%X This thesis studies China’s innovation development along with its contemporary urban
transformation. It aims to understand the governance of innovation-driven development in
China. From a political-economic perspective, it builds a theoretical framework for governing
innovation-driven development under state entrepreneurialism. Empirically, this research
explores emerging Chinese innovation spaces with two case studies: Shanghai Zhangjiang
Science City and Nanjing Jiangbei National New Area. Mainly through semi-structured
interviews, this research uses quanlitative-based methods in an exploratory way. Rather than
thinking of innovation governance as state-commanded, this thesis reveal they are marketbased operations. At the same time, they extend the state capacities into industrial governance.
The thesis answers three research questions. First, it studies China’s ongoing innovation
strategies and analyzes the national context for developing Chinese innovation spaces. These
innovation spaces are guided by strengthened state strategies for innovation-driven
development. Second, the implementation of Chinese innovation spaces is incorporated into
urban development. Meanwhile, imperative challenges in China’s urban transformation have
influenced the operation of these innovation spaces. State regulations concerning land
development and high-tech zones have influenced their development models. Third, by
focusing on the role of the state, this research investigates how urban governance facilitates
China’s innovation-driven development and high-tech upgrading. The governance of
Zhangjiang Science City demonstrates a strengthening of national innovation strategies for
knowledge generation and key innovation. Such a rising state centrality is path-breaking for
market-operating state actors. In Jiangbei National New Area, the governance demonstrates an
institutional reform for Nanjing’s industrial restructuring coupling with a multinational lead
firm. Entrepreneurial state actors are created to improve governance for facilitating the takeoff in the semiconductor industry.
This research has three theoretical contributions. First, it engages with the gap in economic
geography-based innovation studies and provides political-economic characteristics of China’s
innovation development, which are beyond knowledge dynamics. Second, it contributes to the
discussion on the transformation of innovation space and offers a contextualized understanding
of innovation-driven development in China. Third, it reflects China’s governance changes
through two innovation-driven urban projects. The study presents the complexity of the state
in implementing rising state innovation strategies through variegated operations and dialogues with the state entrepreneurialism literature in a transformative and grounded manner. This
study fills the gap in understanding how the state institution configures and operates to achieve
its strategic development goals by using market means.
%D 2024
%O Copyright © The Author 2024.   Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).  Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms.  Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request.
%T The development of emerging Chinese innovation spaces and the role of the state
%I UCL (University College London)
%A Kan Zhu
%L discovery10190446