| Since my junior year, I have been working on the development and completion of this project named “From Innovation to Inspiration: A Cross-comparative Evaluation of The Critical Success Factors of China’s Economic Zones”. This project takes on a meta-synthesis approach complemented with a three-tiered case study evaluating the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, Suzhou Industrial Park, and Shantou Special Economic Zone. Each of these zones were chosen based on their preconceived levels of success factors, with the first being the most successful, the second having a medium-level of success, and the third deemed the least successful. This framework was implemented in order to analyze and uncover the success factors and challenges of Chinese economic zones, to prove my argument that the most significant factor of prosperity is geographical location. Through evaluating and synthesizing previous literature on Chinese economic zones’ success factors, conducting each case study by providing timelines and steps taken while the zones were developing, and pin pointing the success and failing factors, the study reveals several links connecting the zones to one another. These links highlight the most common successes and challenges, but the one that appears to link all three together as well as previous scholars’ research proves to be geographical location. |
