Divergent multiple actor-driven path creation and spatial evolution of emerging digital economy industry in Guangzhou City, China

Abstract

While evolutionary economy geographers have paid increasing attention to the new industrial path creation in emerging economies, less has been done to compare the path creation between core and peripheral areas at the sub-regional level in the Global South. By taking the digital economy industry in Guangzhou City as a case, this study reveals that given the different initial conditions, innovative entrepreneurship, institutional entrepreneurship and place-based leadership have paid distinct and dynamic roles in different specific contexts and phases. In the well-developed core district (Tianhe) gathered universities and research institutes, innovative entrepreneurs have acted as initial drivers for the development of the digital economy industry at the early path creation phase, while institutional entrepreneurs also provided support to enhance the industrial agglomeration in the following periods. In the late-developing peripheral district (Huangpu) with the lack of innovative resources, institutional entrepreneurship and place-based leadership are crucial to nurturing the new digital industry in the early phase, while conducive industrial assets and innovative entrepreneurs are also needed to cultivate the development of new industries in the future. Therefore, a longitude and multi-actor approach is needed to understand regional industrial path creation in different geographical contexts.