Study On The Reproduction Of The Social Capital Of The SMEs Cluster

The development of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the world are one of the the most important economy issues in the world. In any countries, the quantity of SMEs is in absolute advantage. SMEs are very crucial, not because of their quantity but because they supply abundance employment chances and sizeable civil fortunes. How to promote the growth of SMEs has been become a essential and necessary question.Clusters mode has been a better approach for vigorous developing of SMEs by joint acting and residing in a certain adjacent area. In realistic economical world, whether developed or developing countries, the Small and Medium sized Enterprises Cluster (SMEs Cluster) plays an important role in economy and won't be neglected and replaced. For instance, Silicon Valley in America,"the Third Italy", India Bengaluru and Taiwan Hsinchu Science Park, Yiwu merchandises cluster in Wenzhou of China, and so on. The Small and Medium sized Enterprises Cluster (SMEs Cluster) has been developing rapidly in the world.The upgrowth and evolution of the Small and Medium sized Enterprises Cluster (SMEs Cluster) has been received more and more attentions and researches in the all countries. Looking at the Small and Medium sized Enterprises Cluster (SMEs Cluster) in the world, the performing Small and Medium sized Enterprises Clusters all accumulate and deposite abundant and enough social capitals. Close connection, highly trust, reciprocal criterion and strong cooperation spirit, and so forth, are the important characters in the successful SMEs Cluster. Just as the words of Williamson (1975), when the characteristics of the SMEs Cluster appear, the SMEs Cluster can't always be efficient; an efficient SMEs Cluster must be in possession of extensive and close socia relation and trust. Thereby, abundant social capitals determine the growth and success of the SMEs Cluster. So the paper does study the reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. In the other words, the thesis does study the issue that the process in which the social capital of the SMEs Cluster will be accumulated, increased and developed.The reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster equals to the multiplication and evolution of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. The accumulation of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster is the positive feedback loop between the existing storages and the increments of social capital of the SMEs Cluster through the cooperation between the firms. Along with continuous and long cooperation, the functions of the cooperation inspirit the creating of the social capital, and the accessorial social capitals will add to the storages of former social capital so that the social capitals of the SMEs Cluster will be enhanced and increased ceaselessly. In addition, the geographical location adjacence and the division of labor based on specialization are two important characters and make an impact on the reproduction of the SMEs Cluster respectively. They are the environmental factors. They supply the convenient conditions for the accumulation of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. And the two factors influence the existing storages of the social capital in the positive feedback loop of the SMEs Cluster social capital reproduction. The cooperation between firms plays the endogenous role in the developing and increasing of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster.The paper is divided into nine parts. The main ideas of each part are as follows:The part one is about introduction. The part is to make clear the context of the research, bring forward the issue and significance of the study. The part also proposes the paper's logical structure and main contents. Moreover, the part also concerns the research approachs, main innovations and limitations.The part two is on theoretic bases. The part is about the theory research bases of the paper. After defining the conception and meaning of the SMEs Cluster, its social capital and the accumulation of the social capital, the study puts forward the factors of the geographical location adjacence, the division of labor based on specialization and cooperation between firms which influence the accumulation of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. And then the core idea of the paper will be advanced. Namely, the reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster is the the positive feedback loop between the existing storages and the increments of social capital of the SMEs Cluster through the inter-firms cooperation.The part three is concerning the geographic aggregation in the process of the reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. The chapter will debate many Small and Medium Enterprises and correlative institutions being agglomerating each other in the vicinity to a certain area can provide many advantageous conditions for the development of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster, such as frequent and persistent inter-actions, reducing the costs of the social contacts, fostering the trusts between firms, and so on. The functions of the geographic clustering lie on the efficiency of the agglomeration. Namely, the geographic agglomeration doesn't imply the unorderly collecting, but clustering according to the industrial relativity.The part four is with regard to the specialized division of labor in the process of increasing social capital of the SMEs Cluster. The chapter will firstly discuss the division of labor based on specialization in the SMEs Cluster contains the inter-enterprises cooperation. Furtherly, The specialized division of labor between the clustering firms implies that a mass of the demands and the supplies should converge at a a geographic space. This may prove the industrial division implies the meaning of the inter-firms cooperaiton. Anyhow, the part argues that the specializied division of labor necessitates the inter-enterprises cooperation. And cooperation between firms can build the social capitals.The part five is about the cooperation mechanism in the process of reproduction the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. Just as the part three and four, the chapter will research the social capital of the SMEs Cluster in the angle of static view. The geographical agglomeration and specialized division of labor don't always make the social capital. The inter-enterprises'close contacts and highly trusts will be realized only when firms can cooperate each other on the base of the geographical agglomeration and specialized division of labor. The inter-enterprises cooperation needs the qualification of cooperative opportunity, motivation and competency synchronously. The greater the three factors'overlapping is, the better the performance of the cooperation between clustering firms is. The inter-firms cooperation can create the more abundant social capital than market mechanism because the cooperation mechanism holds the advantage in the aspect of time, inter-dependence, interaction and closure. The four factors are essential to the accumulation of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. And the storages of the existing social capital supply the cooperative opportunity, motivation and ability for the clustering firms. And the cooperation also creates and increases the social capitals.The part six is concerning the positive feedback process of the reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. The part has been discussed from the dynamic view. The accumulation of the social capital in the SMEs Cluster is a process where the positive feedback mechanism brings into play. In the continuous accumulative circle, the storages of the existing social capital boost inter-firm cooperation. And the cooperation builds more social capital, and the more social capitals make the primary storages increased. And so the positive feedback process will begin by better and more storages of the social capital. Through the continuous circles, the SMEs Cluster social capital will increase and accumulate.Then the part argues that the trust capital continuously upgrades and develops in the positive feedback process. And then it debates the SMEs Cluster social capitals constantly increase going with the heightening of industrial bypass chains . The part seven is on the mode and path in the reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. The chapter also debates the core question from a dynamic view. In the positive feedback process, the two paths come true the development of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster synchronously. The one path is from cooperation of the same firms that produce the like components or outputs to the cooperation of network. The path exists in the setting where the degree of the division is low and the storages of the social capital are high. Another is from the cooperation between firms that engage in the different working procedure to network cooperation. The path is characteristic of the high division and the low social capital. And the two modes hang together and act on the increasing the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. In addition, in the positive feedback process of the SMEs Cluster social capital accumulation, the two modes exist in it synchronously. One is the depth mode, the other one is the width mode. The former refers to the quality of the social capital being improved, and the latter refers to the quantity of the social capital being increased.The part eight is about the cases. The part analyses accumulation of the social capital through the cases of the Silicon Valley in America, the Italy Prato Textile Cluster and DaTang Stockings Cluster in ZheJiang of China.The part nine is on the conclusion of the paper.The main innovations of the dissertation are possibly as follows:First, the paper may construct the more integrate frame researching the reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster. It brings forward that the reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster is a positive feedback circulation where the existing storages and the increments of social capital of the SMEs promote and develope with each other. The paper puts forward the reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster is a process which the Positive Feedback mechanism exerts a crucial influence on. The inter-enterprises cooperation make the reproduction of the social capital of the SMEs Cluster be self-motivation and development processes.Second, the study puts forward that there are two paths of the reproduction of the social capital of SMEs Cluster in the Positive Feedback loop cycle synchronously. The one is market transaction-homogeneous enterprises cooperation-network cooperation. The other is market transaction-heterogeneous enterprises cooperation-network cooperation.Third, the thesis considers that there are two modes of the social capital reproduction in the process the Positive Feedback System exerts a crucial influence on simultaneously. The two paths operate jointly, and contribute to the accumulation of the social capital in the SMEs Cluster. The one is depth of social capital improvement mode, another is width of social capital development mode.