Geographical Research, Volume. 39, Issue 3, 601(2020)
Cognitive proximity based on technological relatedness has an important impact on the knowledge spillover effect between industries. This conclusion refutes the important influence of traditional geographical proximity based on knowledge externality on knowledge spillover. The existing research mainly focused on the promotion of high-tech industry innovation by technological relatedness at national spatial scale, but ignored the analysis of the relationship between traditional manufacturing technological relatedness and industrial innovation at regional spatial scales, especially for underdeveloped regions. This paper draws on the concept of cognitive proximity in evolutionary economic geography, and uses the improved technological relatedness analysis method to take central China as an example to investigate the impact mechanism of technological relatedness on industrial innovation in the four-digit classification level dimension of manufacturing industry. The results show that: (1) the industrial technological relatedness in central China has significantly improved industrial innovation performance, and the effect becomes more and more obvious with the passage of time. (2) From the perspective of regional heterogeneity, the technological relatedness of Shanxi Province, which is dominated by resource-based industries and has poor economic development prospects, is not significant. The level of innovation in manufacturing of another five provinces, namely Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, and Jiangxi, is obviously promoting, and the spatial pattern shows a strong central but a weak link between the north and south. (3) From the perspective of industry categories, technological relatedness not only plays a significant role in promoting high-tech industrial innovation, but also has a great impact on the promotion of resource-intensive, labor-intensive, and capital-intensive industrial innovations, although the degree of influence is different. The role of technological relatedness in promoting industrial innovation from strong to weak is followed by technology-intensive industries, labor-intensive industries, resource-intensive industries, and capital-intensive industries. (4) In addition, this paper finds that the fierce competitive environment and government policy support contribute to the improvement of manufacturing innovation. Local governments should take measures to promote industrial innovation from two aspects: establishing innovative platforms and technology service institutions to strengthen inter-industry and intra-industry enterprise contact and shorten the cognitive distance between industries; prioritizing the development of industries that have higher technological relatedness with local industries, and introducing related companies, thus to promote the transformation and upgrading of regional industries.
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Jun HAO, Gang ZENG, Jianji ZHAO, Zhiqiang HU.
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Received: Jan. 17, 2019
Accepted: --
Published Online: Oct. 17, 2020
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