Quality, Innovation, Brand: The Thinking Logic and Practical Strategies of “Anti-Involution Competition” in China’s Exhibition Industry

Abstract

At the new industrial development stage where China’s total exhibition volume has ranked first globally for 18 consecutive years, the total number of economic and trade exhibitions exceeded 3800 in 2024 and the total exhibition area reached 151 million square meters, the marginal benefit of the traditional “scale expansion” growth model driven by fiscal subsidies has been fully exhausted. The industry has fallen into a low-level involution dilemma characterized by “competing for low booth prices, competing for higher subsidy quotas, competing for larger venue areas”, which has resulted in squeezed growth space for independent exhibition brands, seriously insufficient investment in digital innovation, and a delayed progress in enhancing global core competitiveness. This study breaks through the single analytical framework of previous involution governance research that focuses on the causes of administrative intervention, and constructs a new trinity anti-involution logic system that “quality serves as the fundamental support, innovation acts as the core driving force, and brand serves as the final value destination”. Based on publicly available industrial data, anti-monopoly policy texts and the prior practical experience of benchmark cities across China, this paper systematically explains the underlying theoretical logic of the anti-involution path. Combined with the development experience of world-renowned exhibition cities such as Hannover in Germany and Milan in Italy, this paper proposes implementable anti-involution measures covering the entire industrial chain from three practical dimensions: reconstructing the quality evaluation system, achieving differentiated breakthroughs via innovation tracks, and building a gradient brand cultivation system. It provides solid theoretical support and practical reference for China’s exhibition industry to realize the paradigm transformation from “global No.1 in scale” to “global No.1 in value”.