Evaluation and influencing factors of China’s industrial water resource utilization efficiency from the perspective of spatial effect

China is now faced with severe water shortage and water pollution. To solve the problems, it is imperative to improve the industrial water resource utilization efficiency (IWRUE). Firstly, the authors established an evaluation index system of the IWRUE, including an undesirable output. Next, the directional distance function (DDF) model was adopted to measure the IWRUEs of 30 provincial administrative regions (provinces) in China in 2005–2016. After that, the Global Moran’s I was employed to test the presence of spatial effect of regional IWRUEs. Based on provincial panel data, the factors affecting the IWRUE were explored by the spatial econometric model. The results show that: In 2005–2016, only four provinces (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Guangdong) achieved the optimal IWRUE, while the other provinces need to further improve their IWRUEs. Most high-IWRUE provinces belong to the eastern coastal region. By contrast, inland provinces in central and western China did not output desirable IWRUEs, and should vigorously implement industrial water conservation. The IWRUEs of eastern, central, and western China changed differently in 2005–2016. The IWRUE of eastern China was much better than that of central China and western China. Global Moran’s I values indicate a significant spatial correlation between provincial IWRUEs. Adjacent provinces tend to have highly similar IWRUEs. Finally, the IWRUE is greatly promoted by natural resource endowment, economic development level, degree of industrialization, and technical progress, but significantly suppressed by industrial water utilization intensity, and environmental regulation.