Location decisions and network configurations of foreign investment in urban China

This article studies location decisions and network configurations of FDI in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, located in the northwest of the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). Built upon the perspective that China?s economic transition can be conceptualized as a triple pr of globalization, marketization, and decentralization, this article outlines four structural changes of the Chinese economy, which are underlying the location and networks of FD decentralization and the empowerment of local states, marketization and the increasing importance of places, globalization and the emergence of globalizing city regions, and urba spatial restructuring. The study has uncovered substantial intraurban differentials existing within Nanjing and the significance of the Chinese state, location within the YRD, and intraurban context in the location decisions of FDI. We have also found that foreign ventures overwhelmingly serve as production facilities for either the Chinese or world market, and maintain close production relations with other foreign firms in the YRD. Lastly, regression models have identified the significance of national-level development zones, access to ports, and industrial land in the location of foreign ventures.