Does Institutional Embeddedness Promote Regional Enterprises’ Migration? An Empirical Analysis Based on the “Double Transfer” Strategy in Guangdong, China

Abstract

Against the background of globalization, institutional embeddedness has become an important theoretical tool to understand the changes in regional economic patterns. This paper starts by discussing the theory of location choice of enterprises and then uses the statistical method of negative binomial regression to analyze the impact factors of enterprises’ transfer from the perspective of institutional embeddedness by taking Guangdong Province, China, as a case study area. It was found that informal institutional factors such as the same language, the same industry, and geographical proximity have significant positive effects on the transfer of regional enterprises. Formal institutions such as counterpart assistance are the core driving force of enterprise transfer, while traditional economic factors such as cost comparative advantage have no significant impact on the transfer of regional enterprises. This research shows that the transfer of regional enterprises is greatly influenced by the current regional institutional environment. Therefore, it is important for future policy makers to consider the regional institutional environment and to deepen regional institutional embeddedness to advance urban and regional development.