| Summary: | In the era of the knowledge economy, with the increasing role of knowledge and entrepreneurship in cities, the impact of the urban knowledge environment on entrepreneurship has become an important research topic. Cities are the primary carriers of knowledge and entrepreneurship. However, few studies examine the impact of an urban knowledge environment on entrepreneurship. The impact of the urban knowledge environment on entrepreneurship in China remains unclear. Therefore, this study constructs an urban knowledge environment index from the two aspects of urban knowledge stock and knowledge infrastructure, measures the spatial distribution characteristics of the knowledge environment index of 275 cities at the prefecture level and above in China, and analyzes its impact using a spatial regression model. The results show that: (1) The urban knowledge environment index in the eastern coastal areas is relatively high, while that in the central and western areas is relatively low. Cities in major urban agglomerations, such as the Beijing Tianjin Hebei, Shandong Peninsula, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Chengdu Chongqing urban agglomerations, have a high urban knowledge environment. The level of urban knowledge environment in provincial capitals and above is relatively high, whereas it is relatively low in general, prefecture-level cities. (2) Urban knowledge environments promote entrepreneurship. When other factors are controlled, entrepreneurship increases by 0.239% for every 1% increase in the urban knowledge environment index. (3) Spatial heterogeneity exists in the influence of the urban knowledge environment on entrepreneurship, and its marginal effect differs among cities in different regions and levels. Cities in the east had higher values than those in the central and western regions, and cities at or above the provincial capital level in the same region had higher values than ordinary prefecture-level cities. Among these, the increase in entrepreneurship caused by improving the knowledge environment index of cities at the provincial capital level and above is the largest, nearly three times higher than that of the eastern, central, western, and general cities. This study provides a theoretical basis and practical reference for the development of urban entrepreneurship in China in the new era by revealing the internal laws and impact mechanisms of the urban knowledge environment.
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