中国新企业成立空间差异的影响因素——以金属制品业为例

新企业是产业空间重构的重要驱动力。采用1998-2007年中国工业企业数据库,以金属制品业为例,发现金属制品业新企业成立的活跃地区由东部沿海转向中西部地区,特别是中部地区。随后建立“全球链接、区域竞争和地方环境”的分析框架,通过城市层面的面板Tobit模型,考察新企业成立空间差异的影响因素,并突出企业效率在这些因素作用过程中的影响。研究发现：① 外向型城市有利于新企业成立;低效率的新企业只是追求劳动力的低成本,但是高效率的新企业还能兼顾劳动力的高质量。② 区域市场潜力大的城市有利于新企业成立。③ 市场化环境好的城市有利于新企业成立,地方化经济对新企业成立无显著影响,而适度的相关多样化能够促进高效率新企业成立。

Determinants of the spatial variation of new firm formation in China's metal product industry

New firm formation is one of the driving forces of spatial restructuring of industries because it represents entrepreneurship in a regional context. Its spatial variation has attracted growing attention among economic geographers, regional analysts as well as policy makers. Existing research seems to overemphasize local factors (e.g. market demand, labor supply, agglomeration economies and the level of economic freedom) at the expense of regional, national, and global factors. Using the Annual Survey of Industrial Firms from 1998 to 2007 in China, this paper takes the metal product industry as an example to explore the determinants of the spatial variation of new firm formation. By calculating the rate of new firm formation using the ecological approach at the city level, it reveals that the hot spot of start-ups in the metal product industry shifted from coastal to inland China, especially towards the central region. It then establishes an analytical framework which not only encompasses multi-scalar factors, namely 'global linkage, regional competition, and local environment', but also takes firm heterogeneity into consideration. The random effect panel Tobit model at city level suggests three major findings. (1) To the extent of global linkage, new firms were disposed to locate in export-oriented cities endowed with cheap labor; the more the city was closely linked to the world market, the greater the attraction of cheap labor was. Low-efficient start-ups would run after cheap labor, but their high-efficient counterparts were able to strike a balance between labor cost and labor quality. (2) To the extent of regional competition, cities with large market potential would foster new firm formation. (3) To the extent of local environment, new firms were attracted to cities with a higher level of marketization. Localization economies have no significant effect on new firm formation whereas related variety only fosters high-efficient start-ups. This paper enriches the empirical research on the spatial variation and its determinants of new firm formation in China by providing evidence for the metal product industry, which is labor intensive, and domestic market oriented with a moderate level of technology. It also provides reference to local governments on policy incentives for start-ups, which is particularly relevant against the backdrop of 'mass entrepreneurship and innovation' campaign recently in China.