Coupling coordinated development among digital economy, regional innovation, and talent employment: A case study in the Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle, China

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2024.100115

Abstract

Abstract:

Coordinative development across various systems, particularly the economic, social, cultural, and human resources subsystems, is a key aspect of urban sustainability and has a direct impact on the quality of urbanization. The Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle, comprising Hangzhou City, Huzhou City, Jiaxing City, and Shaoxing City, was the first metropolitan circle approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) as a demonstration of economic transformation in China. To evaluate the coupling coordination degree of the four cities and analyze the coordinative development in three systems (including digital economy, regional innovation, and talent employment), we collected panel data during 2015-2022 from these four cities. The development level of the three systems was evaluated by the standard deviation method and comprehensive development index. The results are as follows: (1) the level of coupling coordinated development of the three systems in the Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle was relatively low; (2) the coupling coordination degree of the four cities in the Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle showed significant regional differences, among which Hangzhou City was in the leading position, and Huzhou, Jiaxing, and Shaoxing cities made steady but slow progress in the coupling development of the three systems; and (3) the development of digital economy and talent employment needs to be strengthened. This study contributes to the coordinative development of Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle by innovatively focusing on the coupling coordination relationship among digital economy, regional innovation, and talent employment, which also meets the industrial layout of Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle. In this way, the optimal allocation and sustainable development of digital economy, regional innovation, and talent employment in the Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle can be achieved.

Key words: Digital economy, Regional innovation, Talent employment, Coupling coordination degree, Hangzhou, Metropolitan Circle

QIU Luyi, Sharina OSMAN, HUA Yidi. Coupling coordinated development among digital economy, regional innovation, and talent employment: A case study in the Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle, China[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2024, 5(1): 100115.

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System	Subsystem	Indicator	Effect	Weight
Digital economy	Development basis of digital economy	Revenue of telecommunication industry	+	0.159
		Number of mobile phone users	+	0.167
		Number of broadband service users	+	0.121
		Foreign direct investment projects in the tertiary industry	+	0.123
	Scale of digital economy	Scale of cultural and creative industries	+	0.109
		Scale of information industry	+	0.116
		Freight transport volume	+	0.125
		Express delivery volume	+	0.080
Regional innovation	Innovation investment	Research and development investment of the whole society	+	0.135
		Personnel research and experimental development activities	+	0.122
		Ratio of research and development expenditure to gross domestic product	+	0.182
		Number of scientific and technological institutions in enterprises	+	0.122
	Innovation output	Number of patents granted	+	0.142
		Number of research and experimental development projects of large-scale industrial enterprises	+	0.091
		Productivity of new products	+	0.114
		Number of technology business incubators	+	0.091
Talent employment	Scale of education	Number of students in colleges	+	0.120
		Number of college graduates	+	0.187
		Number of graduates from vocational schools and technical schools	+	0.082
	Scale of talent employment	Proportion of employment in the tertiary industry	+	0.092
		Employment in information transmission and computer services and software	+	0.093
		Employment in industry of leasing and business services	+	0.085
		Employment in financial industry	+	0.132
		Employment in scientific research and technical services	+	0.129

	Index	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle	C	0.329	0.329	0.330	0.331	0.328	0.326	0.326	0.327
Hangzhou Metropolitan Circle	D	0.271	0.286	0.300	0.319	0.328	0.348	0.360	0.379
Hangzhou City	C	0.330	0.329	0.332	0.332	0.332	0.333	0.333	0.332
Hangzhou City	D	0.414	0.432	0.452	0.473	0.481	0.512	0.523	0.554
Shaoxing City	C	0.306	0.317	0.324	0.328	0.323	0.312	0.312	0.312
Shaoxing City	D	0.217	0.224	0.243	0.265	0.283	0.299	0.308	0.314
Jiaxing City	C	0.284	0.288	0.300	0.294	0.291	0.276	0.285	0.282
Jiaxing City	D	0.191	0.209	0.223	0.245	0.257	0.260	0.288	0.309
Huzhou City	C	0.308	0.309	0.300	0.295	0.270	0.275	0.279	0.282
Huzhou City	D	0.166	0.190	0.194	0.201	0.195	0.214	0.221	0.230

Year	Coupling coordination type	Year	Coupling coordination type
2015	“Digital economy lag” type	2019	“Digital economy lag” type
2016	“Digital economy lag” type	2020	“Talent employment lag” type
2017	“Digital economy lag” type	2021	“Talent employment lag” type
2018	“Digital economy lag” type	2022	“Talent employment lag” type