PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2019, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (10): 1545-1557.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2019.10.010

• Special Issue | Empirical Study • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Firm export diversification and local product diversity

JIN Wenwan1,ZHU Shengjun1,*(),YAO Xiaoming2   

  1. 1. Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
    2. Chinses Academy of Macroeconomic Research, Institute of Economic Research, Beijing 100038, China
  • Received:2019-06-10 Revised:2019-08-28 Online:2019-10-28 Published:2019-11-01
  • Contact: ZHU Shengjun E-mail:zhus@pku.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 41971154);National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 41701115);Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 41731278)

Abstract:

Since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, Chinese firms have increasingly adopted product diversification as an important strategy. Existing literature concentrates on the internal factors and does not pay much attention to the external factors of product diversification of firms. This study used Chinese custom data and a Tobit model to investigate the influence of local related and unrelated product diversity on firms' export diversification strategy. The results show that: 1) Local related and unrelated product diversity has an impact on firms' export diversification strategy. Specifically, firms located in local systems dominated by unrelated product variety are more likely to show unrelated diversification patterns, while firms located in local systems dominated by related product variety are more likely to show related diversification patterns. 2) Due to the different sources of technological knowledge, the product diversification patterns of firms that belong to different industries are affected by local industrial structure differently. For example, firms belonging to footwear manufacturing industry are more likely to depend on the acquisition of local external resources and show a closer relationship with the pattern of diversification at the local level than transportation equipment manufacturers. 3) There is also a closer relationship between the diversification patterns of Chinese firms and the pattern observed in the local system than international firms. It reflects the difference in performance between Chinese and international firms. Chinese firms are closely related to the surrounding firms, while international firms may not have strong ability to acquire local external knowledge. According to the above results, Chinese government should promote industrial agglomeration and attract foreign firms by preferential policies and improved infrastructure, at the same time, give more support to domestic firms and improve the knowledge spillover benefits.

Key words: product diversification, related diversification, unrelated diversification, local product structure, China