Volume 3,Issue 8
Analysis of the Spatial Pattern and Structure of the Global Cross-Border Logistics Network
Under the background of fierce competition in global cross-border e-commerce, cross-border logistics has become the most important and weakest link in the whole industrial chain. Based on data mining and tracking of 357 cross-border logistics channels and 380 million waybills, this paper constructs a global cross-border logistics network with 213 countries and regions as nodes, and conducts network analysis and geographical interpretation. The results show that: (1) At present, the global cross-border logistics development has become more mature, and its overall spatial pattern presents a hub-and-spoke structure with China as the outflow core and the US as the inflow core. The connections between nodes are imbalanced, and for most countries and regions, inbound flows exceed outbound flows. (2) The global core hubs are China, the United States, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong, followed by Germany, France, Canada and India. (3) The entire network is highly connected, showing an obvious core-edge layer structure, without obvious small groups. (4) The core circle layer is China and the United States, while the half-edge circle layer and the edge circle layer contain 85 and 126 countries and regions, respectively. The overall flow direction between the circles presents a diffusion state from the inside to the outside. The long-tail effect is significant, and the regionalization degree of the edge circle is higher than that of globalization.
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