From Openness to Competitive Advantage: Mechanisms, Heterogeneity, and Tiered Opening-up Strategies in China’s Urban Global Competition
Zhihua Sun
Keywords:
comprehensive openness, urban competitiveness, global structural position, spatial spillover effects, tiered opening-up strategy
Abstract:
Amidst increasingly globalised urban competition, this study investigates how comprehensive openness shapes urban competitiveness in emerging economies. Building on panel data from 288 Chinese prefecture-level cities (2008–2023), we construct multidimensional indices for comprehensive openness and urban competitiveness and employ dynamic panel, moderating effect, and spatial econometric models to examine the mechanisms, heterogeneity, and spatial spillovers of comprehensive openness. Results show the following. First, comprehensive openness significantly enhances urban competitiveness in the short (?̂?=0.05) and long (?̂?=0.17) terms, with the long-term effect amplified by the accumulation of factor endowments, business environment quality, and global position. Second, this positive impact is channeled through improved green innovation efficiency and increased global connectivity, enhanced by high-quality institutional environments and FinTech development. Third, aligning with the dynamic adaptation theory in new structural economics, the effectiveness of comprehensive openness is contingent upon a city’s inherent global structural position—specifically, its embeddedness in global networks and maturity of its innovation ecosystem. Fourth, we identify a ‘local gain, neighbour loss’ pattern in spatial spillovers, highlighting the need for regional coordination policies to mitigate resource misallocation. Finally, we benchmark results against global city rankings and propose a tiered opening-up strategy, suggesting differentiated goals for cities based on their developmental tiers, such as contesting global rule-making authority, forging specialised functional platforms, achieving breakthrough through specialised niches, or enhancing regional connectivity. This study offers empirical insights for cities in emerging economies seeking to ascend the global urban hierarchy through strategic openness.
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 From Openness to Competitive Advantage: Mechanisms, Heterogeneity, and Tiered Opening-up Strategies in China’s Urban Global Competition [PDF file] [Filesize: 1.33 MB]
 10.7441/joc.2026.03.09
Sun, Z. (2026). From openness to competitive advantage: Mechanisms, heterogeneity, and tiered opening-up strategies in China's urban global competition. Journal of Competitiveness, 18(3), 237–284. https://doi.org/10.7441/joc.2026.03.09
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