产业链分工视角下中国数字游戏产业城市合作网络结构与产业链地位研究

Current research on urban networks still has some shortcomings, such as insufficient analysis of industrial chains, neglecting the distinction between local and non-local embedding, and insufficient attention to industrial connections in the digital economy. In view of this, this article attempts to take the Chinese digital game industry as an analytical case. Based on the basic paradigm of urban network research, it starts from the perspective of industrial chain division of labor, focusing on exploring the urban network structure and cooperation models formed by the digital game industry through industrial chain division of labor. It further analyzes the industrial chain position and the evolution of local-global embeddedness of the Chinese digital game industry, thereby promoting the dialogue between urban network research and industrial chain theory and solidifying the analysis of the industrial connection connotation in urban network research. This study selected cooperation data at both the national and global scales from 2013 to 2023, involving 283 cities worldwide. Social network analysis was employed to measure the urban cooperation network structure of China’s digital games, and the internalization link index was used to analyze the differences in local and cross-city connections of game enterprises at different spatial scales. The findings are as follows: 1) The national-level city collaborative network of China’s digital gaming industry has a polycentric structure, reflecting the decentralized characteristics of the digital economy; at the global scale, there exist 3 collaborative models: “Overseas R&D and Publishing-Domestic Operation” (Model 1), “Domestic R&D-Overseas Publishing and Operation” (Model 2), and “Domestic Publishing and Operation-Overseas R&D” (Model 3). Model 1 has the largest network of cities, and Models 2 and 3 are expanding rapidly. 2) Overall, Chinese cities are still in the middle and lower segments of the global digital gaming industry chain, with significant dependence on cities in the United States, Japan, and Europe in the R&D and publishing sectors. However, with the rapid development of Models 2 and 3, cities represented by Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Xiamen are continuously upgrading their positions in the global industry chain. 3) Over the past decade, the local-global connectivity of China’s core gaming cities has undergone significant spatial restructuring, mirroring the global industrial chain reconfiguration. Nationally, most cities have transitioned from localized to cross-city domestic collaborations, aligning with the delocalization trend in digital creative industries. Globally, Chinese cities demonstrate reduced external dependency, shifting from strong international-weak domestic ties to domestic-dominated collaboration patterns, with Shanghai emerging as the sole metropolis sustaining robust dual local-global linkages. These evolving spatial embeddedness patterns reflect the industry’s self-optimization and value chain upgrading trajectory. This study contributes to the dialogue and incorporation between industrial chain and urban network research. Future research needs to analyze in more detail the driving mechanisms, globalization strategies and local embedding patterns of Chinese cities’ participation in the division of labor in the global digital game industry chain through more in-depth enterprise surveys and industry chain analyses.