As global ecological risks intensify, environmental upgrading has emerged as a critical issue in global value chains (GVCs) studies. Existing research analyzed the mechanisms and pathways through which economic actors adopt environmental governance across various stages of GVCs, demonstrating how environmental value can be converted into economic benefits. By reviewing the origin and research progress of environmental upgrading in GVCs, this study systematically analyzed its driving mechanisms, practical approaches, governance structures, and outcome of impacts. Additionally, it explored the spatial and regional characteristics associated with environmental upgrading in GVCs. The findings reveal that: 1) The internal driver of environmental upgrading in GVCs is linked to the green strategic decisions of enterprises, while the external driver arises from the environmental regulations or social supervision by non-firm actors, with the two being mutually transformative. 2) The strategies for environmental upgrading in GVCs, categorized and elaborated in relation to the process of economic upgrading, broaden the concept of greening and provide a more extensive array of strategies and measures. 3) The governance structures of environmental upgrading in GVCs comprise three types, including top-down vertical, bottom-up vertical, and horizontal governance, revealing the rules of interaction and power dynamics among different actors. 4) The environmental upgrading in GVCs exerts differential impacts on actors and their regions across environmental, economic, and social dimensions, which may reveal the inherent inequality issues in the process. 5) The environmental upgrading in GVCs exhibits distinct spatial characteristics, reflecting multi-scale spatial interactions and regional disparities. While research in China remains in its nascent stage, future studies should integrate global perspectives and local experiences to analyze environmental upgrading mechanisms across global, national, and local scales, and to rethink the relationship between environment and economy.
Tourism geography is a discipline that studies the spatial differentiation patterns, temporal development processes, and regional characteristics of tourism phenomena, tourism elements, and comprehensive tourism geographic systems. In the new development stage, grounding itself in China's context, addressing theoretical, practical, and methodological issues in China's tourism development practices, and providing Chinese paradigms and solutions for knowledge production are not only the mission of the Chinese tourism geography discipline but also key to enhancing its own disciplinary vitality. The disciplinary vitality of Chinese tourism geography is rooted in the scale, uniqueness, and complexity of China's tourism development practices, and is manifested in the process where tourism, as an "emerging developmental element and driving force", actively responds to national strategies and socioeconomic development needs. This study systematically reviewed the development processes and trends of knowledge production in tourism geography from the perspectives of disciplinary systems, academic systems, and discourse systems. The findings indicate that: 1) Multiple environmental factors, including institutional, socioeconomic, cultural, and disciplinary development contexts, collectively shaped the substantive content, presentation methods, and the theoretical and methodological consciousness of knowledge producers in tourism geography in China. 2) The construction of an autonomous knowledge system in Chinese tourism geography faces both internal and external challenges. External challenges are reflected in the mismatch between the construction of an international discourse system and China's international status, the disparity between developmental advantages and thematic advantages, and practices of academic hegemony. Internal challenges include the marginalization of tourism geography within the disciplinary system, fragmentation of research outputs, and the lag of theory behind practice. 3) Examining tourism development practices of Chinese-style modernization with a problem-oriented disciplinary awareness, defining the essential orientation of knowledge production in Chinese tourism geography with an academic innovation consciousness, and strengthening the autonomous narrative system of Chinese tourism geography with a discourse dialogue awareness are beneficial directions for overcoming the autonomy challenges. Accelerating the construction of an autonomous knowledge system in Chinese tourism geography is fundamental for enhancing the disciplinary vitality of tourism geography.
The intensification of China-US trade friction has posed significant uncertainties for China's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). Existing studies predominantly employed regression analysis to identify the determinants of China's OFDI location choice, yet they primarily focused on the net effects of single variables, failing to reveal the role of interactions of multiple conditions in shaping China's OFDI location choices. Moreover, there is a lack of exploration of the location choice of China's OFDI in the context of China-US trade friction. This study applied the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to investigate the configurational effects of multidimensional distances, market potential, and factor endowments of host countries on China's OFDI location choice in the context of China-US trade friction. The findings are as follows: 1) Four distinct pathways were identified before the China-US trade friction, whereas three distinct pathways were identified after the China-US trade friction, indicating the existence of multiple pathways for China's OFDI location choice, with differences in pathways before and after the breakout of China-US trade friction. 2) Before the China-US trade friction, innovation level was the most critical factor. However, in the context of China-US trade friction, market size and natural resources became paramount. The importance of political distance and market openness increased in China's OFDI location choices, while the influence of innovation level and economic freedom diminished. 3) Market size, factor endowments, and political distance exerted stronger impacts on capital-intensive OFDI, whereas technology-intensive OFDI was primarily influenced by natural resources and economic freedom. This study bridges the theoretical gap by addressing the lack of configurational analysis in traditional studies on China's OFDI location choices. Moreover, this article also provides practical insights for China to advance its "Going Global" strategy in the new era.
Lithography machines are the core equipment of semiconductor manufacturing and play a crucial role in technological revolution and economic transformation. Based on the global lithography machine trade data from 2007 to 2022 obtained from the UN Comtrade Database, this study employed network structural analysis and the temporal exponential random graph model (TERGM) to explore the characteristics of change and driving factors of the global lithography machine trade network. The results show that: 1) At the overall network level, the global lithography machine trade volume had continuously expanded from 2007 to 2022, with the network density, connectivity, and average degree first declining and then rising, the clustering coefficient steadily increasing, and both the average path length and network diameter decreasing. 2) At the individual network level, trade was highly concentrated among a few core economies in both imports and exports, with a trend toward import diversification and the emergence of secondary exporters. China's mainland had risen as the largest importer, while the export dominance of the Netherlands and Japan had strengthened, and the United States' export influence had weakened. 3) In terms of spatial organization, the global lithography equipment trade exhibited a "strong North-weak South" pattern, with the spatial center shifting eastward and intra-regional trade connections strengthening significantly. Meanwhile, the core-periphery structure had evolved from a U.S.-led unipolar system to a China-U.S. bipolar configuration, as trade linkages between the core and semi-core layers intensified while peripheral connections remained sparse. 4) With regard to the driving factors, the network was jointly shaped by endogenous structures, node attributes, and relational attributes, displaying reciprocity, path dependence, and the Matthew effect. Information and communication technology (ICT) levels, innovation output, and intellectual property protection promoted both imports and exports, while R&D investment mainly stimulated exports. Geographic, linguistic, and institutional proximities had positive effects, whereas the Wassenaar Arrangement significantly constrained network development. Overall, the driving mechanism had gradually shifted from capability-driven to structure-driven, highlighting the growing importance of endogenous structural effects. This study not only provides a new perspective for understanding the global lithography machine trade pattern but also offers empirical insights for China's trade and industrial policy in the lithography sector.
Research on the innovation geography of specialized, sophisticated, and innovative "little giant" enterprises is of great significance for promoting place-based cultivation of new-quality productivity. Based on patent data of coastal "little giant" enterprises from 2019 to 2023, this study measured their innovation level from the dual perspectives of innovation quantity and innovation quality, characterized their spatial and industrial distribution patterns, and revealed the typological features of innovation development across cities. The study found that: 1) The innovation quantity of "little giant" enterprises has been continuously increasing, showing a distinct spatial imbalance. Innovation activities were mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Bohai Rim urban agglomerations. Innovation quantity also exhibited strong industrial concentration, primarily in the machinery and equipment manufacturing industry, high-tech service industry, and high-tech manufacturing industry. 2) Innovation quality has been steadily improving and demonstrated a more balanced spatial distribution; although innovation quality has risen across industries, substantial disparities remain. 3) The innovative development of coastal "little giant" enterprises can be categorized into four types—low quantity-low quality, low quantity-high quality, high quantity-low quality, and high quantity-high quality—with leading industries varying among different city types. Overall, the innovation development of coastal "little giant" enterprises featured quantitative agglomeration, qualitative balance, and industrial differentiation. Cities should tailor their development strategies to local conditions and take "little giant" enterprises as key drivers to cultivate new-quality productivity in a context-specific manner.
Lack of diversity of industrial structure and the high dependence on natural resources make resource-based cities exceptionally sensitive and vulnerable to internal and external shocks and disturbances. Scientifically measuring the economic resilience level of resource-based cities and identifying obstacles is a new way to enhance their sustainable development capabilities. Based on the relevant data of 110 resource-based cities from 2010 to 2022, a comprehensive evaluation system of "resistance and resilience capacity-adaptation and regulation capacity-transformation and development capacity" was constructed. The entropy method, GIS spatial analysis, and obstacle degree model were used to quantitatively analyze the temporal changes, spatial patterns, and obstacle factors of China's resource-based cities' economic resilience. The results show that: 1) The economic resilience level of resource-based cities had improved from 0.0679 to 0.1249, and it presented the characteristics of regeneration type > maturity type > growth type > decline type, but the growth rate of the growth-type cities was in a leading position, and there was a catch-up effect. 2) The economic resilience level of resource-based cities showed significant spatial differentiation, with a trend of eastern region > central region > western region > northeastern region. The economic resilience level of the eastern, central, and western regions had been increasing year by year, while the northeastern region showed abnormal fluctuations. The hotspot areas were distributed in the Huang-Huai-Hai region centered on Xuzhou, Jining, and so on, while the cold spot areas had shifted from the southwestern and northwestern regions to the northeastern region. 3) At the system level, the ability to resist and recover, as well as the ability to adapt and regulate, were the main obstacles to improving the economic resilience of resource-based cities. At the indicator level, insufficient wealth accumulation among residents, weak demands, unhealthy fiscal policies, and rigid constraints from industrial structure were important factors that impaired economic resilience. This study provides a scientific reference for enhancing the economic resilience of resource-based cities and formulating relevant resilience development policies.
The resilience of the human-sea economic system is an important basis for testing the health of the marine economic structure. Based on the adaptive cycle theory, we introduced the concept of social-ecological system resilience, defined the three-attribute resilience framework of environmental sensitivity, adaptive cycle capacity, and transformative ability, and constructed an evaluation framework for the adaptive cycle mechanism with potential, connectivity, and resilience dimensions. We applied the entropy weight TOPSIS method, adaptive cycle identification model, and spatial connection gravity model to analyze the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the adaptive cycle and resilience of the human-sea economic system in the Bohai Rim region. The results show that: 1) From 2012 to 2022, the adaptability of the human-sea economic system in the Bohai Rim region to the cycle of "potential-connectivity-resilience" showed an overall upward trend, with significant spatial distribution differences. 2) From 2012 to 2022, cities around the Bohai Sea were in the development and protection stages of an adaptive cycle, in a positive cycle, with the southern Shandong urban agglomeration evolving from the development stage (r) to the protection stage (k). 3) The human-sea economic system of the Bohai Rim region showed a stable and concentrated spatiotemporal distribution of resilience, gradually forming a multi-regional development network structure in spatial connections, and integration with the strengthening of the connection between the central and southern urban patterns. This study provide theoretical reference and case support for the sustainable and high-quality development of marine economy in coastal cities.
Industrial co-agglomeration can promote green innovation, creating a combined effect where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. However, the scales of the co-located industries can be very different and their co-evolution can be asynchronous. As a result, their interactions can be asymmetric. Does this asymmetry affect the positive impact of industrial co-agglomeration on green innovation? In this article, we propose that the asymmetric co-agglomeration can result in biased, nonlinear, and simultaneous effects on green innovation. We used the development of polluting and environmental industries in the Yangtze River Delta region from 2000 to 2022 as an example. We analogized the interactions between environmental and polluting industries to the predator-prey relationship. Accordingly, the Lotka-Volterra model was employed to identify the asymmetric characteristics (technology push and market pull). Then, we constructed a set of econometric models to test the impact of industrial co-agglomeration and its asymmetry on green innovation. The findings reveal that: 1) Of the cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, 80% witnessed the co-evolution between polluting and environmental industries, primarily driven by market pull from the polluting industry. Meanwhile, there were seven cities in which environmental industries could in turn push the development of polluting industries. 2) The asymmetric co-agglomeration led to biased effects on green innovation. The development of environmental industries has been able to promote the green innovation in the Yangtze River Delta region, and their co-agglomeration with polluting industries amplified its positive effects on green innovation. Polluting industries did not directly promote green innovation. Instead, they could contribute to green innovation via their co-agglomeration with green industries. Their effects increased as the green industries developed. 3) The asymmetric co-agglomeration led to nonlinear and simultaneous effects on green innovation. The asymmetry of industrial co-agglomeration changed its mechanism of influencing green innovation. In the context dominated by the market pull of polluting industries, both environmental and polluting industries would finally contribute to green innovation, although their development was asynchronous. In the context dominated by the technological push of environmental industries, environmental industries promoted the development of polluting industries. However, the positive effects of environmental industries will gradually decrease as the market demand changes.
Agricultural modernization and modernization of rural areas are interrelated and mutually promoting, which together constitute the core content of the overall rural revitalization. This study constructed an evaluation indicator system for modernization of agriculture and rural areas, and used the modified coupling coordination degree model, LISA time path, and P-VAR model to explore the regional differentiation patterns, spatiotemporal coordinated change characteristics, and interactive response relationships of the two at the county scale of Jilin Province during 2012-2022. The results show that: 1) The level of agricultural modernization and modernization of rural areas in Jilin Province has been improved, showing an overall gradient development and regional differentiation. Due to the path dependence on resource endowment and policy orientation, a spatial pattern of agricultural modernization strong in the west and weak in the east and modernization of rural areas high in the east and low in the west has been formed. 2) The overall coupling and coordination degree is relatively low. After 2018, it has been slightly improved under the impetus of policies. Regions with higher levels of modernization of rural areas also have higher coupling and coordination degrees. The coupling and coordination degree in the eastern region is generally higher than that in the traditional agricultural areas in the central and western regions. Spatially, it shows slow coordination growth, with poor regional linkages. There is a strong spatial integration and transfer inertia. 3) The development of agricultural modernization and modernization of rural areas in counties both have some degree of self-strengthening effect and inertia, and there exists a two-way nonlinear interactive relationship. Modernization of rural areas has a significant but short promoting effect on agricultural modernization, while agricultural modernization has a small but relatively lasting impact on modernization of rural areas. Finally, based on the regional characteristics, this article put forward targeted countermeasures and recommendations, with the aim of providing a scientific basis for the formulation of agricultural policies and rural development plans in Jilin Province and other major grain-producing areas.
Amid deepening globalization and informatization, urban networks arise from the interplay between the space of flows and the space of places, with a city's nodal position serving as a key indicator of its strength and influence. Responding to the turn toward a consumer society, amenities offer a fresh lens for urban innovation and transformation in China, but their role in shaping the structural change of urban networks has been underexplored. Building on a flow-place interaction framework, this study argues that rising quality-of-life demands make amenities a salient expression of place value—through locally distinctive culture and urban environmental quality—which, via a "differential perception-attention attraction" mechanism, draws flows and shifts cities' positions within the network. Empirically, Baidu Index data from 2012 to 2019 were used to analyze the nodal evolution of 280 Chinese cities through social network analysis. Furthermore, an urban amenity evaluation index was constructed across four dimensions—natural ecological environment, material environment, cultural and recreational environment, and social environment—and regression models were used to assess the impact of these factors on cities' network positions. The findings reveal that: 1) From 2012 to 2019, China's urban network evolved from a dual-core structure centered on Beijing and Shanghai to a pattern characterized by multiple coexisting cores, with cities such as Chengdu, Xi'an, and Chongqing demonstrating significantly high indegree centrality. 2) Amenity levels significantly promoted the change of cities' network status. 3) These effects were heterogeneous by region and city size—cities in central and western China were more likely to enhance their network positions through amenity development, while smaller cities relied more on the natural and cultural-recreational dimensions to improve their standing. These findings provide a novel theoretical perspective and empirical evidence for understanding how space of places contributes to the change of urban network structures. Moreover, they offer practical insights for local governments seeking to enhance place value and promote high-quality urban development through urban renewal initiatives.
Analyzing the patterns of change of ice and snow tourism destinations is a crucial foundation for promoting the sustainable development of China's ice and snow tourism industry. Taking Chongli District, Hebei Province as a case, this study applied the Butler's Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) theory in combination with the four-parameter Logistic model and the obstacle degree model to systematically explore the evolutionary characteristics and influencing mechanism of the destination's life cycle. The results indicate that: 1) The life cycle of Chongli's ice and snow tourism can be divided into four stages: the initial exploration stage (1996-2005), the rapid expansion stage (2005-2015), the Winter Olympics-driven stage (2015-2022), and the high-quality development stage (2022 to present), with a possible transition to a stagnation stage after 2030. 2) Different obstacle factors dynamically shaped the influencing mechanism of the life cycle across these stages. During the initial exploration and rapid expansion stages, grassroots development and local policies served as primary driving forces, while weak infrastructure and limited resource supply were major constraints. In the Winter Olympics-driven stage, both service and resource levels improved significantly, whereas the constraints shifted toward facility capacity and path dependency. In the high-quality development stage, issues of industrial structure lock-in and path dependence on the ice and snow industry become prominent, hindering a diversified transformation. 3) Based on the empirical findings, three strategies are proposed for the high-quality development stage: first, build a comprehensive international ice and snow tourism destination to promote high-quality development; second, construct an all-season tourism product system to optimize the industrial structure; and third, establish a talent system that combines internal cultivation and external recruitment to drive digital transformation and governance of ice and snow tourism destinations.
The change of business format networks in tourism destinations reflects the dynamic characteristics of regional coordinated development, and research on its core issues can serve as a key breakthrough for promoting the high-quality development of tourism destinations. This study integrated complex adaptive systems theory, path dependency, and complex network theory to construct an "adaptive complexity-path" analytical framework. By combining multi-source heterogeneous data and multidisciplinary theoretical approaches, it developed a comprehensive methodology for constructing business format networks in tourism destinations. Indicators such as path dependency degree and path-breaking degree were introduced to quantitatively analyze the path characteristics of business format network change. Using Jinggangshan City as a case, the study examined the characteristics of change of tourism destination business format networks and its mechanisms during 2012-2022. The results show that: 1) The main business formats in tourism destinations had a prominent influence, driving the formation of a business network dominated by core business formats such as food, accommodation, transportation, sightseeing, shopping, and entertainment and featuring the coordinated development of other related business formats. 2) The interconnections between business formats exhibited differential variations, and the business format network presented a high-proportion weak-link structure. 3) The business format network exhibited a "core-secondary core-periphery" structure, and the hierarchical structure was continuously and dynamically optimized. 4) The evolutionary path of the business format network gradually shifted from path dependence to a coexistence of path dependence and path-breaking. 5) The mechanisms of change of the tourism destination business ecosystem were complex, influenced by a combination of primordial driving forces, innovative driving forces, external pulling forces, external regulatory forces, internal driving forces, and external resistance. This study offers a theoretical basis and illustrative cases to inform the synergistic development of business formats in tourism destinations.
Frequent extreme temperature events pose a serious threat to the sustainable development of counties, and analyzing the relationship between the two from the key concept of social-ecological system—resilience—is one of the issues of key focus. Based on the panel data of 79 counties in Hubei Province from 2010 to 2023, the heterogeneous characteristics of multi-dimensional urbanization were explored on the basis of examining the direct and indirect effects of extreme temperatures on the county-level social-ecological resilience. The study found that: 1) Extreme temperatures measured by the composite index had a significant negative impact on the county-level social-ecological resilience, and there was a "temporal inertia" in the change of the county-level social-ecological resilience. The change of temperature measured by the temperature box showed an asymmetric U-shaped relationship, that is, using 16-20 ℃ as the benchmark interval, on both sides of this temperature interval, the amplitude of the county-level social-ecological resilience decline increased with the growth in the gap between the temperature and the benchmark interval. Under the same range of temperature fluctuation, the county-level social-ecological resilience decline caused by low-temperature shocks was greater. 2) The intensity of impact of extreme temperatures on the county-level social-ecological resilience varied under different urbanization speeds in different dimensions. Compared with the population and spatial attributes, the economic and social attributes of urbanization were more conducive to squeezing the inhibitory effect of extreme temperatures. 3) Labor productivity, the intensity of environmental regulations, and technological innovation respectively played partial mediation, moderating, and single threshold effects in the process of extreme temperatures inhibiting the enhancement of the county-level social-ecological resilience. The empirical evidence provided by this study on the impact of extreme temperatures on the county-level social-ecological resilience can provide a scientific basis for the government to respond positively to sudden perturbations and to strengthen system resilience in order to safeguard the sustainable development of counties.
In recent years, extreme weather has become increasingly common, seriously affecting the daily travel behavior of urban residents. Exploring the travel resilience of urban residents under extreme weather and its influencing factors can help cities actively respond to climate change and become more resilient. However, there is still a significant lack of research on the impact of built environment on travel resilience. This study took Xiamen Island as an example, using taxi trip data and interpretable machine learning method (LightGBM and SHAP) to investigate the travel resilience of urban residents during extreme precipitation events and its relationship with the built environment. The results show that: 1) Extreme precipitation leads to a reduction of about 14.4% in daily travel volume for urban residents, and the response to extreme precipitation showed a time lag. At the same time, travel resilience showed significant spatial heterogeneity. 2) Land use diversity had the highest impact on travel resilience, and all built environment variables were nonlinearly correlated with travel resilience, with interactive effects generated between different built environment variables. Finally, based on the magnitude, range, and combination of impacts of built environment factors on travel resilience, this study proposed precise planning strategies for achieving a climate-adaptive built environment.
Public service facilities constitute the core elements of a city's functional system, and their reasonable spatial layout directly influences urban spatial efficiency and social equity. Traditional extensive models of public service provision are increasingly inadequate to meet residents' growing demands for diversity and higher standards of such services, resulting in an intensified conflict between supply and demand. Taking the main urban area of Nanjing City as a case study and focusing on the 15-minute community living circle concept, this research employed kernel density analysis, network analysis, and the location-allocation (L-A) model to systematically evaluate the current configuration of public service facilities from three dimensions: spatial distribution, coverage level, and supply-demand matching. Optimization strategies were proposed accordingly. The findings reveal that: 1) The spatial distribution of facilities exhibits a core-periphery stratified differentiation, with medical and educational facilities showing multi-core agglomeration, cultural and sports facilities highly concentrated in the central area, and elderly care facilities marginalized and dispersed. 2) The overall coverage level is suboptimal, particularly insufficient in peripheral areas, creating service blind spots. 3) Supply-demand matching analysis indicates a polarization in medical facility allocation, with concurrent overload in the central area and shortages in the periphery for educational, cultural/sports, and elderly care facilities. 4) Optimization using the L-A minimum-facility model significantly enhances the coverage rate of residential points and supply-demand suitability. This study provides a scientific basis for optimizing the allocation of public service facilities and improving the quality and equity of provision, effectively supporting the practical implementation of the 15-minute community living circle concept in fostering urban sustainable development.
