Strategic coupling and change of regional emerging industries: A case study of the biopharmaceutical industry in the Suzhou Industrial Park

The convergence of relational economic geography (REG) and evolutionary economic geography (EEG) offers novel insights into the formation mechanisms of regional emerging industries. Taking the biopharmaceutical industry in the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) as a case study, this study employed field research and empirical analysis to unravel the impact of dynamic strategic coupling on regional industrial change. Key findings include: 1) Developing regions rapidly transplant emerging industries through "dual-dependent coupling", yet excessive reliance on external actors poses sustainability risks. 2) External shocks (for example, financial crises) trigger decoupling, creating opportunities for governmental agency to upgrade coupling modes from dependency to functional coupling, thereby achieving value chain leapfrogging and industrial diversification. 3) Locational opportunity windows from industrial transfer must align with local conditions (for example, locational advantages, policy demands) to foster emerging industries. 4) The industrial base and entrepreneurial culture in neighboring regions empower local path creation through knowledge spillovers and synergy. This study enriches the analytical framework for the change of regional emerging industries and deepens the understanding of the influence mechanism of strategic coupling on such change, which is of great policy significance for addressing external shocks and promoting the upgrading of coupling models.