Spatial structure and influencing factors of regional city supply networks in manufacturing: A case study of Shandong, China

Abstract

COVID-19 has driven the formation of regional supply chains. In addition, cities became the basic units of intra-regional supply chain organization under urban administrative economies. Based on the data mining of the buyer-supplier relationship of listed manufacturing firms, this study explores the spatial characteristics of city supply networks within Shandong by the indexes of degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality, and a community detection algorithm using the social network analysis (SNA) method and ArcGIS software. It investigates the influencing factors of city supply networks by the correlation and regression of the quadratic assignment procedure (QAP). The results show the following: 1) Shandong has formed a multi-center city supply network with Jinan, Qingdao, Yantai-Weihai, and the distribution pattern of city centrality measured by different centrality indicators shows differences. 2) Cities belonging to the same network community show a coexistence of spatial proximity and “enclave” distribution. 3) Geographic proximity, convenient transportation links, administrative district economy, similarity of business environments represented by development zones, export-oriented or domestic market-oriented division of labor between cities, value chain division of labor between cities, and land price differences between cities promote the formation of regional city supply networks. Conversely, differences in local market size and wage levels between cities hinder the formation of city supply networks. This study attempts to apply the analysis results to regional planning from the perspective of regional industrial synergy development. Additionally, as it is based on typical Chinese provinces, it can provide policy references for national administrative regions and countries/regions at similar spatial scales for manufacturing supply chains, as well as for regional spatial layout decisions of manufacturing enterprises.