Mapping Urban Networks through Inter-Firm Linkages: The Case of Listed Companies in Yangtze River Delta, China

Recently, literature on urban network research from the perspective of ?rm networks has been increasing. This research mainly used data from the headquarters and branches of all 2581 listed manufacturing companies in the Yangtze River Delta from 1990 to 2017, and studied the urban network through an interlocking network model that quantifies the links between enterprises. The results showed that the spatial distribution of listed manufacturing industries in the Yangtze River Delta was relatively concentrated, and cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou were hot spots for the spatial distribution of listed manufacturing industries. However, Fuyang, Suqian, Chizhou, Lishui and other network edge cities were less distributed in manufacturing. The urban network of the Yangtze River Delta has significant hierarchical characteristics. The urban network of the Yangtze River Delta presents a multi-center network development mode with Shanghai as the center and Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Hefei as the sub-centers. Moreover, we found that the development of inter-city connections in the Yangtze River Delta was driven by network mechanisms of priority attachment and path dependence. The radiating capacity and agglomeration capacity of cities in the Yangtze River Delta have a strong polarization characteristic. The core cities such as Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Hefei have much higher network radiation capabilities than network aggregation capabilities. However, other non-core cities and network edge cities have weak network radiation capabilities, and mainly accept network radiation from core cities. It enriches the research of urban networks based on real inter-?rm connections, and provides ideas for the wider regional study and the combination of econometric techniques and social network analysis.