区位转移下企业经济升级促进社会升级的机制OA

Against the backdrop of industrial relocation in China,enterprise migration is reshaping production organizations and labor structures,making the relationship between Economic Upgrading(EU)and Social Upgrading(SU)increasingly complex.Existing studies have paid limited attention to how the institutional changes triggered by regional relocation influence SU at the micro level.To address this gap,this study uses S Enterprise,a furniture manufacturing firm that relocated from Shenzhen to Anji in Zhejiang Province,as a case study.Based on in-depth interviews,participant observations,and internal enterprise materials,this study investigated the mechanisms through which the EU affected SU under regional relocation and examined the differentiated roles of public and private governance in this process.The findings showed that enterprises achieved multiple forms of EU during relocation,including process,product,functional,chain,and scale upgrades.However,the social consequences of these upgrading processes are characterized by the coexistence of social upgrading and downgrading.Automation,managerial optimization,and supply chain integration improve production efficiency and generate positive SU outcomes,including job creation,wage growth,expanded training opportunities,and broader career development channels.However,technological substitution reduces low-skilled positions,whereas product diversification and increasing orders intensify labor pressure and transform the original wage system,leading to a decrease in income among some experienced workers.Therefore,EU did not automatically translate into SU but instead involved an unequal distribution of upgrading benefits and costs.This study further demonstrated that regional relocation reshapes the institutional environment in which the enterprise is embedded,becoming a key condition for differentiated SU outcomes.In the destination region of Anji,relatively comprehensive public governance arrangements concerning wage standards,industrial support,talent recruitment,and living conditions provide institutional support for improving workers' employment quality and living standards.For example,the enterprise maintained Shenzhen-level wage standards after relocation,enabling formal workers to earn wages above local market levels.However,such institutional benefits were unevenly distributed across labor groups.Temporary workers,largely controlled by third-party labor agencies,lack stable protection and promotion opportunities and become particularly vulnerable during industrial fluctuations,facing a higher risk of social downgrading.Compared to public governance,private governance primarily reflects adaptive responses to the new institutional environment rather than proactive social responsibility initiatives.Although the enterprise improved wages,performance bonuses,and dormitory conditions for some workers,efficiency-oriented strategies such as dual-track employment systems,extended working hours,and intensified performance management further widened the disparities between permanent and temporary migrant and local workers.Overall,the primary driving force behind SU during the early stage of relocation stemmed from institutional provisions within the public governance system,whereas corporate governance amplified the differentiated outcomes among labor groups.This study reveals the"asymmetry between the benefits and costs of upgrading"during the process through which EU influences SU,demonstrating that SU is not an automatic outcome of EU but is jointly shaped by spatial restructuring,institutional environments,and governance arrangements.By incorporating spatial restructuring and governance differentiation into EU and SU analysis,this study provides micro-level evidence for understanding labor transformation and industrial relocation in contemporary China.