This paper examined the relationships among firms in a rapidly growing specialized industrial cluster—the Chery automotive cluster located in the Wuhu Economic and Technology Development in eastern China. After demonstrating how the Chery automotive cluster contributed to sustainable regional economic development, it focused on defining the roles that major firms play in the localized production network. Based on three attributes of the firm (network linkages, network position, and network power), the study identified a typology of firms’ role, including the dominant core, lead firms, gatekeepers, intermediaries, club of foreigners, peripherals, and loners. By revealing the heterogeneity of the firms and discussing the differing roles they play in the network, the paper made some policy recommendations to promote the sustainable development of the cluster, including providing policy supports to core firms, encouraging inter-firm networking and interaction, and diversifying the cohort of gatekeepers.

A major obstacle to sustainable land management in ecologically sensitive areas is our limited understanding of the complex nonlinear mechanisms and threshold effects that dictate trade-offs between land use functions (LUFs). This study takes the Funiu Mountain area, a typical ecologically sensitive area in China, as a case study. At the township scale, the spatiotemporal patterns of LUFs from 2000 to 2020 were assessed based on the “production-living-ecological” function framework. The root mean square error (RMSE) model was introduced to quantify inter-functional trade-off intensity. Furthermore, the optimal parameters geographical detector (OPGD) and generalized additive model (GAM) were innovatively coupled to systematically analyze their driving mechanisms and nonlinear threshold effects. The results indicate that: (1) LUFs show clear functional complementarity and spatial game characteristics. The production function (PF) exhibits a heterogeneous pattern of “locally high, overall low”; the living function (LF) shows a local central agglomeration feature; and the ecological function (EF) displays a continuous gradient distribution of “high in the northwest, low in the southeast”. (2) The trade-off intensities between PF&EF and LF&EF are relatively strong, with high-value areas mainly distributed in the high-altitude central regions; while the trade-off intensity of PF&LF is weaker, with high-value areas mostly appearing in the central urban areas of each county. (3) The spatial heterogeneity of the trade-off relationship of LUFs is a comprehensive manifestation of the combined effects of the natural environment, socio-economic factors, and landscape patterns. The driving mechanisms of trade-off intensity among different functions show significant heterogeneity. (4) Key driving factors have significant nonlinear threshold effects. POP shows a complex dynamic regulatory effect with multiple thresholds and strong nonlinearity, while SLOPE, PET, and NDVI continuously play a fundamental constraining role in the trade-offs related to ecological functions. The key thresholds identified in this study can provide a direct scientific basis for regional differentiated territorial space governance.

The Dali River basin as the representative areas of the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Accurately evaluating the degree of soil erosion control is very important for soil erosion control. In response to the problems existing in the current research on soil erosion control degree (SECD) methods, the maximum possible soil erosion modulus is introduced into the evaluation model. Thereby eliminating the uncertainty of the assumed state of the original model. This paper calculates the SECD for 2020 based on this method. The results show: (1) From the soil erosion modulus spatial distribution, it can be seen that the soil erosion intensity is stronger in the eastern and southwestern parts. (2) Based on the SECD spatial distribution, it was found that eastern and southwestern regions were well controlled. This is consistent with the actual situation. (3) As the slope increases, the area proportion of SECD within the 0.2-0.3 range in each slope zone shows an increasing trend, while that of SECD within the 0.5-1 range gradually decreases; (4) In the case of vegetation coverage greater than 80%, SECD is still concentrated between 0.3-0.5, which indicates that vegetation coverage is not the only factor affecting soil erosion control. This research provided a new perspective for the evaluation of SECD.

The transplanted firm is an important force to promote the network evolution and cluster transformation and upgrading of the undertaking firm. From the micro‐analytic perspective of firm network, this paper puts forward a theoretical framework with “relationship‐network‐evolution” as the main line. Taking the refrigeration industry cluster in Minquan County of China as a case study and keeping the firm networks of economic relation, technical cooperation, and social communication firm network in 2009, 2013, and 2017 as the research objects, this paper analyzes the structure and evolution characteristics of regional firm network system, proposes the degree and effect of the local embeddedness of transplanted firms, and discusses their differences between international and interregional transplanted firms. The results revealed that: (1) the local embeddedness of transplanted firms significantly promotes the development of refrigeration industry network. (2) The network power of large‐scale transplanted firms in the cluster is increasing day by day, and the network presents a multi‐core trend. (3) The local embeddedness of some transplanted firms is not high, and the overall connectivity of the network is not strong. (4) Network intermediary nodes have strong heterogeneity, and the intermediary role of some large transplanted firms in the network needs to be improved. (5) The three network systems have similar structural characteristics, and social capital plays an important role in the local embeddedness of transplanted firms and the development of regional firm network. (6) Compared with international transplanted firms, interregional transplanted firms are more adaptable in terms of local embeddedness. The research results provide a reference for the construction of similar industrial clusters in China and other developing countries.

Cultivated land ecological security is vital for preventing human–land relationship deterioration, enhancing ecosystem service value, and promoting sustainable development. This study constructed a DPSIR-based evaluation index system and applied an improved TOPSIS method to assess countylevel cultivated land ecological security subsystems in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in 2020. Interactions among subsystems were further analyzed using Pearson correlation and geographically weighted regression to capture both overall and local spatial heterogeneity. The main findings are as follows: (1) The overall level of cultivated land ecological security in the study area remains in a marginally secure and transitional state, and the spatial distribution shows a west-high– east-low pattern. The ranking of subsystem levels is: State > Driving Force > Response > Impact > Pressure. (2) Subsystems are closely and intricately interlinked, such that changes in any single subsystem may trigger chain reactions in others; however, the strength of these correlations varies significantly across subsystem pairs. (3) Subsystem combinations can be classified into global and local correlations. Globally positive correlations include D → P, P ↔ S, P ↔ R, I ↔ S, and I ↔ R. Globally negative correlations include D → I, D → S, D → R, and S ↔ R. Locally autocorrelated combinations include P → D, I → D, S → D, and R → D.