Research On Industrial Isomorphism Of China’s Heavy And Chemical Industry In Coastal Regions

Industrialization is a long historical process and each country has inevitable experiences the industrialization revolution with the productivity development, whose itself exist inherent regularity. Among them, the rapid development of heavy and chemical industry is an important characteristic of industrialization to middle or mature stage and China is experiencing the insurmountable historical stage. Affected by historical conditions and industrialization development, China’s heavy industry development has experienced the "coastal-inland-coastal" stage. We have reason to believe that China’s industrialization process speed has been affected directly by heavy-industrialization process and the layout and structure of heavy and chemical industry. Therefore, the research has important academic value and practical significance in understanding the universality and particularity of China’s industrialization process. Since the eighth decade of last century, the heavy and chemical industrial structure has been convergence in China’s coastal area, which forms the dispersed layout of heavy industry in coastal regions under the cluster background of heavy and chemical industry and it has been defined as industrial isomorphism phenomenon in China. Industrial isomorphism is the performance of industrial structure convergence to each other. Foreign industrial isomorphism appears between most of countries while China’s industrial isomorphism appears between regions within the country. Most scholars consider industrial isomorphism may lead to repetitive construction and blind competition, which hinder the development of economy and the government also thinks industrial isomorphism problem especially in heavy and chemical industry in the coastal areas is very obvious seriously. However, whether there is lower efficiency of resource use and what are the reasons and effects of industrial isomorphism are not in-deep research. The research on heavy and chemical industry isomorphism can analyze the cause of industrial isomorphism phenomenon and historical evolution, which understands the evolution law of China’s industrialization from the new perspective. On the other hand, it has important theory value and practical significance in revealing the influence of industrial isomorphism and judging the character of industrial isomorphism.This paper thinks the historical evolution of heavy chemical industry in coastal areas based on the analysis of the layout and structure evolution and especially explains the cause and influence of industrial isomorphism phenomenon. It can be divided into five parts as follows. First, I reveal industrial isomorphism concept and related theory from the angle of the regional labor division and competition. I also offer the theoretical foundation of industrial structure evolution process and structure convergence problem. Second, I argue the dispersed layout in coastal regions under the cluster background of heavy and chemical industry and also interpret the spatial distribution characteristics of heavy and chemical industry and development venation in subdivision industry. Third, I measure the coefficient of heavy and chemical industry isomorphism in coastal area using international advanced technology tools and further exploit the existence, stability, especially the space sequence evolution regularity. Fourth, I focus on the cause of industrial isomorphism for heavy and chemical industry in China’s coastal areas from the Angle of new economic geography and explain how the competitive and local administrative monopolies influence the industrial isomorphism in regions. Finally, I study the macro and micro influence as well as the direct effect and indirect effect of heavy and chemical industry isomorphism in coastal regions.The contributions are as follows. First, the traditional measure methods of industrial isomorphism is hard to do the segmentation study of industries and just relies on a single index, which is difficult to consider the spatial homogeneity and heterogeneity, and also can’t reflect the inherent characteristics of the industrial structure evolution. This paper uses the nonlinear Fourier model combined with sequential panel selection method (SPSM) to achieve breakthroughs in measuring method and establish a more effective estimation and inspection with bootstrap simulation method. Second, the existing studies focus on heavy and chemical industry just in a single region or province, or focus on local issues of the same industry. However, this paper explains the spatial distribution competition evolution of coastal heavy industry and the social and economic influence. I analyze whether this kind of homogeneous dispersion is conducive to regional free competition and provide a new angle of view to show the important role of isomorphism phenomenon and argue that China’s current heavy and chemical industry isomorphism is inevitable stage in the industrialization. Third and finally, I analyze the purpose range of industrial isomorphism using threshold regression model and variable parameter panel model, as well as the social and economic impact of industrial isomorphism in different ranges. Compared with the previous studies, this paper is mainly from the nonlinear perspective and has a more general analysis.The conclusions are as follows. First, the competitive negotiation forms the reasonable sale and purchase agreement between the coastal areas. Regional industrial isomorphism process is in accordance with the law of heterogeneous isomorphism. The market competition speeds up the process of industrial isomorphism between regions which forms a reasonable equilibrium price itself and makes the industry layout and evolution according to the rule, so the there is acceptable industrial isomorphism phenomenon. Second, the regional difference is obvious in heavy and chemical industry different industries and the chemical fiber industry isomorphism is most serious followed by the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing, general equipment computer and other electronic equipment manufacturing and general equipment manufacturing, etc. There are 26 out of 55 combination regions existing industrial isomorphism phenomenon. Non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry is the only segment industry which does not exist the phenomenon of industrial isomorphism. Hainan, Hebei, Liaoning, Guangdong and Shanghai provinces’heavy and chemical industry isomorphism are the most serious who have structure convergence on more than half of the country’s provinces. From the view of segment industry, there are also large isomorphism differences between regions in some segment industry. Third, the industrial isomorphism is mainly due to the government administrative monopoly in China at present stage. It means that regional industrial structure convergence obviously drives by tax and the pursuit of achievements from the regional government. The higher the activity of market economy is and the more non-public economic scale is, the easier the homogeneous competition forms. Finally, the internal heterogeneity of heavy chemical industry isomorphism is stronger and the competition which is formed by the regional industrial isomorphism is positive competition, and does not form a redundant construction on economic growth. From the perspective of the regional differentiation, the national average inflection point value of industrial isomorphism is 0.92. The heterogeneous isomorphism in Yangtze River delta region is stronger than the Bohai rim region.