Title: Measuring the urban competitiveness of Chinese cities based on multi-attribute decision making approach

Authors: Xiao Liu; Haixiang Guo; Yijing Li; Yanan Li; Wenwen Pan

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China ' School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China; Center for Digital Business and Intelligent Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China; Mineral Resource Strategy and Policy Research Center of China, University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China; The Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA ' School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China ' School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China ' School of Economics and Management, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

Abstract: Previous studies have measured urban competitiveness mainly from the perspective of cities' engine growth. Besides the cities' engine growth, this paper also emphasises cities' development resistance, city interactions and environment conditions, and establishes a four-level indicator system for evaluating urban competitiveness. Given that results of urban competitiveness by a single method may not be objective and comprehensive owing to the oneside view, this paper develops an integrated approach, which combines five evaluation methods and seven validity coefficients. The urban competitiveness of ten cities in Yangtze River Delta of China has been measured by the integrated approach. The ranking results indicate that during the period 2006-2009, Suzhou ranked the top among ten cities. Nanjing and Hangzhou held the second and third positions, respectively. Wuxi, Changzhou and Ningbo followed in the middle. Shaoxing, Zhoushan, Huzhou and Taizhou ranked low. Finally, some suggestions for enhancing urban competitiveness of ten cities are recommended.

Keywords: urban competitiveness; evaluation methods; Yangtze River Delta; China; cities; multiattribute decision making; MCDA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2016.080505

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2016 Vol.19 No.4, pp.315 - 341

Accepted: 15 Oct 2015
Published online: 28 Nov 2016 *

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