Unified National Market, Regional Technological Diversification, and Enterprise Technological Complexity

Abstract

Fostering a diverse regional technology environment within a unified national market is one of the key approaches to encouraging enterprises to enhance technological complexity. From the perspective of regional technological diversification, this paper investigates the mechanisms and effects of building unified national commodity and factor markets on enterprise technological complexity. The construction of unified national commodity, labor, and capital markets helps enhance enterprise technological complexity. The development of a unified national market cultivates diversified market demand and factor supply, thereby promoting regional technological diversification and advancing enterprise technological complexity. Both related and unrelated regional technological diversification have played a significant positive role in enhancing enterprise technological complexity during the construction of a unified national market. Further research reveals that a unified national market facilitated by transportation infrastructure development significantly enhances enterprise technological complexity, whereas a unified national market promoted by local government policies does not yield notable effects. Moreover, owing to the spatial correlation of unified national market construction, the level of such markets in adjacent regions positively influences the technological complexity of local enterprises. Finally, the development of a unified national market primarily increases the technological complexity of non-state-owned and high-tech enterprises, while its impact on state-owned and non-high-tech enterprises is not statistically significant. The conclusions of this study provide insights for fully recognizing the benefits of building a unified national market and for accelerating enterprises’ scientific and technological self reliance.

Keywords

unified national market / regional technological diversification / technological complexity / knowledge breadth

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press