Research on the Impact of Digital Innovation Driving the High-Quality Development of the Shipping Industry

Abstract

Based on the evaluation index system of high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation, this paper uses the “VHSD-EM” model to evaluate the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation in 11 coastal provinces of China from 2010 to 2019 and the fixed effect model to study the impact of digital innovation on the high-quality development of the shipping industry. The results show the following: (1) Both the index of the high-quality development of the shipping industry and the index of digital innovation generally show a slow growth trend, but there are obvious differences in regional development, among which the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta have prominent advantages; (2) Digital innovation plays a significant role in promoting high-quality development of the shipping industry. When the index of digital innovation increases by 1 unit, the index of the high-quality development of the shipping industry increases by 1.233 units on average. However, the potential of digital innovation driving the high-quality development of the shipping industry has not been fully utilized; (3) Investment in education and technology and other transportation industries have an important impact on the high-quality development of the shipping industry. It is necessary to increase the investment in education and science, improve the level of shipping technology, and exert the function of transportation to form a complete traffic and transport network. In general, the paper verifies the role of digital innovation in promoting the high-quality development of the shipping industry, as well as the impact of related factors on the high-quality development of the shipping industry, putting forward targeted suggestions for promoting the high-quality development of the shipping industry.

1. Introduction

Alfred Thayer Mahan pointed out in the Sea Power Theory that the rise and fall of all countries depends on whether they control the sea or not. As we all know, more than 90% of the global commodity trade is completed by shipping. Therefore, the status of the shipping industry in international trade and its role in national development are self-evident [1,2]. According to the report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the growth rate of international maritime trade has reached 2.9% a year on average during the past two decades. In 2019, the global seaborne trade reached 11.08 billion tons in 2019, with more than 800 million twenty-foot equivalent units handled at ports worldwide. In 2020, COVID-19 broke the rising trend of shipping volumes and caused an unprecedented shock to the the shipping industry, resulting in a 3.8% drop in volume of shipping compared with the previous year [3]. The epidemic highlights the interdependence of countries in the world and has an important impact on shaping the new pattern of the the shipping industry. In addition, the epidemic has exposed the longstanding problems in the development of the shipping industry, such as the design of supply chain, transformation of service business, navigation safety [4], and so on. Therefore, it is urgent and necessary to build the high-quality development of the shipping industry.

At present, the development of the shipping industry is facing many problems. First, low-end hardware cannot realize intelligent, green, and low-carbon factors. Hardware is the basis of realizing the high-quality development of the shipping industry. Without the transformation and upgrading of hardware, it is difficult to promote the high-quality development of the shipping industry. The aging of ships in the global fleet is serious. As of December 2021, the average age of the global fleet is 22 years, while 11% of the fleet is more than 20 years old, 41% is between 10 and 19 years old, and 46% is less than 10 years old. The pollution emission from old ships is more serious. Under the targets for carbon reduction, the task of carbon reduction of the shipping industry is very difficult. Second, resources of the shipping industry have not been effectively allocated to restrict the development of integration. The segments of the shipping industry are extremely rich, and integrated services cannot be provided, resulting in problems such as low efficiency, repeated construction of resources, high cost, and so on. At the same time, due to the excessive dispersion of resources, it is difficult to adapt to the trends of customer demand. Third, the mode and efficiency of service need to be transformed and improved [5]. The extension of the shipping industry to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain is not enough, and there are few effective ways of integration. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the integration with other related industrial chains, which can promote the efficient coordination of logistics, business flow, capital flow, and information flow, to realize the transformation from providing customers with “transportation services” to “supply chain services” [6]. Last, the management of data in the shipping industry is low. According to the study, more than one-third of shipping enterprises believe that the amount of data they have is growing at a rate of more than 50% per year. Not only the number is increasing, but also the types of data are increasing. While the growth of data has created opportunities throughout the shipping supply chain, many shipping enterprises are still unable to extract full value from data.

The solution of these problems must rely on the development of technology, the coordination of industrial chain, and reasonable allocation of market resources, all of which are dependent on digitization. Digital innovation is an important driving force of the development of digitization, which provides a new idea and feasible path to promote the high-quality development and inclusive growth of the shipping industry. Therefore, how to drive the high-quality development of the shipping industry through digital innovation has become an urgent practical problem to be solved.

2. Literature Review

In recent years, scholars’ research on the development of the shipping industry has been deepening, but most of them have focused on green and sustainable shipping. From the perspective of shipping enterprises, Chang et al. [7] believed that green shipping can improve the environment and productivity performance of shipping enterprises. Geng et al. [8] built an SD model to solve the contradiction between regional ship emissions and the sustainable development of shipping, and they provided a reference for promoting the coordinated development of the regional environment and economy. Wu et al. [9] distinguished the difference between green shipping and sustainable shipping as well as redefined the connotation of green shipping. Que et al. [10] discussed the relationship between the shipping development of the Yangtze River and the water environment; they found that with an increase in cargo volume, pollution accidents caused by ships also gradually increased, which had a serious impact on the water environment of the Yangtze River, which was likely to threaten the sustainable development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Felício et al. [11] believed that green shipping has a positive impact on sustainable economic development and environmental performance. Deng et al. [12] studied the relationship between green shipping and economic growth, and the results show that there is a good coordination between them.

Since 2019, only a few scholars have studied the problems related to the high-quality development of the shipping industry from a qualitative point of view. Lan [13] explained the new trends and characteristics of the digital transformation of the international shipping industry, as well as the main problems that shipping enterprises need to pay attention to in implementing it. Xu [14] proposed that the high-quality development of the shipping industry should be driven from two levels: hardware and software. He [15] believes that the new generation of information technology can promote the high-quality development of the shipping industry. Huang [16] analyzed the historical opportunities and research priorities of the high-quality development of water transport in Chongqing. Pan et al. [17] put forward conclusions and suggestions for the high-quality development of inland water transportation, based on the development of China’s transportation in the new era. The existing literature has not defined the dimension and system of the high-quality development of the shipping industry, nor has it constructed an evaluation index system to measure the high-quality development of China’s shipping industry.

The high-quality development of the shipping industry depends on digital innovation. So, what is digital innovation? Scholars have many different understandings of it. Yoo [18] believes that digital innovation is a process of combining digital and physical components to produce new products. Nambisan [19] believes that digital innovation is the application of digital technology in the process of innovation. Based on the comprehensive perspective, this paper believes that digital innovation is a process of product development, organizational reform and business innovation by using digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data. For the evaluation of digital innovation, the academic community has not formed a unified standard. Liu et al. [20] divided digital innovation into digital product innovation, digital process innovation, digital organization innovation, and digital business innovation. Xu et al. [21] constructed the evaluation index system of the capacity of digital innovation based on four characteristics of digital innovation and evaluated China’s regional digital innovation ability.

However, the research on how digital innovation promotes the development of industry has mainly focused on agriculture and manufacturing. From the perspective of agriculture, scholars generally believe that a series of digital technologies brought by digital innovation can be applied to agriculture, to improve the mechanization of agricultural and the efficiency of agricultural production, and, then, it can promote the development of “smart agriculture”, “agriculture 4.0”, and “data driven agriculture” [22,23,24,25]. From the perspective of manufacturing, scholars mostly studied the performance improvement, transformation, and upgrading of manufacturing enterprises brought by digital innovation, as well as the innovation of products, production processes, and business models [26,27,28,29,30,31]. At present, no scholars have studied the high-quality development of the shipping industry driven by digital innovation.

To sum up, the existing research has the following deficiencies: first, scholars’ research on the high-quality development of the shipping industry is still in its infancy, and most of them are qualitative analyses rather than quantitative analyses. Meanwhile, no scholars have established an evaluation index system for the high-quality development of the shipping industry. Second, the existing research has not formed a unified standard for the concept and evaluation of digital innovation. Third, the existing literature lacks research on the high-quality development of the shipping industry from the perspective of digital innovation. Based on this, on the basis of constructing the evaluation index system of high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation development, this paper uses the “VHSD-EM” model to evaluate the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation in China’s coastal areas and uses the fixed effect model to study the impact of digital innovation on the high-quality development of the shipping industry, hoping to promote the high-quality development of the shipping industry.

3. Framework

A series of digital technologies, brought by digital innovation, brings new elements such as information and data into social production and life, changes people’s lifestyles, optimizes the operation mode of enterprises, and, especially, adds new impetus into the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. With its characteristics, digital innovation promotes the high-quality development of the shipping industry from three aspects: improving technology, optimizing the business mode, and extending the service chain.

Firstly, digital innovation has high permeability for the shipping industry. New elements such as information and data are added to the shipping industry, which are recombined with traditional elements to improve the efficiency of traditional elements and further promote the reasonable allocation of resources in the shipping industry. This high permeability is embodied in the improvement of technology and the transformation of the business mode in the shipping industry. Digital technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence have penetrated into the shipping industry, promoting the improvement of advanced technology and intelligence of the shipping industry, such as port automation, unmanned ships, and the Beidou Positioning System, which have greatly reduced the cost of shipping enterprises and improved the safety and efficiency in the process of cargo transportation. At the same time, with the support of digital technology, the shipping business mode has changed from offline business to online business, the internal organizational structure of shipping enterprises has been optimized, and the overall informatization of the shipping industry has been improved.

Secondly, digital innovation expands the positive externality of the shipping industry. The high-quality development of the shipping industry not only includes its own development, but also includes its driving role in the region and other industries. The information network woven by digital innovation strengthens the connection between the shipping industry and other industries, playing an important role in promoting the development of assistant industries. Digital technology reduces the cost of an information search and the degree of information asymmetry between shipping enterprises and financial and insurance institutions, and it, also, promotes the innovative development of shipping finance and shipping insurance.

Third, digital innovation extends the service chain of the shipping industry. Kwak et al. [32] found that supply chain innovation has a significant positive impact on all dimensions of risk management capability, and it has a significant impact on enhancing competitive advantage. Thus, digital innovation plays an important role in shipping supply chain. With the continuous expansion of the scope of logistics transportation services and the integration of big data on shipping resources, shipping logistics transportation not only covers port-to-port transportation, but also needs to provide door-to-door transportation. Digital innovation promotes the shipping industry to build a more complete shipping logistics and transportation supply chain, expanding the scope of the shipping business. It also enables the shipping industry to better meet the needs of customers and provide higher quality transportation services.

According to the report on the development of China’s shipping Internet industry, there are more than 200 shipping enterprises that are combined with the Internet, including shipping e-commerce platforms focusing on transactions, such as “YQNLink” and “Onetouch”, as well as data platforms focusing on shipping data information, such as “Elane” and “Weiyun001”. At the end of 2016, Alibaba and Maersk Line launched “Cabin Treasure”, a platform for online booking that allows customers to book space directly online, avoiding the situations of a shipping company bursting and rising prices. These data platforms have built a bridge between shippers, freight forwarders, and large shipping enterprises, which reduces the intermediate links that do not create value and gradually flattens the intermediate level of traditional shipping business. It also provides customers with safe, reliable, efficient, and convenient supply chain logistics services and adds new profit growth points to the shipping industry. Meanwhile, these data platforms can accurately reflect the operating conditions of shipping enterprises, which reduces the cost of information search for financial and insurance institutions and alleviates the situation of borrowing difficulties for shipping enterprises.

To sum up, digital innovation drives the high-quality development of the shipping industry by improving technology, optimizing the business mode, and extending the service chain.

4. Materials and Methods

4.1. Evaluation Index System

By establishing the evaluation index system of high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation, this paper calculates and evaluates the high-quality development index of the shipping industry and digital innovation index in coastal areas of China.

4.1.1. Establishment of Evaluation Index System for the High-Quality Development of the Shipping Industry

At the main forum of the 2019 China Maritime Day Forum, Liu Xiaoming, vice minister of the Ministry of Transport, pointed out that six development concepts of “innovation, harmonization, green, openness, sharing and security” should be adhered to, to promote the high-quality development of the shipping industry. In 2021, the State Council clearly put forward to accelerate the establishment of a low-carbon transportation system. In addition, international competitiveness plays an important role in the high-quality development of the shipping industry. Therefore, on the basis of the original six development concepts, this paper adds the concepts of “low carbon” and “international competitiveness” and establishes an evaluation index system of the high-quality development of the shipping industry (S_it), including 14 secondary indexes and 26 tertiary indexes, as shown in

Table 1. Evaluation index system of high-quality development of the shipping industry.

Primary Indexes	Secondary Indexes	Tertiary Indexes	Index Attribute
Security	Standardization	Investment in standardization of transportation	direct ratio
	Accident risk	Number of water transportation accidents	direct ratio
International Competitiveness	Brand effect	Fleet size of major shipping enterprises	direct ratio
		Number of brand enterprises in the port	direct ratio
Innovation	Innovation input	Number of scientific research institutions in the ocean	direct ratio
		Investment of scientific research in the ocean	direct ratio
	Innovation output	Number of subjects of scientific research institutions in the ocean	direct ratio
Harmonization	Port and shipping construction	Berth number of ton ports	direct ratio
		Berth length of ports	direct ratio
		Design capacity of ports	direct ratio
		Number of hubs with navigation	direct ratio
		Fixed-asset investment in the shipping industry	direct ratio
		Number of employees in the shipping industry	direct ratio
	Scale of the shipping industry	Cargo turnover	direct ratio
		Passenger turnover	direct ratio
		Added value of the shipping industry	direct ratio
	Auxiliary facilities and services	Net deadweight of a ship	direct ratio
		Number of civil motorized transport ships	direct ratio
		Number of ocean stations	direct ratio
Green and Low Carbon	Resource consumption	Reduction rate of energy consumption in the shipping industry	direct ratio
	Pollution emission	Carbon dioxide emissions from the shipping industry	inverse ratio
Openness	Foreign trade	Throughout of foreign trade goods	direct ratio
	international co-operation	Total investment of enterprises with foreign investment	direct ratio
Sharing	Wage	Wage of employees in the shipping industry	direct ratio
	Educational welfare	Number of marine majors	direct ratio
		Number of graduate students majoring in marine majors	direct ratio

.

Security is the fundamental guarantee for the high-quality development of the shipping industry. It mainly focuses on transportation safety and transportation standardization. Transport security is expressed by the number of water transportation accidents, and transportation standardization is measured by the investment of funds. International competitiveness is an important embodiment of high-quality development of the shipping industry. The most important part of international competitiveness is brand effect. The shipping industry is mainly composed of shipping enterprises and port enterprises. Therefore, this paper chooses to measure the fleet size of major shipping enterprises and the number of brand port enterprises. Innovation is the fundamental driving force for the high-quality development of the shipping industry, which focuses on innovation investment and innovation output. Harmonization is an important part of the high-quality development of the shipping industry, including port construction, the scale of shipping, and the standard of ancillary facilities and services. In port construction and shipping, relevant indexes representing the capacity of port and shipping inputs are selected. The scale of shipping is expressed by turnover and industrial added value. Among them, the added value of the shipping industry is derived from the proportion of goods turnover of each region in the national goods turnover and the added value of transportation, storage, and postal service of each province. The capacity of ship and ocean stations are essential facilities for the development of the shipping industry. Green and low carbon is the basic guarantee for the high-quality development of the shipping industry, focusing on resource consumption and pollution emissions. For the calculation of the reduction rate of shipping energy consumption, this paper refers to the practice of Han et al. [33], and the calculation formula is as follows:

$$C_{ij}={{\displaystyle \sum }}_{i=1}^{11}{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{m=1}^5{\alpha }_m{C}_{im}\frac{P_{ij}+\delta G_{ij}}{{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{j=1}^3\left(G_j+\delta P_j\right)}$$

(1)

where, $C_{ij}$ is the energy consumption of the j-th transportation mode in i province, ${\alpha }_m$ is the reference coefficient of standard coal converted from the m-th energy (raw coal, gasoline, kerosene, diesel and fuel oil), $C_{im}$ is the energy consumption of the m-th energy in i province, P is the passenger turnover, G is the cargo turnover, δ is the conversion coefficient from passenger turnover to cargo turnover, and 0.125, as provided by Zheng et al. [34], is used as the reference value. In addition, based on the practice of Peng [35], this paper calculates the carbon dioxide emission of the shipping industry with the conversion coefficient of 2.4567 t CO₂/TCE, as given by the NDRC. Openness is the prerequisite for the high-quality development of the shipping industry, which ca not be separated from foreign trade and international cooperation. Sharing is an important achievement of the high-quality development of the shipping industry. It is the welfare brought to society by the high-quality development of the shipping industry, which is mainly reflected in the standard of wages and education.

4.1.2. Establishment of Evaluation Index System for Digital Innovation

Based on the research of digital innovation [21,36], this paper establishes an evaluation index system of digital innovation (D_it) including 4 secondary indexes and 11 tertiary indexes from the two aspects of the fundamentals of digital innovation and development of digital innovation, as shown in

Table 2. Evaluation index system of digital innovation.

Primary Indexes	Secondary Indexes	Tertiary Indexes	Index Attribute
Fundamentals of Digital Innovation	Communications	Penetration rate of mobile phone	direct ratio
		Length of long-distance optical cable lines	direct ratio
	Network facilities	Number of Internet broadband ports	direct ratio
		Number of websites	direct ratio
		Number of Internet broadband users	direct ratio
Development of Digital Innovation	Digital innovation investment	Investment intensity of R&D	direct ratio
		Number of employees in R&D	direct ratio
		Number of employees in information transmission, software, and information technology services	direct ratio
		Investment in fixed assets in information transmission, software, and information technology services	direct ratio
	Application of digital innovation	Added value of information transmission, software, and information technology services	direct ratio
		Index of digital inclusive financial	direct ratio

.

The digital infrastructures represent a key success factor, in order to optimize the use of all types of resources [37]. Consequently, a complete digital infrastructure is indispensable for the development of digital innovation, which is mainly composed of communications and network facilities. Therefore, the penetration rate of mobile phones and the length of long-distance optical cable lines represent communications, and the number of Internet broadband ports, websites, and Internet broadband users represent network facilities. The investment and application of digital innovation are the important bases to judge the development of digital innovation. Digital innovation requires investment of capital and manpower. Therefore, investment in digital innovation consists of investment intensity of research and experimental development funds, amount of research and test development personnel, number of employees, and investment in fixed assets of the whole society regarding information transmission, software, and information technology services. At present, digital industry mainly refers to information transmission, software, and information technology services as well as emerging derivative industries. Based on the availability of data, this paper selects information transmission, software, and information technology services for the value-added and digital inclusive financial index to measure the application of digital innovation.

4.2. Data Source

This paper selects the relevant data of the shipping industry and digital innovation in 11 coastal provinces in China from 2010 to 2019. The data comes from the National Bureau of Statistical, Guo Yan net, EPS data, China Port Yearbook (2010–2019), provincial statistical yearbook (2010–2020), etc. If there are missing data in the process of data collection, the interpolation method is used to complete them.

5. Research Procedure

5.1. The Calculation Principle of the VHSD-EM Method

The “VHSD-EM” method is an evaluation method combining the vertical and horizontal scatter degree method with the entropy weighting method. The combined model combines the respective advantages of the two methods. It can not only bring time weight into the calculation process, but also fully reflect the differences between evaluation indexes, making the evaluation results more scientific and reasonable.

(i). The calculation principle of the VHSD method

Assuming that there are k years and n evaluated objects, and each evaluation object has m evaluation indexes, the data set is constructed in chronological order to obtain the following index matrix:

$$X=x_{ijk}, (i=1,2,\dots ,n;j=1,2,\dots ,m;k=1,2,\dots ,K)$$

(2)

where, $x_{ijk}$ represents the accurate numerical value of the i-th sample in the k-th year under the j-th index.

First, standardize the data, and the processing process is as follows:

$$X{\prime }_{ijk}=\frac{x_{ijk}-\underset{1\le i\le n}{\min }\left\{x_{jk}\right\}}{\underset{1\le i\le n}{\max }\left\{x_{jk}\right\}-\underset{1\le i\le n}{\min }\left\{x_{jk}\right\}}$$

(3)

Secondly, the index weight is determined by maximizing the difference between the evaluation objects by means of the sum of squares of deviations.

$${\sigma }^2={{\displaystyle \sum }}_{k=1}^K{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{i=1}^n{\left(z_{ik}-\overline{z}\right)}^2={\omega }^T{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{k=1}^K{H}_k\omega ={\omega }^{T}H\omega$$

(4)

where, $\mathsf{\omega }={\left({\mathsf{\omega }}_1,{\omega }_2,\dots ,{\omega }_m\right)}^T$, $H={{\displaystyle \sum }}_{k=1}^K{H}_k$ is an n-order symmetric matrix, $H_k=X^{T}X$.

In order to meet the basic requirements of index weight, ${\omega }^T\omega =1$ is limited, then, the objective function in Equation (3) can be transformed into:

$$max{\omega }^{T}H\omega ,\hspace{1em}s.t.\{\begin{array}{c}\left|\right|\omega \left|\right|=1\\ \omega >0\end{array}$$

(5)

The solution shows that ω is the eigenvector corresponding to the maximum eigenvalue ${\lambda }_{max}\left(H\right)$ of matrix H.

(ii). The calculation principle of the EM method

First, the same standardized processing process is adopted for the data, and the standardized data $X{\prime }_{ijk}$ is obtained.

Secondly, the index weight ${\delta }_{jk}$ is determined by information entropy.

$${\delta }_{jk}=\frac{1-E_{jk}}{{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{j=1}^{m}1-E_{jk}}$$

(6)

where, $E_{jk}=-\frac{1}{\ln \left(n\right)}{\displaystyle \sum }_{i-1}^n{v}_{ijk}\ln v_{ijk},v_{ijk}=\frac{X{\prime }_{ijk}}{{{\displaystyle \sum }}_{i=1}^{n}X{\prime }_{ijk}}$. When $v_{ijk}=0$ or 1, make $v_{ijk}ln{v}_{ijk}$ = 0.

(iii). Determination of the final weight

In this paper, the arithmetic mean is calculated according to the weights obtained in Equations (4) and (6), and the final weight W_it is obtained. After that, the linear weighting method is used to carry on the weighted summary layer by layer, and, finally, the comprehensive evaluation value is obtained.

In addition, the combination can be carried out only when the results obtained by each single evaluation method are consistent in the combination model. Therefore, in order to verify the stability and effectiveness of the “VHSD-EM” method constructed in this paper, it is necessary to carry out Spearman rank correlation coefficient on the results.

5.2. Fixed Effect Model

5.2.1. Panel Model Settings

In this paper, the fixed effect model is used as the benchmark model, and the model is set as follows:

$$S_{it}=\alpha +{\beta }_0{D}_{it}+\lambda X_{it}+{\epsilon }_{it}$$

(7)

where, S_it represents the high-quality development of the shipping industry of each region, D_it represents the digital innovation of each region, X_it is the control variable of this paper, i represents each provincial region (i = 1, 2, …, 11), t represents the year (t = 2010, 2011, …, 2019), α, β, λ are the parameters to be estimated, and ε is the residual.

5.2.2. Determination of Fixed Effect Model

In this paper, a series of tests are carried out on the model, and the test results are shown in Table 5. Firstly, this paper makes an F-test to judge whether to use the mixed estimation model. It shows that the p-value is 0, which significantly rejects the original hypothesis and believes that the fixed effect model is significantly better than the mixed estimation model. Secondly, this paper uses the Hausman test to judge whether to choose the fixed effect model or the random effect model. The result of the Hausman test rejects the original hypothesis and chooses the fixed effect model under the significance level of 10%. However, because the regression result of clustering robust standard error is nearly twice the value of ordinary standard error, the traditional Hausman test is no longer applicable. Therefore, this paper judges again through the over-identification test. The results show that under the significant level of 5%, the original hypothesis is rejected, and the fixed effect model is selected.

In addition to digital innovation, the high-quality development of the shipping industry will also be affected by the economic environment, government policies, the development of related industries, and other factors. Therefore, in order to make the results more scientific and comprehensive, this paper adds four control variables, namely, the development of economics (G_it) is represented by the per capita GDP of the region, and the proportion of regional financial expenditure on transportation in total budget expenditure(F_it) is used to represent the government’s support for the high-quality development of the shipping industry. The investment in education and technology(E_it) is expressed by the proportion of regional financial expenditure on technology and education in the total budget expenditure, and the development of other transportation industries (T_it) is expressed by the proportion of freight turnover, excluding shipping in the total freight turnover.

6. Results and Discussions

6.1. Analysis on the Evolution Characteristics of the High-Quality Development of the Shipping Industry and Digital Innovation

Since the “VHSD-EM” method is a combine method, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient must be carried out to test its consistency, before applying this method in this paper. Therefore, this paper uses the VHSD method and EM method to calculate the comprehensive score of the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation, and, then, uses the Spearman rank correlation coefficient to test the stability and effectiveness. The results are shown in

Table 3. Results of Spearman correlation test between VHSD method and EM method.

Year	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Sit	0.936 ***	0.946 ***	0.946 ***	0.946 ***	0.964 ***
Dit	0.936 ***	0.909 ***	0.964 ***	0.864 ***	0.973 ***
Year	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Sit	0.973 ***	0.964 ***	0.973 ***	0.955 ***	0.955 ***
Dit	0.973 ***	0.964 ***	0.991 ***	0.982 ***	0.955 ***

Note: *** means passing the test at the significance level of 1%.

.

It can be seen from Table 3 that the results of VHSD method and EM method are significant and have a strong positive correlation at the significance level of 1%, which indicates that the results of the two methods have good consistency. Therefore, the “VHSD-EM” method constructed in this paper has good stability and effectiveness. Based on this, this paper, finally, calculates the comprehensive evaluation value of the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation in coastal areas from 2010 to 2019, and obtains its trend chart, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

From Figure 1, it appears that the high-quality development of the shipping industry is stable on the whole. However, some areas have great fluctuations from 2016 to 2018. The Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta have always been at a high standard of development. At the same time, the Pearl River Delta has shown an obvious upward trend in recent years, while the Yangtze River Delta has experienced small fluctuations. The southeast coastal area is always backward. There are significant differences within the Bohai Rim region. The index of Tianjin, Shandong, and Liaoning is much higher than Hebei. From the provincial perspective, we can find that Guangdong province has always been in a leading position in the high-quality development of the shipping industry, and there is a trend of steady and slow growth. Jiangsu and Shanghai provinces fluctuated, while Tianjin and Liaoning provinces showed a downward trend in recent years. This paper believes that these reasons are mainly caused by the continuous downturn and frequent fluctuations of the global shipping market as well as the fierce internal competition in China’s shipping enterprises. Since 2016, the downstream demand of global bulk cargo has further declined, and the growth of shipping demand will also decline. So, these led to a decline in the high-quality development of the shipping industry in most regions.

From Figure 2, the index of digital innovation in coastal areas remained relatively stable on the whole, with little fluctuation and small growth. It is similar to the index of the high-quality development of the shipping industry. The index of digital innovation of the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta is much higher than other regions. This paper believes that the reason is that digital enterprises emerged in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, which had a longer time and a better foundation to develop. As the national pilot zone for overall reform, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta have advanced the pattern of economic and mature concepts of the market economy, which enhances the region’s tolerance of new technology and promotes the improvement of digital innovation. Due to the backward development of the economics, the southeast coastal areas cannot attract digital enterprises. Therefore, it is lower than other coastal areas. Compared with the index of high-quality development of the shipping industry, the index of digital innovation shows greater regional differences.

In general, the trend of the high-quality development of the shipping industry in coastal areas is very similar to that of digital innovation. Regions with a high index of digital innovation also have a better level for the high-quality development of the shipping industry. Obviously, digital innovation has an impact on the high-quality development of the shipping industry.

6.2. Analysis on the Distribution Characteristics of the High-Quality Development of the Shipping Industry and Digital Innovation

In this paper, the “VHSD-EM” method is used to calculate the average value of the index of high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation, as shown in

Table 4. Average value of the high-quality development and digital innovation index of the shipping industry in coastal areas from 2010 to 2019.

Coastal Areas	Sit	Multi-Dimensional							Dit
		Security	International Competitiveness	Innovation	Harmonization	Green and Low Carbon	Openness	Sharing
Guangdong	5.218	0.509	0.267	0.825	0.983	0.587	0.671	0.456	1.826
Shanghai	4.512	0.370	0.333	0.460	0.583	0.683	0.493	0.798	0.925
Jiangsu	4.248	0.334	0.154	0.515	0.946	0.641	0.422	0.436	1.424
Shandong	4.002	0.278	0.084	0.649	0.672	0.535	0.513	0.520	0.962
Zhejiang	3.716	0.282	0.164	0.325	0.804	0.633	0.380	0.452	1.228
Liaoning	2.728	0.179	0.127	0.283	0.418	0.613	0.221	0.382	0.631
Fujian	2.554	0.170	0.228	0.252	0.322	0.622	0.180	0.292	0.746
Tianjin	2.401	0.123	0.069	0.298	0.136	0.686	0.222	0.384	0.321
Guangxi	1.187	0.223	0.007	0.080	0.192	0.346	0.058	0.034	0.322
Hainan	1.186	0.016	0.002	0.003	0.125	0.654	0.003	0.135	0.140
Hebei	0.735	0.078	0.015	0.036	0.169	0.147	0.169	0.023	0.796

.

First, from the perspective of the high-quality development of the shipping industry (S_it), there is a large gap in the high-quality development of the shipping industry in coastal areas, showing an obvious unbalanced development. Among them, Guangdong and Shanghai provinces ranked the top two, and the index of the high-quality development of the shipping industry is 5.218 and 4.512, respectively, which is much higher than other coastal areas; the high-quality development of the shipping industry in Guangxi, Hainan, and Hebei provinces is relatively low, which is 1.187, 1.186, and 0.735, respectively; Hebei province has the lowest index, which is seven times lower than Guangdong province.

Second, from the seven dimensions of high-quality development of the shipping industry, there is a problem of unbalanced development within the coastal areas. Guangdong province has a first-mover advantage in the high-quality development of the shipping industry, but the development level of the other five dimensions is low except for innovation and coordination. This paper argues that the main reason is that Guangdong province is still dominated by the traditional development mode of the shipping industry, which has significant advantages in infrastructure construction and the volume of freight transport. However, with the transformation of the shipping development mode, Zhejiang province has not kept pace with the times: there are still big problems with policy and talent training. Although the index of the high-quality development of Tianjin’s shipping industry is not high, its green and low-carbon development has prominent advantages, which is related to the better implementation of policies about green shipping. For example, the Transport Commission of China and the Tianjin Development and Reform Commission jointly formulated laws and regulations, which highlight the policy requirements of being low-carbon, smart, and green, forming policy guidelines.

Third, according to the index of digital innovation (D_it), this matches the high-quality development of the shipping industry (S_it). The Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta have the advantage in both the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation. However, there is a big gap between digital innovation and the high-quality development of the shipping industry in some coastal areas. For example, Shanghai has obvious advantages in the high-quality development of the shipping industry (4.512), but its index of digital innovation (0.925) is not high. On the contrary, in Hebei province, the index of the high-quality development of the shipping industry (0.735) is not as high as its index of digital innovation (0.796).

6.3. Analysis on the Impact of Digital Innovation on the High-Quality Development of the Shipping Industry Based on a Fixed Effect Model

First, digital innovation has significantly promoted the high-quality development of the shipping industry. From the fixed effect model results in

Table 5. Regression results of the fixed effect model.

Variable	Model			Robust Test
	FE R	FE	RE	FE R	FE	RE
Dit	1.233 ** (0.019)	1.233 *** (0.000)	1.609 *** (0.000)	0.251 ** (0.011)	0.251 *** (0.000)	0.336 *** (0.000)
Git	−0.078 ** (0.012)	−0.078 *** (0.000)	−0.075 *** (0.000)	−0.004 (0.209)	−0.004 ** (0.014)	−0.003 ** (0.033)
Fit	−0.837 (0.555)	−0.838 (0.518)	−1.159 (0.382)	0.247 * (0.079)	0.247 * (0.079)	0.237 (0.105)
Eit	0.038 * (0.059)	0.038 ** (0.025)	0.033 ** (0.052)	0.004 * (0.087)	0.004 ** (0.022)	0.004 ** (0.042)
Tit	−1.442 ** (0.023)	−1.442 ** (0.017)	−1.502 *** (0.009)	−0.166 ** (0.043)	−0.166 ** (0.013)	−0.160 ** (0.014)
Constant term	2.809 *** (0.009)	2.809 *** (0.000)	2.637 *** (0.000)	0.323 *** (0.007)	0.323 *** (0.000)	0.288 *** (0.000)
F-test	101.18 *** (0.000)			116.32 *** (0.000)
huasman	11.2 * (0.082)			13.98 ** (0.030)
Over identification test	11.951 ** (0.036)			15.373 *** (0.009)
R2	0.640	0.640	0.689	0.714	0.714	0.764

Note: ***, **, * respectively, represent the significance levels of 1%, 5%, and 10%.

, it can be found that the regression coefficient of digital innovation is 1.233, which passes the test at the significance level of 5%. It shows that for each unit of digital innovation, the high-quality development of the shipping industry will increase by 1.233 units, and there is a positive correlation between digital innovation and the high-quality development of the shipping industry. Therefore, investment in digital innovation should be increased. Digital innovation is conducive to promoting the high-quality development of the shipping industry. However, since digital technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence are not mature and not fully popularized, and only a small number of digital technologies are applied to the shipping industry, the role of digital innovation in promoting the high-quality development of the shipping industry has not been fully exploited. In short, digital innovation has brought an opportunity for the transformation and upgrading of the shipping industry as well as promoted the development of the shipping industry in the direction of high efficiency, intelligence, and ecology.

Second, the high-quality development of the shipping industry is also affected by the investment in education and technology as well as the development of other transportation industries. From the perspective of control variables, the development of economics passed the test at the significance level of 5%, but the regression coefficients were negative, indicating that the high-quality development of the shipping industry did not improve with the improvement of the development of economics. This paper believes that the reason for this result may be that the high-quality development of the shipping industry is related to many factors, while economic development is only an external environmental factor, there is no direct relationship between the development of economics and the high-quality development of the shipping industry. Meanwhile, the regression coefficient of the investment in education and technology is 0.038, which has passed the test at the significant level of 10%. It shows that every unit increase in the investment in education and technology, the high-quality development of the shipping industry will increase 0.038 units. Therefore, the investment in education and technology should be increased, as it can provide more compound talents and relevant technical support for the development of the shipping industry and promote the high-quality development of the shipping industry. The development of other transportation industries passed the test at the significance level of 5%, and the regression coefficient is negative. To a certain extent, the shipping industry and other transportation industries compete and replace each other, so this result has been verified. The transportation industry plays an important role in connecting industries, regions, and cities with the countryside. At present, most of the cargo transportation is not only dependent on one mode of transportation, it also needs to use two, or even more than two, modes of transportation. So, it is important to exert the function of transportation, which is conducive to the formation of a complete traffic and transport network.

6.4. Robust Test

According to the results of this paper, the following robust tests are carried out: first, in the calculation of the evaluation results, this paper uses the “CRITIC” method to measure the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation in coastal areas during the investigation period and uses the Spearman rank correlation coefficient to test the results of the “VHSD-EM” method and the “CRITIC” method, as shown in

Table 6. Results of Spearman correlation test between VHSD-EM method and CRITIC method.

Year	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Sit	0.982 ***	0.973 ***	0.955 ***	0.991 ***	0.982 ***
Dit	0.991 ***	0.991 ***	0.991 ***	0.864 ***	0.836 ***
Year	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Sit	0.982 ***	0.982 ***	0.991 ***	0.982 ***	0.955 ***
Dit	0.918 ***	0.982 ***	0.991 ***	0.982 ***	0.964 ***

Note: *** means passing the test at the significance level of 1%.

. The results show that the “VHSD-EM” method and “CRITIC” method pass the test at the significance level of 1%, and they have a good consistency. It shows that the “VHSD-EM” method is scientific and reasonable. Second, in the analysis of drivers, this paper establishes a fixed effect model for the results obtained from the “CRITIC” method and re-estimates the empirical results of this paper. The empirical results of the “VHSD-EM” method are consistent with the “CRITIC” method in effects and coefficients. The results show that the empirical results under different methods have a good consistency, as shown in Table 5.

7. Conclusions, Suggestions, and Future Research

7.1. Conclusions

Based on the establishment of the index system of the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation, this paper uses the fixed effect model to research the impact of digital innovation on the high-quality development of the shipping industry in 11 coastal areas from 2010 to 2019, drawing the following conclusions:

Firstly, there are certain regional differences in the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation, and the regions with strong digital innovation have a higher standard of the high-quality development of the shipping industry. Secondly, digital innovation plays a significant role in promoting the high-quality development of the shipping industry, but its potential has not been fully exploited. For every additional unit of digital innovation, the high-quality development of the shipping industry will increase by 1.233 units. Thirdly, investment in education and technology as well as the development of other transportation industries have an important impact on the high-quality development of the shipping industry.

7.2. Suggestions

Based on the above conclusions, in order to speed up the process of high-quality development of China’s shipping industry, this paper puts forward the following suggestions:

(1) The penetration of digital technology into the shipping industry should be deepened. At present, with emerging of new technologies, such as big data, 5G, driverless vehicles, artificial intelligence, and so on, we should upgrade the software and hardware of the shipping industry through unmanned ships, the Beidou Positioning System, and other digital technologies, as well as comprehensively promote the intelligent, efficient, green, and low-carbon development of the shipping industry. Seo et al. [38] discovered that supply chain integration and supply chain performance require supply chain innovation. Therefore, with the help of big data, the service chain of the shipping industry is extended, shipping resources are integrated, resources are effectively allocated, shipping service mode is changed, efficiency of shipping service is improved, and transformation from providing customers with simple transportation service to supply chain service is realized.

(2) The positive externality of digital innovation to the shipping industry should be expanded. The integration of digital innovation and traditional industries can expand the positive externality of itself. Using this characteristic, we should expand the extension of the shipping industry in the upstream and downstream of industrial chain and strengthen its integration with auxiliary industries. It can promote the efficient coordination of logistics, business flow, capital flow, and information flow, so as to drive the development of shipping auxiliary industries and promote the economic growth of coastal areas.

(3) All regions should make development policy according to local conditions. It is important to develop mechanisms or action plans that could mitigate some effects of increased social and economic inequality as well as the digital divides that may arise from the smartening of a city [39]. Consequently, due to the large differences in the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation in the coastal areas, the development advantages of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta are prominent. Policies should focus on the integration of digital technology and the shipping industry, building a shipping digital and visual platform, realizing the sharing of shipping information, and promoting the transformation of the shipping business mode, while the Bohai rim and southeast coastal areas should take advantage of national policies to strengthen cooperation between neighboring regions to realize complementary advantages.

(4) The replacement of ships should be promoted. Standardization and technology will be introduced into ships to speed up the upgrading of China’s fleet. This not only meets the domestic and foreign environmental protection requirements to ensure the safety of ships, but also meets the economic requirements to promote the long-term development of the shipping industry. In addition, it will accelerate research on clean energy technologies in the shipping industry, and the use of clean energy on ships. It also will reduce the pressure of carbon emissions in the shipping industry.

(5) We should strengthen international cooperation. China is in a follow-up state in the formulation of important shipping rules in the world. In order to realize the transformation of shipping power, China must have a greater voice and increase its influence in the shipping field. Through international cooperation, China will enhance its leadership in the reform and construction of the global shipping governance system.

7.3. Limitations and Future Research

The research of digital innovation on the high-quality development of the shipping industry is still in its infancy, the relevant theoretical system is not perfect, and the reference information is limited. The purpose of this paper is to establish the scientific evaluation index system to research the relationship between the high-quality development of the shipping industry and digital innovation, so as to promote the high-quality development of the shipping industry. However, due to the limitations of the relevant statistical data, indicators of macro-level such as policies are not included in the evaluation index system, which leads to some limitations of this paper. In future research, efforts can be made from the following two perspectives: The first is the index system. With the continuous improvement of statistical data, we will try to establish a more comprehensive, scientific, and systematic evaluation index system. The second is the sample size. Due to the limitations of data, the current study only uses a sample size of ten years. In the future, the sample size can be appropriately increased to obtain more robust results.