Regional innovation effect of smart city construction in China

Yiwu Zeng; Zenghui Zhang; Zi Ye; Lili Li

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0281862

Regional innovation effect of smart city construction in China

PLoS One. 2023 Feb 16;18(2):e0281862. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281862. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yiwu Zeng¹, Zenghui Zhang², Zi Ye³, Lili Li⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Economics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
² College of Economics and Management, Southwest University, Chongqing, China.
³ School of Public Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.
⁴ School of Economics, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

Abstract

Innovation is an important driving force for high-quality regional economic development. In recent years, the Chinese government has actively explored new ways to improve regional innovation level, and the construction of smart cities is regarded as an important measure to implement the innovation-driven development strategy. Based on the panel data of 287 prefecture-level cities in China from 2001 to 2019, this paper examined the impact of smart city construction on regional innovation. The research shows that: (i) The construction of smart city has significantly improved the level of regional innovation; (ii) Investment in science and technology and human capital level are important transmission paths for smart city construction to affect regional innovation; (iii) Compared with the central and western regions, the impact of smart city construction on regional innovation is more obvious in the eastern region. This study deepens the understanding of smart city construction, which has important policy significance for China to accelerate the construction of an innovative country and the healthy development of smart cities, and provides reference for other developing countries to promote smart city construction.

Copyright: © 2023 Zeng et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Cities
Economic Development*
Government

Grants and funding

Yiwu Zeng acknowledge funding support from the General Project of Special Subject of Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Planning “Spiritual Research and Interpretation of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee and the Tenth Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Provincial Committee” (Grant No. 22LLXC21YB) and Hangzhou Philosophy and Social Science Planning Base Project (Grant No. 2022JD12); Lili Li acknowledge funding from the Special Fund for Basic Scientific Research Expenses of Universities under Zhejiang Province (Grant No. GK229909299001-216) and Henry Dai Innovation and Entrepreneurship Special Fund Project of Hangzhou Dianzi University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.