External linkages and regional diversification in China: The role of foreign multinational enterprises

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This article investigates the role of local external linkages in supporting regional industry entry in new activities, by specifically considering the role of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs). Theoretically, we construct an original conceptual framework encompassing different potential trajectories of regional diversification based on the presence of MNEs. Empirically, we focus on the case of 279 Chinese prefectures over 1998–2007 and our results suggest that the presence of MNEs is associated with industry entry in unrelated and complex industries, supporting the idea that regional external linkages can activate processes of diversification that modify the technological and industrial portfolio of local economies.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1077-1101
Number of pages25
JournalEnvironment and Planning A
Volume56
Issue number4
Early online date6 Feb 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Andrea Ascani gratefully acknowledges funding from the NWO-Innovational Research Incentives Scheme Veni SSH 2018 (Grant N. 016.Veni.195.085). Yibo Qiao acknowledges financial support from the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(No.2023M741630) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.52378059, No.52278066).

FundersFunder number
NWO-Innovational Research Incentives Scheme Veni SSH
National Natural Science Foundation of China52278066, 52378059
China Postdoctoral Science Foundation2023M741630

    Keywords

    • China
    • Complexity
    • Multinational enterprises
    • Regional diversification
    • Relatedness

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