Industrial integration development is an important feature of China's economic transformation and innovative development, and a key path to promote rural innovation and realize rural revitalization. Based on the panel data of 1,837 counties in China from 2014 to 2021, this paper applies the entropy value method and the coupled coordination degree model to measure the level of county industrial integration, and empirically explores the impact of county industrial integration on rural innovation and its role mechanism. The study finds that county industrial integration significantly improves the level of rural innovation. Mechanism analysis shows that county industrial integration promotes rural innovation by facilitating labor mobility. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotion effect of county industrial integration on rural innovation is more significant in the eastern and central regions, while the effect is not significant in the western region. The findings provide theoretical support and practical basis for promoting the further development of county industrial integration and exploring the county path of rural revitalization.

Qing Yang, Xiaohan Ma, Liping Jiang. Does Industrial Integration Development Drive Rural Innovation? An Empirical Study under the Perspective of Rural-urban Linkage. Academic Journal of Business & Management(2025), Vol. 7, Issue 4: 21-33. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJBM.2025.070403.

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