A study on the synergy of manufacturing development in the Nanjing Metropolitan Area based on the entropy weight method: assessment and empirical analysis

This study focuses on eight cities within the Nanjing Metropolitan Area (NMA) and takes the manufacturing industry of the NMA as the research object. Using data from 2015 to 2020, we apply the orderliness model and the coupling coordination model. Ten manufacturing sectors within the NMA are selected, and a two-level evaluation index system for the NMAs manufacturing industry is established to measure the development level of the sector and to explore its development trends. The results indicate that high-level advantageous industries overlap among the cities in the NMA; the external orderliness of the metropolitan manufacturing sector exhibits heterogeneity in the secondary subsystem; and the coupling and coordination among the manufacturing industries of the cities within the metropolitan area show relatively small differences. Based on these findings and the functional positioning of the eight cities, targeted recommendations are proposed for the future development of the NMAs manufacturing industry.