Feng Yuan

Spatial Mismatch and Determinants of Foreign and Domestic Information and Communication Technology Firms in Urban China

Studies on foreign direct investment locations in China have been conducted mainly at interregional and interprovincial scales, and little attention has been paid to the intraurban scale where location decisions of foreign firms can differ from domestic firms. This article explores the intraurban locations of information and communication technology (ICT) firms in Suzhou, a city experiencing rapid globalization. We have found that the distribution of ICT firms in Suzhou exhibits distinctive spatial patterns characterized by a geographically based, institutionally created spatial mismatch between foreign and domestic firms. Foreign firms are concentrated in national-level development zones—China–Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park in the east and Suzhou New and Hi-Tech District in the west—whereas domestic firms tend to agglomerate in the inner city and the provincial-level development zone in the north. Poisson and negative binomial analyses further reveal that the locations of foreign firms are strongly correlated to development zones, and the agglomeration economies derived from the stock of foreign investment rather than domestic firms. The case of Suzhou highlights the challenges that Chinese cities face in industrial upgrading and technological development through embedding transnational corporations.

Growth Type and Functional Trajectories: An Empirical Study of Urban Expansion in Nanjing, China

Drawing upon the Landsat satellite images of Nanjing from 1985, 1995, 2001, 2007, and 2013, this paper integrates the convex hull analysis and common edge analysis at double scales, and develops a comprehensive matrix analysis to distinguish the different types of urban land expansion. The results show that Nanjing experienced rapid urban expansion, dominated by a mix of residential and manufacturing land from 1985 to 2013, which in turn has promoted Nanjing’s shift from a compact mononuclear city to a polycentric one. Spatial patterns of three specific types of growth, namely infilling, extension, and enclave were quite different in four consecutive periods. These patterns result primarily from the existing topographic constraints, as well as government-oriented urban planning and policies. By intersecting the function maps, we also reveal the functional evolution of newly-developed urban land. Moreover, both self-enhancing and mutual promotion of the newly developed functions are surveyed over the last decade. Our study confirms that the integration of a multi-scale method and multi-perspective analysis, such as the spatiotemporal patterns and functional evolution, helps us to better understand the rapid urban growth in China.

Economic Transition, Firm Dynamics, and Restructuring of Manufacturing Spaces in Urban China: Empirical Evidence from Nanjing

Industrial space is widely considered a fundamental component of urban structure and has been significantly affected by the transitional process in China since the late 1970s. This study investigates the restructuring trajectories and underlying factors of manufacturing firms in Nanjing to detect intraurban dynamical trajectories and spatial patterns. The result implies that Nanjing has witnessed significant suburbanization of manufacturing with the successive exit of old firms and gradual emerging of specialized areas in the peripheral suburbs. In particular, development zones (DZs) have become major bases of new or relocated firms and consequently changed the spatial pattern from a monocentric one toward a polycentric point-axis pattern. Employing binary logistic regression and spatial lag/error models, this study has found that the triple process of marketization, globalization, and decentralization, coupled with the new-type urbanization, has significant influences on the restructuring of urban spaces in China through the price mechanism, production networks, policy reforms, and environmental changes. In addition, the fieldwork survey and semistructured interviews in the old city center show that although the market has played an increasingly important role in driving old firms to migrate from the city center and attracting new firms to concentrate in those planned areas in the suburbs, preferential policies and advanced facilities constructed by local governments are still the main reason why firms concentrated in various DZs.