The Study of Regional Innovation Network Structure: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration

Abstract

As a driving force for regional development, innovation holds an increasing position in regional competitiveness, and a reasonable and coordinated innovation network structure can promote high-quality regional development. Utilizing the modified gravity model and social network analysis method, an innovation network composed of 27 cities in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration from 2010 to 2021 was studied. The following conclusions were founded: (1) The innovation development level in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration was constantly improving, and the innovation development level generally showed a spatial pattern of high in the southeast and low in the northwest. (2) The intensity and density of innovation network correlations in urban agglomerations were increasing, and the centrality of network nodes had an obvious hierarchical characteristic. The innovation network had a significant core–periphery spatial structure, with core cities that had higher centrality, such as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, playing the role of “intermediaries” and “bridges”, while cities with lower centrality, such as Anhui and cities in northern Jiangsu, generally played the role of “periphery actors” in the network. (3) The spatial correlation network of innovation of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration could be divided into four blocks, namely, main benefit, broker, two-way spillover, and net spillover, and the spillover effect among them had obvious gradient characteristics of hierarchy.