City Network Structure And Evolution Of Hunan,hubei And Jiangxi Province From The Perspective Of Enterprise Linkages

With the rapid development of globalization,informatization and networking,cities in the world are increasingly interconnected and the relationship between cities tends to be flat.The acceleration of the flow of production factors across regions has promoted changes and adjustments in the spatial organization and location of enterprises,formed complex city networks,and further promoted the reconstruction of urban spaces.Under the background of China's new urbanization and the new normal economy,urban agglomerations have become the main functional form of seeking economic growth and leading the development of new urbanization in the new era.Hunan,Hubei and Jiangxi province are located in the central region of China,facing the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration to the east,the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration to the south,the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone to the west,the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration to the north,and include Urban Agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.It has the advantage of connecting east to west,south to north,and a particularly critical strategic significance.It is gradually growing into a new growth pole that supports national economic growth and promotes the rise of the central region.Therefore,it is particularly urgent to study the structure and evolution of city network of Hunan,Hubei and Jiangxi province,which is of great significance to the development of its future network space.From the perspective of enterprise linkages,this paper takes Hunan,Hubei and Jiangxi province as the study area,constructs the city linkages network based on the headquarters-branch relationship in the economic census data,and adopts descriptive statistical analysis and social network analysis(SNA)methods to analyze the spatial structure and evolution of the external and internal city network of Hunan,Hubei,and Jiangxi province.On the one hand,at the prefectural level,the structural characteristics of the external city network of Hunan,Hubei,and Jiangxi province are depicted,and prefecture units' spatial differentiation patterns of attracting external investment are analyzed from the perspective of investment.On the other hand,at the county level,the structure and evolution characteristics of the city network in Hunan,Hubei,and Jiangxi province are explored through indicators such as network density,centrality,and core degree.Finally,some policy inspirations are proposed based on empirical research,and the lack of research and future prospects are pointed out.The major findings are collected as follows.(1)The external investment of Hunan,Hubei and Jiangxi province mainly comes from six major urban regions including the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration,the Pearl River Delta Urban Agglomeration,Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration,Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone,the Economic Zone on the West Side,and the Central Plains Urban Agglomeration.Beijing,Shanghai,Shenzhen,Guangzhou,Chongqing,Hangzhou and Wuhan jointly constitute a solid pillar for the external investment in the three provinces.In the spatial pattern of attracting external investment,there are clear four-tier scale system centered on provincial capitals in the prefecture-level units respectively in Hunan,Hubei,and Jiangxi province.(2)The city network of county-level units in the three provinces is developing rapidly but still in its infancy.Its spatial organization is characterized by multiple centers,hierarchies,spatial agglomeration,and administrative boundaries.The spatial distribution of county-level city-dyads presents a three-level network that Wuhan City Area,Changsha City Area,and Nanchang City Area as the three main centers,other prefecture-level cities as sub-centers,and other county-level units as subordinated nodes.(3)The spatial distributions of degree centrality,out-degree centrality,in-degree centrality and betweenness centrality are all characterized by “islands” and “central-periphery”.The power distribution of nodes in the city network is highly polarized and the prestige distribution is relatively balanced.Wuhan City Area,Changsha City Area,and Nanchang City Area are in the center of the network,holding both powerful control power and high prestige,and exerting more radiating influence on other nodes in the network.(4)The core-edge analysis shows that the city network structure of the three provinces evolved from the “polarization” in 2004 and 2008 to the “equilibrium” state in 2013.Separately,the city network structure of Hubei province has always been relatively balanced,Hunan province has always been more polarized,while Jiangxi province has experienced an evolution process from “polarization” to “equilibrium”.