A comparative study of innovation agglomeration and spatial evolution in Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta

The increasingly intensive innovative activities enable a more straightforward tracing of knowledge spillover, by looking at the spatial agglomeration of innovative activities. Existing research looked at spatial patterns of innovative activities, but few examine the spatial evolution of the innovative agglomeration. This paper employs location quotient, Moran's Index and the method of standard deviation ellipse to analyse the spatial evolution of innovation agglomeration in the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta from 2004 to 2016. Research findings include: (i) high-tech industry agglomeration fosters a local knowledge production network which promotes local knowledge spillover; but an existing local knowledge production network is not the precondition of agglomeration; (ii) local knowledge spillover occurs in a "core" area and there is a tendency that the core area is shrinking and being more distinctive; but individual cities' breakthrough on innovation promotion triggered by intercity competition contributes to breaking the shrinking process; and (iii) the evolving of spatial patterns of innovative activities follows that of high-tech industries agglomeration in general, but some mismatches between them suggest the spatial distribution of high-tech industries cannot take full advantage of the innovative resources and facilities in the two regions. Accordingly, it is recommended that local policies would encourage better connections between high-tech industries with other local facilities and resources of innovation, to strengthen the spatial connections of innovative activities between cities within the region to provide sustained support to innovation in the region, but maintain the intercity competition mechanisms to secure the sources of breakthrough development on innovation.