerations. The article holds that population agglomeration promotes the economic development of urban agglomerations through the upgrading of industrial structure and the promotion of human capital. In the future, we need to focus on the similarities and differences between population agglomeration and economic development of urban agglomerations in central China, explore the factors of economic development of urban agglomerations, and provide reasonable suggestions for the government to formulate relevant economic policies. This paper, from an innovative research perspective, based on the perspective of population agglomeration, studies the path of its role in regional economic development, which can make up for this defect to some extent. Moreover, the research object has been innovated and the research method has been improved. On the basis of the above, the panel data of the Yangtze River Delta from 2012 to 2021 is selected as the research sample, the location entropy index is taken as the explanatory variable, the regional gross domestic product (GDP) is taken as the explanatory variable, and the rationality of economic theory and the significance of econometric test are considered. Finally, the data are analyzed and tested by regression. The empirical analysis of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration proves the importance of knowledge-intensive service industry agglomeration to regional economic development. Finally, based on the contribution of knowledge-intensive service industry agglomeration to regional economy, the development of knowledge-intensive service industry and the promotion of industrial agglomeration are studied.

Analysis of the regulatory environment on Green innovations Efficiency and its Impact Effect

Abstract This paper investigates the mediating effect model and threshold effect model used to examine the relationship between the regulatory environment and advancements in green technology. Spatial factors are incorporated into the model constructed in this paper, and spatial autocorrelation tests are conducted on relevant data. The created model is labored to assess the effectiveness of green innovations in Zhejiang Province from 2010 to 2021, and on this basis, the changes in efficiency values are elaborated on different scales and spatial and temporal dynamics. Then, carbon finance and resource allocation are used as mediating variables. Thus, the two variables of carbon financing and resource allocation are utilized in the mediating model to assess the effect of the regulatory environment on green technological innovation. Finally, this paper investigates the threshold effect of the regulatory environment in the procedure of technology service industry agglomeration affecting green innovations efficiency, and according to this, to experimentally determine whether the regulatory environment has a threshold value, a panel threshold model is built. After the model test, when the intensity of the regulatory environment is greater than 0.0334, the coefficient of technology service industry agglomeration is meaningfully negative −0.0687, representing that the different intensity of the regulatory environment makes a significant difference in the effect of technology service industry agglomeration. Therefore, the regulatory environment is conducive to green technological innovation, and green technological innovation tends to form agglomeration in the region.

Producer service industry agglomeration and eco-efficiency of tourism enterprises: theoretical mechanism and empirical test

Producer service industry agglomeration and eco-efficiency of tourism enterprises: theoretical mechanism and empirical test

Productive Service Agglomeration, Human Capital Level, and Urban Economic Performance

This study aims to investigate the impact of productive service industry agglomeration on the economic performance of Chinese cities. The study analyzes data from 285 prefecture-level cities over a 16-year period (2003–2019) and develops a comprehensive urban economic index evaluation system based on three dimensions: social, economic, and resource and environmental benefits. The empirical analysis reveals that high-end productive service industry agglomeration has a significant positive relationship with urban economic performance (effect size of 0.012), whereas low-end productive service industry agglomeration does not. The study also finds that the impact of productive service industry agglomeration on economic performance varies across different regions and cities. Specifically, productive service industry agglomeration has a significant positive impact on the economic performance of cities in the eastern, central, northeastern, and western regions, with the impact being twice as much in the western region compared to the eastern region. Moreover, the effect of productive service industry agglomeration on the economic performance of non-resource-based cities is almost one-third more than that of resource-based cities. The study further reveals that human capital plays a mediating role in the relationship between productive service industry agglomeration and urban economic performance. Based on these findings, the study suggests that Chinese cities, particularly non-resource-based cities and those in the central and western regions, should focus on supporting high-end productive service industry agglomeration, improve the quality of productive service industry agglomeration, strengthen the matching between the accumulation of human capital and the development of productive service industry agglomeration, and tailor their strategies to promote the development of productive service industry agglomeration effectively to improve their economic performance.

Analysis and Research on the Impact of Productive Service Agglomeration on Green Total Factor Productivity of Service Industry Based on the Moderating Effect of FDI

This paper selects the GML index to measure the green total factor productivity of China's service industry, and empirically examines the effects of productive service industry agglomeration, service industry FDI and their interaction terms on green total factor productivity after fully controlling for the important variables affecting green total factor productivity in service industry. At the regional level, there is regional heterogeneity in the moderating effect of service industry FDI on green TFP, and the joint effect of the two significantly promotes green TFP in the eastern region and negatively affects the central region.

The Impact of Industrial Agglomeration on Urban Land Green Use Efficiency and Its Spatio-Temporal Pattern: Evidence from 283 Cities in China

Industrial agglomeration is one of the primary driving factors in city creation, and the improvement of urban land green use efficiency (ULGUE) is an important part in green development. This study concentrates on the impact of industrial agglomeration on ULGUE in the process of urbanization. Based on the panel data of 283 cities in China from 2003 to 2019, this paper constructs a super efficiency SBM-DEA model including unexpected outputs to evaluate ULGUE. Using a spatial Durbin model, we examine the spatial spillover effects of manufacturing and productive services agglomeration on ULGUE. The results show the following: (1) There has been fluctuation over the study period, which can be classified into three stages, and ULGUE in China as a whole is on the rise. (2) Chinese ULGUE has increased greatly in the western and northeastern regions, changed massively in the eastern region, and stayed largely steady in the middle region. The degree of manufacturing agglomeration is further improved, exhibiting a feature resembling a ladder, with high concentrations in the southeast coastal region and low concentrations in the interior. Production service industry agglomeration intensity has declined, revealing a more dispersed spatial pattern. (3) The rise in local ULGUE will have a beneficial impact on the ULGUE of spatially correlated regions, according to ULGUE’s relatively strong spillover effect. (4) Manufacturing agglomerations can enhance the ULGUE in the neighborhood, but it is not obvious how this will impact the local regions. The agglomeration of production service industry can enhance the improvement of ULGUE in local and spatially correlated regions, but the direct effect is weak. (5) The integration of the manufacturing and productive service industry does not quite strengthen its stimulatory effects on the growth of ULGUE.

Can the agglomeration of producer services boost China’s ‘going out’?

ABSTRACT As China has been encouraging enterprises to ‘go global’ and actively promoting the optimization of industrial structure, it is important to discuss the impact of its outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) considering producer service industry agglomeration. For analysing the mechanism by which the agglomeration of producer services affects China’s OFDI, this study uses inter-provincial panel data from 2004 to 2019 and a spatial Durbin model to empirically test the impact of producer service agglomeration on OFDI. We show that the agglomeration of producer services significantly promotes OFDI in a particular region through economies of scale and enterprise productivity improvement. And it also significantly promotes OFDI in its neighbouring regions. The effect of producer service agglomeration on OFDI shows regional heterogeneity. Namely, the agglomeration of producer services in the eastern region promotes the OFDI in this region and it has not had a significant impact on the OFDI in neighbouring regions. Further, the agglomeration of producer services in the central and western regions does not have a significant effect on their OFDI and that of neighbouring regions.

The Impact of the Spatial Agglomeration of Producer Services on Urban Productivity

The spatial cluster effect of productive service industry agglomeration and the urban productivity level in 286 prefecture level cities in China during 2008–2018 were analyzed by using the Moran index and the Lisa cluster diagram. The results show that the spatial correlation between productive service industry agglomeration and urban productivity is high, as the high-value areas of producer services agglomeration are generally the high-value agglomeration areas of China's urban productivity level, while the low-value areas of producer services agglomeration are generally the low-value agglomeration areas of China's urban productivity level. Furthermore, the spatial econometric model was used to test the effect of producer services agglomeration on urban productivity in China. The results show that producer services agglomeration can effectively improve urban productivity in China, but its impact on the productivity in different cities is quite variable. The producer services specialization agglomeration on urban productivity in eastern China is more obvious, while the positive effect of the diversification agglomeration of producer services on urban productivity is more obvious in the West, the Central and the Northeast, but the promotion of eastern cities is less apparent.

Research on the Spatial Spillover Effect of Industrial Agglomeration on the Economic Growth in the Yellow River Basin

The proposal of the high-quality development strategy of the Yellow River Basin is of great significance for accelerating industrial agglomeration. This study takes 49 prefecture-level cities in the Yellow River Basin as the research object. Based on the panel data from 2006 to 2018, we used the location quotient to calculate the manufacturing agglomeration, the producer service industry agglomeration and the synergistic agglomeration in the basin. The spatial Dubin model of the impact of the three types of agglomeration on the economic growth in the basin was constructed. The Yellow River basin was divided into upstream, midstream and downstream to explore the regional heterogeneity of the impact of the industrial agglomeration on the economic growth. The result showed that (1) the economic development of the Yellow River Basin has a spatial overflow. The economic improvement of the surrounding cities promotes local economic growth—the manufacturing agglomeration, producer service industry agglomeration and synergistic agglomeration all promote economic growth. The effect of the manufacturing agglomeration is more significant than the others. (2) The impact of the industrial agglomeration on the economic growth in the Yellow River Basin presents an evident regional heterogeneity, and the magnitude and direction of the action vary in the different regions.

The Impacts of High-Speed Rail on Producer Service Industry Agglomeration: Evidence from China’s Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

The construction of the high-speed rail (HSR) network in China has greatly weakened the spatial barriers to the flow of production resources, which has become a key factor affecting the spatial layout of the producer service industry. Based on the panel data of 26 cities in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2005 to 2018, this paper uses a multi-phase difference-in-difference (DID) model to examine the impacts of HSR services on the agglomerations of the producer service industry and its subdivision industries from two perspectives, namely, specialized agglomeration and diversified agglomeration. The results show that: (1) on the whole, the opening of an HSR has a significant positive effect on the specialized agglomeration of the producer service industry and a significant negative effect on the diversified agglomeration; (2) in terms of subdivision industries, there exists significant industrial heterogeneity in the agglomeration effect of the producer service industry under HSR services, regardless of whether it is a specialized agglomeration or a diversified agglomeration; among them, the financial industry belongs to the “highly significant promotion” industry, while the other four subdivision industries belong to the “highly significant inhibition” industry.

The impact of intelligent manufacturing on industrial green total factor productivity and its multiple mechanisms

As an integration of artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing technology, intelligent manufacturing has realized the innovation of manufacturing mode and created conditions for the green development of industry. After constructing a theoretical framework between intelligent manufacturing and industrial green total factor productivity, this paper uses panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2020, and expresses the level of intelligent manufacturing with industrial robot density, to discuss the economic effects and mechanisms of intelligent manufacturing. The results show that intelligent manufacturing has a positive effect on industrial green total factor productivity, and the panel quantile regression model indicates that there is an increasing marginal effect. With the quantile points going from low to high, the coefficient and statistical significance become larger. Human capital is the mechanism for intelligent manufacturing to improve industrial green total factor productivity. Green technology innovation and producer service industry agglomeration have strengthened the positive effect. There is also heterogeneity in the effect, and the stronger the effect in regions launched local pilot schemes for carbon emissions trading and industrial green transformation development policy. In order to give full play to the technological dividend and empower sustainable industrial development, the paper argues that we need to accelerate the integration of artificial intelligence and manufacturing technology, thus improving the level of industrial intelligence and empowering green development.

An Empirical Study on the Impact of Service Industry Agglomeration on High Quality Economic Development in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei

This paper uses the panel data of 13 cities in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from 2012 to 2020 and uses TOPSIS to construct the economic quality development index in four aspects: scientific innovation, economic quality, green ecology and life security, followed by the calculation of the service industry aggregation index of each city using the locational entropy method. Finally, the regression is fitted by panel Tobit model, and the results show that the spatial distribution pattern of service industry aggregation in the region shows Beijing and Tianjin as the core, but the degree of service industry aggregation in Beijing and Tianjin as the core of aggregation gradually decreases in the long term, while the degree of aggregation in other prefecture-level cities gradually increases. More importantly, the service industry agglomeration in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has a significant positive contribution to high-quality economic development in the long run.

The impact of e‐commerce city pilot on the spatial agglomeration of high‐end service industry in China

AbstractWe employ the data of 290 cities in China from 2006 to 2019 as a research sample and use the Multi‐period DID method to test the policy shock of National E‐commerce Demonstration Cities (NEDC) pilots on high‐end service industry agglomeration. We find that after becoming pilot cities, the specialized agglomeration level of its high‐end service industry increases by about 14.1% on average, and the diversified agglomeration level decreases by about 2.7% on average. And NEDC policy can affect the spatial agglomeration of high‐end service industry through three channels: Enhancing the inclusiveness of digital finance, improving the degree of market competition, and promoting regional innovation ability. Moreover, NEDC policy has the characteristics of spatial heterogeneity. NEDC policy has a significant spillover effect on the specialized agglomeration of high‐end service industry in the first‐tier cities, while the second‐tier cities show the characteristics of diversification dispersion. In addition, NEDC policy has a more obvious impact on the agglomeration effect of high‐end service industry under the radiation and driving effect of megalopolis.