Intra‐cluster Knowledge Exchange and Frequency of Product Innovation in a Digital Cluster

Assessing the environmental impact of digital and manufacturing industry co-agglomeration: Dual perspectives of geographical and virtual agglomeration

The coordinated development and agglomeration of the digital and manufacturing sectors have reached widespread consensus. However, its potential environmental impacts remain underexplored. To bridge this gap, utilizing the panel data of China's prefecture-level cities from 2006 to 2021, this paper analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution of digital and manufacturing industry co-agglomeration (DMCA), and then investigates the environmental impact and mechanisms of DMCA, using urban air pollution as a case study. It delves into the mechanism and heterogeneity from dual perspectives of geographical and virtual agglomeration. Key findings include: First, DMCA level in China has steadily increased, with higher concentrations in the Eastern and Central regions, especially in core urban clusters and economic belts. Second, DMCA significantly mitigates urban air pollution by leveraging its positive environmental externality, a result validated through robustness and endogeneity tests. Meanwhile, the impacts exhibit asymmetry, spatial heterogeneity, and nonlinear effects. Third, industrial upgrading, technological innovation, energy transition and factor allocation are verified as primary mediating channels through which DMCA mitigates urban air pollution, and environmental regulation is also verified as a positive moderating effect. Last but not the least, the differentiated of digital and manufacturing virtual agglomeration on urban air pollution are further investigated, particularly in the mechanisms and differentiated pathways of production intensification and lifestyle digitalization. This study enriches the theoretical framework concerning on industrial co-agglomeration, providing policymakers with critical insights to enhance the synergistic effect and positive environmental externalities of DMCA.

Knowledge utilisation in Chinese medium-sized manufacturing firms – an exploration under the backcloth of quality improvement

Purpose

This paper aims to report findings of up-to-date insights to fill the knowledge gap of lack of theoretical and practical understandings of how knowledge is used in medium-sized enterprises (MEs) for ensuring their performance excellence, healthy survival and growth, particularly using the contextual background of quality improvement as the standing point to concretise the research content and research participants’ mind-set for data collection.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical data were attained by conducting first a multiple-case study and thereafter a structured interview. Insights were obtained through analysing the collected data and triangulating the findings with the contention from the extant literature where available.

Findings

A set of approaches for effective quality improvement knowledge (QIK) utilisation in MEs have been identified and attested, as well as prioritised for a clear guidance on their application by practical businesses.

Originality/value

As a pioneering study on the particularly focussed issue, namely, a current knowledge gap – QIK utilisation in MEs, theoretically the research contributes to the enrichment of the current KM and QI literature with a primary focus on knowledge utilisation in MEs. Practically its findings provide insightful guidance to practice on the approaches of QIK utilisation.