Analysis of the Relationship by Which Patent-Based Enterprise Clusters Influence the Development of Midstream Enterprises in a Low-Altitude Economy

Abstract

This paper examines how patent-driven enterprise clusters influence the development of midstream industries within the low-altitude economy. Using provincial-level panel data from China covering 2015–2025, we construct an econometric framework with the number of midstream enterprises as the dependent variable and the concentration of patent-based enterprises as the core explanatory variable. Controlling for factors such as industry scale, innovation environment, upstream/downstream support, infrastructure, and policies, we employ OLS, two-way fixed effects, and Poisson/negative binomial count models, incorporating lagged terms and multiple robustness tests. Results indicate a stable positive correlation between patent-intensive enterprise agglomeration and midstream development. Count models yield significant findings, while fixed effects show consistent directionality but weaker short-term statistical significance, suggesting cumulative and lagged effects. Mechanism analysis supports two primary transmission pathways: “knowledge spillovers” and “supply chain collaboration.” Policy recommendations include anchoring midstream development to establish standard/testing and certification platforms, enhancing patent pools and intellectual property finance, and promoting upstream-downstream collaborative innovation and high-quality clustering. Study limitations lie in identification and data granularity; future research should integrate firm-level microdata and patent citations to further validate causality and characterize heterogeneous effects.