ABSTRACT
This article distinguishes between intra- and inter-megalopolitan social proximity and assesses the relative importance of such two types of proximity on a city’s inventive performance. Using invention patents data in China, we find that internal social proximity rather than external social proximity has a positive and statistically significant effect on the inventive productivity of cities within a megalopolis. Our article contributes to the growing literature of co-invention networks and urban innovation by focusing on the megalopolitan level and highlights the importance of coordination between megalopolises.
Acknowledgements
This article has benefited from helpful comments of participants at various seminars. Financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71974076) is gratefully acknowledged.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).