Research on the Ecological Deconstruction of E-Cigarette Industrial Clusters in Shenzhen, China, and a Niche Analysis of Related Enterprises

Yanmei Xu, Xia Song, Xiang Li, Ziqiang Wang and Yanan Zhang
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Yanmei Xu: School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Xia Song: School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Xiang Li: Business School, Liaoning University, Shenyang 110136, China
Ziqiang Wang: School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Yanan Zhang: School of Economics and Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-20

Abstract: As an emerging industry, e-cigarettes have been greatly prosperous globally in recent years. In China, Shenzhen is the center of e-cigarette production, and a complete business ecosystem has been built at this point. To explore the phenomenon of the agglomeration of e-cigarette enterprises in Shenzhen, the business ecosystem structure and evolution path of e-cigarette industrial clusters in Shenzhen (the Shenzhen e-cigarette industry) are illustrated in this study from an ecological perspective, and the development characteristics of the Shenzhen e-cigarette industry as well as the interspecies relationships among enterprises were studied based on the population life history theory. Eight representative firms were also selected here. Their patent information was collected and classified to investigate niche characteristics using Levins’ niche breadth and niche overlap index. The results indicate that, after a long-term evolution, the Shenzhen e-cigarette industry has preliminarily built a business ecosystem with a unique structure. The developmental process is accompanied by the transformation of the development pattern from imitation to innovation and the enterprise populations have achieved coevolution through mutualistic symbiosis. In the area of technological innovation, niche-widening and -separation strategies are employed by the e-cigarette enterprises. The above reasons explain the boom of the Shenzhen e-cigarette industry and why Shenzhen is becoming the center of e-cigarette production.

Keywords: Shenzhen; e-cigarette; business ecosystem; population life history; niche; technological innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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