Search

In global pattern reconstruction, ecological civilization construction and integrated urban–rural development in the new era as well as outlining a new framework for rural development and promoting efficient operation of the coordination mechanism for rural development are urgently required. This paper considers three northeastern provinces of China as an example, attempts to analyze the relationship between the subsystems of rural development, and examines the coupling coordination mechanism of population, land, and industry money in the four‐dimensional system. It explores the evolution path and defects of rural development in Northeast China under the background of transformation from a systematic perspective. We found that the coupling degree of "population‐land‐industry‐money" in rural Northeast China is high, while the coordination degree is low. The degree of spatial and temporal differentiation of the coupling coordination degree gradually increases, and the rural development of each province is highly unbalanced. The results also indicate that the main reasons for the low level of the coupling coordination degree are improved land development levels, a relative shortage of labor force, backward industrial development, and increasingly weak rural investment levels. Finally, this paper illustrates that the main solutions to rural revitalization are stimulating rural investment through policies and promoting the revival of agriculture, with financial support as the starting point, before establishing the linkage and mutual feed development of "population‐land‐industry‐money" in rural areas. The results will help countries, especially developing countries, to further consider methods toward achieving rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the considerable constraints of karst rocky desertification on the production and life of the locals and the regional economy, few studies have been conducted on areas with karst rocky desertification with the aim of exploring the balance between ecological governance and industrial development. In light of the promotion of featured advantageous industries to ecological governance and industrial development, this study aims to explore the mechanism of industrial revitalization in areas with karst rocky desertification to provide theoretical support for their industrial revitalization. Based on actor‐network theory, this paper presents a case study of Bashan village, a typical area in Guizhou province, China, with karst rocky desertification, to clarify the course of development of its Zanthoxylum bungeanum industry and propose a mechanism for its revitalization. The findings identify the main actors of the revitalization of the Z. bungeanum industry and reveal the driving forces behind it. Moreover, the study found that the industrial revitalization model is a bottom‐up process, which suggests strong endogenous dynamics. Through the revitalization of the featured industries, the results of the management of rocky desertification are transformed into economic output, which improved the livelihood of farmers and consolidated the effectiveness of management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human agency has become a core topic in economic geography complementing traditional, structural approaches to explain regional development. This paper contributes firstly with a discussion of the theoretical and conceptual relationships between the agency of individuals, organizations, and systems. Secondly, it proposes a novel analytical framework for studying how human agency, combined with external changes affects regional economic development, and how regional structural preconditions and external changes explain the activation of change agency. Thirdly, the relevance of the framework is examined through comparative studies of about 20 years of industrial development in three Norwegian regions. This illuminates the importance of human agency in regional transformation processes, how regional preconditions influence but not determine the activation of change agency, as well as why and how regional policy plays a role in the emergence of change agency. Yet, future research needs to investigate the context conditions, which promote or hinder the activation of change agency, to trace change in economic activities over time and link it to causal mechanisms, and to pay attention to the unintended consequences of change agency in the longer‐term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses the lens of institutional theory to explain the launch and evolution of Austin, Texas's technology‐based economy. The case underscores the importance of context, contingency, and the evolution of key local development organizations in explaining how regional economic development trajectories can change and evolve. The case history provides insights into how economic development networks form and operate to "set off" processes of industrial specialization and agglomeration and how they can promote successful adaptation to change in technology and industrial structure. The Austin story further suggests a "stage" process of regional technology‐based evolution where the development of industrial agglomerations linked to a substantial local research base is seen as a necessary precursor to increasing endogenous innovation and start‐up activity. Successfully navigating these stages is bolstered by the formation of institutions and networks that are durable, strategic, and adaptive, and which, at the right time, recognize and support entrepreneurial firm development to help sustain technology‐based growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Maritime industrial development areas (MIDAs) are spatial tools designed to accelerate economic growth in backwards coastal areas and thus alleviate regional disparities, and they have widely expanded in both developed and developing countries over the past sixty years. This paper reviews the global development of MIDAs in different historical periods and compares them with cases on China's Liaoning coast in terms of their structure, location, administration, national political‐economic climate and theoretical justification. The results indicate that although those countries have different institutional environments they seemingly once took the same path in their specific stages of development. However, the experiences of developed countries and other developing ones and the current dilemma of MIDAs in coastal Liaoning together demonstrate that MIDAs cannot achieve the policy targets anticipated by decision makers, especially during the economic transitions of China. This finding cautions backwards countries and their lagging areas, such as northeastern China, that the traditional pattern tried by the first developed countries may not be appropriate when the development tool (e.g., MIDAs) is examined in both the framework of international comparison and the socioeconomic setting of a specific country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative destruction is a key driving force behind industrial development. The continuing process of creative destruction provides an impetus to regional industrial renewal. Our analytical framework emphasizes the ways in which firm exit creates a stimulus for firm entry is complementary to the process of technological change and industrial renewal articulated by Schumpeter who pays attention to how new entrants bring in radical innovation and new products, making incumbents' products and technologies obsolete and forcing them to exit or catch up. Using firm-level data of China's industries during 1998-2008, this paper seeks to argue that the relationship between firm exit and entry has been constantly shaped by an assemblage of various factors, including not only firm characteristics, but also industrial linkages, and most importantly, national and regional institutional contexts, particularly in the context of China where a triple process of decentralization, globalization, and privatization has resulted in enormous spatial and temporal variations in the economic and institutional landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development zones constitute a special type of place‐based policy that has been implemented worldwide. As an essential economic development engine, Chinese National Economic and Technological Development Zones (NETDZs) are perceived as a successful example. However, few studies have looked into the channel effects at work in development zones concerning industrialization and urbanization, despite the crucial nature of such effects with regard to sustainable development of development zones. Following a brief description of NETDZs and their theoretical mechanisms with urban economic performance, industrialization, and urbanization, this study used a simultaneous equation model to generate empirical evidence of the impact of the establishment of NETDZs on urban economic performance and its channel effects through industrialization and urbanization. The results confirm that NETDZs exerts a positive and significant impact on urban economic performance, and NETDZs also show indirect influence in urban growth through urbanization. Although significant and positive intermediation of industrialization remains invalid, foreign direct investment and investment in fixed assets are still crucial in Chinese industrialization. Both industrialization and urbanization play an important role in Chinese urban economic development. Meanwhile, compared with eastern regions more influenced by urbanization, industrialization still acts as a major impetus in inland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the mechanism of rural economic restructuring is the basis for promoting the optimal restructuring of the rural economy and society as well as for reviving the countryside. We conducted a case study of Gongyi, a typical region experiencing rapid industrialization in inland China and systematically reviewed its economic restructuring process over the past 40 years after China's reform and opening‐up. On the basis of identifying spatial interfaces in Gongyi, we analyzed the influence of these spatial interfaces on the rural economic restructuring in Gongyi using geodetectors. The study showed that the influence of different types of interfaces has had a temporal evolutionary effect, the influence of a single human interface was higher than that of a natural interface. With the different stages of economic development, the influence of the interface is also differentiated. The influence of multiple interfaces increased after superposition, and the superposition of different types of interfaces constituted different patterns of rural economic restructuring in Gongyi. Overall, the influence of physical spatial interfaces on rural economic restructuring has decreased. Therefore, greater attention should be paid to the influence of abstract spatial interfaces in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempts to differentiate regions from one another, whether in social, demographic, or economic terms, have led to the development of numerous indices to summarize the economic composition of regions. This study revisits classic indices of industrial diversity to evaluate their applicability for benchmarking local and regional economies. Specifically, we explore a multivariate extension of these diversity indices for measuring concentration in an effort to evaluate their ability to accurately depict spatial relationships of county level resources for the contiguous U.S. The relative abilities of the classic indices are compared to a developed measure of resource concentration, the County Similarity Index (CS-Index), which represents a computationally simple and flexible alternative to these indices. Results suggest the CS-Index produces superior results to the indices evaluated, particularly with regard to the spatial relationships of county resource concentrations, which are quantified using global and local indicators of spatial association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discussion on regional income per capita convergence in Indonesia continues with an emphasis on whether regional per capita incomes tend to converge or diverge over the long run. This study evaluates the regional convergence hypothesis at the provincial level during the recent deindustrialization period 2001–2017 of Indonesia. First, the study examines the existence of convergence clubs in Indonesia using a recently assembled panel dataset. Results reveal four convergence clubs with particularly large income gaps, mostly arising from the top of the income distribution. Second, using an ordered logit model, the study examines the determinants of the convergence clubs. Result reveals that industrialization increases the probability of membership to a high‐income club. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How regional industries can develop in an economically sustainable way is high on the research agenda. While the literature on regional change has focused primarily on historical case studies, it has said less about the barriers that hinder the desired change. This article contributes to a better understanding of barriers in regional innovation systems that hamper new regional industrial path development. Furthermore, the article analyses how a new knowledge organisation, the Centre for Research‐based Innovation Offshore Mechatronics in the Agder region of Norway, can contribute to overcoming these barriers. The Centre, which is a policy instrument funded by the Research Council of Norway, aims to contribute to path extension and potentially path modernisation. However, since its foundation, oil prices have dropped severely, resulting in new conditions for the Centre and its partners. The article concludes by discussing whether and how the Centre has contributed to overcoming the barriers that hinder developments beyond path extension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the literature on firm demography and regional development in at least three different ways. First, consumption, rather than employment, which is the most common variable seen in literature, is used to measure the impact of firm demography on regional development. Second, while the literature is mainly focused on the relationship between new business formation and regional development, we investigate both entry and exit flows of firms. Third, we decompose each of these flows into spatial and sectoral components. The empirical investigation looks at the Italian regions with reference to the period 2004-2009. Results seem to be substantially divergent between the South and the rest of Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]