Exploring Sustainable Innovation Level, Spatial Inequities, and Convergence Trends in China’s Wood Industry

Abstract

The importance of sustainable innovation in the wood industry is growing, but there is a lack of comprehensive analysis of its evolution, regional differences, and patterns of convergence in China. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2021, the sustainable innovation index of the wood industry is measured by the projection pursuit method. On this basis, the kernel density estimation method and Dagum Gini coefficient are used to study the dynamic evolution trend, regional differences, and sources of the index, and the convergence characteristics are examined using the coefficient of variation method. The study shows that (1) China’s overall wood industry sustainable innovation index shows a decreasing trend from 2011 to 2021. (2) The differences in the four regions mainly come from inter-regional differences. (3) The index shows significant nonequilibrium characteristics and progressive evolution patterns, and the spatial agglomeration is significant. The magnitude of the index deviation from the average did not decrease over time for the northern and southwestern forest regions. (4) The wood industry sustainable innovation index of the four major forest regions has obviously converged to the same level; under the condition of considering multifactors differentiation, the growth rate of the index of the lower regions is significantly higher than that of the higher regions. The study concludes that current regional imbalances in sustainable innovation in China impede progress and equitable distribution of benefits in the wood industry, and that the impact of regional differences on the β-convergence of sustainable innovation varies according to specific regional characteristics and conditions. These findings provide important theoretical contributions and practical guidance for the development of targeted innovation strategies for the sustainable development of the wood industry, as well as for the promotion of balanced regional development.