Industrial Synergy Agglomeration, Urban Innovation Capacity, and Advanced Manufacturing Development

Abstract

This paper endeavors to construct an evaluative framework to assess the level of development in advanced manufacturing across the 31 provinces in China from 2003 to 2021. Additionally, it aims to investigate the impact of industrial synergy agglomeration on the development of advanced manufacturing by employing a moderated mediation model and the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM). The research results demonstrate that industrial synergy agglomeration facilitates the development of advanced manufacturing, with particularly pronounced effects in the eastern region of China and the 18 provinces that already possess national advanced manufacturing clusters. Urban innovation capacity plays an intermediary role, and both manufacturing intelligence and international capacity cooperation exhibit positive moderating effects in the direct and indirect pathways through which industrial synergy agglomeration influences the development of advanced manufacturing. Furthermore, industrial synergy agglomeration exhibits strong spillover effects on the development of advanced manufacturing. To boost the development of the advanced manufacturing industry, it is imperative to expedite the establishment of an industrial synergy spatial layout, foster a culture of enterprise innovation and intelligent transformation, emphasize inter-provincial communication and cooperation, and facilitate cross-border resource integration.