Spatio-temporal evolutionary analysis of the township enterprises of Beijing suburbs using computational intelligence assisted design framework

Township and village enterprises (TVEs) are market-oriented public enterprises under the purview of local governments based on townships and villages in the People’s Republic of China. TVEs have become a vibrant part of the Chinese economy following the significant expansion during the 1980s reform period. In the mid-2000s, TVEs became an integrated part of Chinese industry after the property rights transition. In this study, we examined the dynamic behaviours of TVEs in the near-inner-outer suburbs; we simulated these behaviours using computational intelligence aided design framework, which embedded the micro-genetic algorithm with variable populations (VPμGA). Specifically, we assume that conditions follow development, which includes industry scale, industry profit, employees and district development; we then utilise the VPμGA method to simulate the industrial structure and spatio-temporal evolution of the TVEs across seven industrial sectors and closely analyse the consequences of the transition. Our analysis results are consistent with actual observations, and a macro-level analysis showed that TVEs experienced defined scenarios. For Beijing, these scenarios are as follows: rapid development → chaotic development → steady development. The micro-level analysis showed that TVEs and labour have gradually formed a specific industry, a complex trend that evolved in both space and time. We determined the dynamic behaviours of the structures at micro-scales, meso-scales and macro-scales, clarifying the development of TVEs in the Beijing suburbs. © 2018, The Author(s).