Towards Functional Specialization of Chinese Cities? A Perspective of Locational Strategy of Multinational Corporations in China
基于1979-2008年《财富》全球500强跨国公司在华数据，研究发现跨国公司功能在中国城市逐渐集聚，上游功能集中于政治经济等级高的城市，表明中国城市出现功能专业化趋势。
There has been a transformation of urban structure from mainly sectoral to functional specialization in the developed countries.This transformation is inextricably interrelated with changes in firms′ organization.Functional specialization will change the nature of economic linkages between cities and would trigger information and knowledge flows between cities,demanding more face-to-face contacts.Some cities would host upstream functions of the value chain such as headquarters and research development while others host downstream function such as processing,fabricating and integration.This paper examines the tendency of functional specialization of Chinese cities by exploring the functional locations of multinational corporations.Based on data from Fortune Global 500 MNCs during 1979~2008,this study found that MNCs have gradually expanded in China functionally and geographically.Similar functions tend to agglomerate in certain cities while complementary functions co-agglomerate in some cities.Sequential investments led to the spatial clustering of MNCs′ functions.The empirical results found strong evidence of agglomeration effects of functional and cross-functional agglomeration of Fortune Global 500 MNCs and some evidence of functional specialization in Chinese cities,with upstream functions clustering in the top tier cities of the politically and economically urban hierarchy.The functional locations of multinational corporations provide a valuable angel to examine the urban transformation.