Study On The Interaction Mechanism Of Industrial Cluster

The industrial cluster is a network- and professionalized- based organization and is an intermediate between the enterprise and the market. The industrial cluster's competitiveness and innovation superiority are not from simple aggregation of enterprises, but from interactions between interior bodies of industrial clusters and interactions between relevant bodies associated with the regional clusters. Regional aggregation of enterprises created proper environment and conditions for the interactions on every subject within the cluster. The industrial cluster's interaction mechanism is a main subject of research in the industrial cluster's basic theory. A systematic understanding of the interaction mechanism is of critical importance to the understanding of the intrinsic operation rules within industrial clusters, to the integration of internal and external productive elements in industrial clusters, to the development of cluster-based efficiency and productivity, and to the sustainable development of industrial clusters. In this research the industrial cluster is regarded as a dynamic open system and its nature, features, structures, categories, development and evolution mechanisms are investigated first taking into account the realities in China and this formed the theoretical basis for this research. In the second part of this research, the economic, social and cultural conditions for interactions of the industrial clusters are systematically analyzed with a special reference to the interaction mechanisms within and between the industrial clusters, as well as the interaction mechanisms of technology innovation in the industrial clusters. This led to the development of interaction mechanism-based models for the governance and development of industrial clusters. Finally the Zhejiang Datang sock industry cluster is taken as a case study in this research to analyze the interaction mechanisms in the industrial clusters. The full research is formed by eight chapters:Chapter 1 Introductory remarks. In this chapter the background, research goal and significance of this research are described, including a comprehensive review of relevant research, and the project outlines, the methods used and the innovations identified in this research.Chapter 2 The industrial cluster and its development and evolution mechanism. This chapter forms the theoretical basis for the research in this thesis. It is proposed in this research that the industrial cluster is a complex with multi-dimensions (industry, region and enterprise). A better understanding of the nature of industrial clusters requires investigation from three aspects: industrial association, regional aggregation and their interactions. The nature of industrial cluster is thus referred to the regional aggregation of a specialized industrial chain and the interactions within the cluster. Within the cluster various main bodies are relatively independent, their relationships are flexible, and their cooperation and competition are dynamic. The industrial cluster features specialization, small and medium-sized enterprises as the main body, economical externalities, and network configuration. The industrial cluster has a network-based structure consisting the core network level, the supporting network level and exterior network level. This research is focused on the interaction mechanisms within industrial clusters to verify my approach in understanding the nature of the industrial cluster. In this research the conditions for the development of industrial cluster are categorized as seed or core factors and environmental conditions. The development and evolution mechanism of the industrial cluster are characterized from its external network aspect by which it is revealed that the development process of industrial cluster is actually a result of"propagation"process of the"seed enterprises"under the proper environment conditions, and the dynamic changes of the network externalities leads to the evolution of birth, growth, maturation and decline of the industrial clusters.Chapter 3 The economic, social, and cultural basis for the interaction of industrial cluster. In this chapter the interaction basis among and within the industrial clusters is analyzed from economic, social and cultural aspects. The economic basis for the industrial cluster interaction is dependent on the cooperation, the industrial association, the regional aggregation, and the mutual benefiting of main bodies and enterprises within the clusters. The social network feature of industrial cluster forms the social and cultural basis for the interaction within industrial clusters.Chapter 4 The interaction mechanism among main bodies within the industrial clusters. The interaction mechanism among main bodies within industrial clusters forms its network structure. In this chapter, the interaction mechanisms among various main bodies at the core and supporting network levels within the industrial clusters are investigated. At the cluster's core network level, the interactions among individual enterprises include vertical and horizontal ways and appear to be cooperation and competition. The cooperative interaction expands boundaries of resources the enterprises use, promotes the development of common interests, reduces the cost associated with their coordination, and shows their synergetic effect. The competitive interaction has clear dual effects: the rational competition will be advantageous to the enterprise innovation and the cluster overall competitiveness, while the disordered competition will be detrimental to the enterprises and the industrial clusters. The interactions among various main bodies within the cluster involve processes which include repeated cooperation and competition. These processes will reduce potential opportunistic behaviors in the trading. Professional associations, local authorities, and universities and research institutions are among the supporting network in the industrial clusters. Professional associations and local authorities provide proper environment for the development of industrial clusters by their functionalities and their interaction with individual enterprises and main bodies with the clusters. The interaction between cluster's enterprises and universities and research institutions is on the basis of intellectual supply and demand, and is displayed as cooperative relationship in which technology plays a vital role.Chapter 5 The interaction mechanisms within and among industrial clusters under the economical globalization. The industrial cluster is a network-based open system whose external environment, the cluster's exterior network, includes relevant enterprises, higher education and research institutions, the facilitative agencies, the clusters, and the specialized market that are out of the regional clusters. In this chapter the interaction mechanisms within and among the industrial clusters are investigated using the typical industrial clusters in Zhejiang Province as a case study in which the clusters'openness, the leading enterprises within the clusters and the global value chain are taken into account. Clusters' openness is the prerequisite for the interaction between and within clusters, is also critical to the accession of exterior resources, technology, information, and exterior markets in particular the international markets. The leading enterprises play a vital role by their own superiorities in bridging the interaction between the cluster and exterior networks. In the era of globalization, industrial clusters promote themselves by strategically integrating into one or several"key domains"in the global value chain through interaction with outside economic subjects, which in turn improve their structures and their positions in the global value chain.Chapter 6 The interaction mechanism of technological innovation in the industrial cluster. The technological innovation plays a key role in the industrial cluster competitiveness. In this chapter the development of technological innovation, the dual effects resulted from knowledge overflows, the enterprises'strategic technology choice are investigated from the aspect of interactions among internal main bodies within the industrial clusters. First, the industrial cluster's innovation superiority is analyzed from the aspects of innovation inspiration, the innovation driving force, the innovation resources and the innovation models. The knowledge overflow is mutual and is a result of interaction among various main bodies with the cluster. The knowledge overflow is dependent mainly on the nature of knowledge itself, the interpersonal communications, and the exchange and flowing of personnels. The knowledge overflow has both negative and positive influences on technological innovation in the industrial clusters. Proper action assuring innovators' interests is essential for promoting their innovation behaviors. Within the cluster, enterprises' technology-related behaviors include mainly the independent innovation, the technology simulation and the technology maintenance. The enterprises'technology behavior choice is a result of interactions among various main bodies within the cluster, and the interactions between the enterprises within a given cluster and their associated organizations outside the cluster.Chapter 7 Interaction mechanism-based governance and development pattern of industrial cluster. The industrial cluster's competitiveness is originated from the synergetic effect resulted from the interactions among various main bodies within the cluster. However, the industrial cluster naturally has no such ability to generate synergetic effect. The cluster governance is an important approach to develop the cluster synergetic effect, to eliminate the cluster risk, and to prevent the cluster from decline. In this chapter the industrial cluster is regarded as the network organization to study its governance and development pattern. The industrial cluster governance involves active participation of all beneficiary members in the cluster management. This is achieved by active use of industrial connection and the social relations on the basis of mutual trust and maximized overall cluster benefit under which the maximized benefit resulted from cooperation of cluster members is a priority. The industrial cluster governance is in nature the governance of cluster's internal affairs, and the relationship, interaction and coordination among the cluster members form the basic governance logic. The industrial cluster's governance mechanism mainly includes social mechanism and the drive and restraint mechanism. The social mechanism is the industrial cluster's self-adjustment mechanism and mainly includes the trust, the reputation, the cluster macro- culture and the joint sanction. The drive and restraint mechanism is a microscopic mechanism in which the governance of cluster surplus plays a core role. Cluster policy is the fundamental model the local authorities contribute to the governance of the industrial clusters and this is achieved by implementation of their government function. Since the local authorities provide the policies, they impose official governance through the cluster policies to the clusters. In this research the principle of design and implementation of industry cluster policies is proposed based on a systematic analysis of relevant industrial cluster policies in the developed countries. Critical concerns that are associated with the policy making and measures for improving such industrial cluster policies by integrating scientific are also proposed. In this way, the development of industrial clusters is categorized into two models: the cluster governance-based independent model and the cluster policy-based exterior guidance model. Chapter 8 Cluster interaction mechanism: Zhejiang Datang sock industry as a case study. Zhejiang Datang socks industry cluster is a successful model for the development of industry clusters. In this chapter the interaction mechanisms and associated economic, social and cultural basis, the technological innovation and the local authority governance of Zhejiang Datang sock industry cluster are analyzed systematically.