Entrepreneurial local governments and the development of the decentralised platform economy in China

Jun Sun, Kai Jia and Martin Kenney

Regional Studies, 2025, vol. 59, issue 1, 2514961

Abstract: The platform economy in China is more geographically decentralised than in the United States, where platform firms are highly concentrated on the West Coast. This different spatial pattern is a product of China’s regionally decentralised authoritarian governance system, which provides local governments with the policy latitude and resources to affect local entrepreneurial growth. Through interviews and by comparing five-year plans at the national and municipal levels, we find that Chinese local governments developed dynamic capabilities to sense and seize emerging platform industry opportunities. These capabilities offset the centripetal clustering forces and result in a platform economy with less geographical concentration.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2025.2514961

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