Theoretical And Empirical Research On The Evaluation Of International Competitiveness Of The Publishing Industry

Publishing industry is an important part of cultural industry. It is also the key link to promote the development of the national economy and to present the international status. In the past decades, with the full implementation of the reform and increased openness of the market, Chinese publishing industry has witnessed a high-speed growth. Its overall international influence has been enhanced substantially and it has become a real superpower. Yet the great disparity exists when compared with the USA, the UK and other developed countries, which makes the development of going global is still in the primary stage. The world is moving further toward economic globalization while the cultural soft power competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Therefore, how to analyze the international competitiveness of Chinese publishing industry, and then propose the pertinent countermeasures to improve it has become an urgent problem.This paper, within the context of China’s current situation in its publishing industry of facing huge and increasing pressure from international competitions in today’s era of economic globalization due to its weak competitiveness, and by employing various research methods including literature review, questionnaire survey, expert interviews, gray statistics and gray relational analysis, explored the connotation, characteristics, constituent elements, way of formation and analytical framework of the international competitiveness of the publishing industry; analyzed the realistic background and significance of evaluation of competitiveness around the status quo of development of the publishing industry at home and abroad; identified the technological path (i.e. methodological basis) of evaluation on a foundation of the mentioned study on the basic theory and analysis on factual contexts, to establish a valuation indicator system and gray comprehensive evaluation model for the international competitiveness of the publishing industry, and measured and evaluated the international competitiveness of China’s publishing industry horizontally (country-by-country) and vertically (period-by-period) by data collection and importing.According to the empirical findings, the international competitiveness of China’s publishing industry has been significantly increased in recent years, suggesting favorable development prospects and opportunities. However, compared with publishing powers, such as the United States and Britain, China still lags behind with distinctive competitive disadvantages. Therefore, there would be still a long way and it would be a long-term undertaking for China in enhancing the international competitiveness of its publishing industry. In this process, as the micro-body of the industry, the enterprise should enhance its own strength by making full use of the resources, strengthening the brand consciousness and optimizing the management mechanism, etc. The industry association, who is an intermediary between the government and the enterprise, should effectively play the role of the supervisor, the coordinator and the server. As the macro-planner of the industry, the government should focus on optimizing the functions of industrial regulation, supervision, subsidization and encouragement.This paper is divided into seven sections as follows:Section one, as introduction, mainly sketches the background and significance of this research, synthetically sorted out related Chinese and foreign theories and empirical research results by adopting the method of literature review, and introduces research methodologies and framework.Section two is about the study on the fundamental theory of evaluation of the international competitiveness of the publishing industry. The author, in the first place, discussed concepts and connotations of the international competitiveness of the publishing industry, coming up with its four unique characteristics-cultural sharing, cultural exception, sustainability and extensive inclusion. Premise of the theory of the international competitiveness of the publishing industry was then discussed. Relevancy between such competitiveness and competitiveness in other domains, the industry, governments, and national cultural security and cultural soft power was demonstrated in this research. The research also identified analytical framework of this above-mentioned theory, i.e. subdivided constituent elements of such competitiveness from three major systems-enterprises, the industry and the environment representing microscopic, intermediate and macroscopic levels; mechanism of action and way of formation of such competitiveness was discussed, thereby setting the analytical framework of competitiveness from exterior and interior perspectives.Realistic background and significance of the evaluation of the international competitiveness of the publishing industry is the main content in Section three. On the basis of the connotation, constituent elements, way of formation and analytical framework of the competitiveness identified in the study on its fundamental theory, the research reviewed the current development situation of international publishing industry as well as the development of publishing industries in the world’s key countries, analyzed the status of China’s publishing industry, and the status quo of its constituent elements of the international competitiveness and of the implementation of "going global", in order to provide the evaluation and countermeasure study of such international competitiveness with factual context and basis. Moreover, integrating with the factual context, the necessity and importance of evaluating such international competitiveness of the publishing industry was addressed.Section four focuses on the establishment of evaluation indicator system and model for the international competitiveness of the publishing industry. The technological path of the evaluation of the international competitiveness of the publishing industry, including objectives and principles, line of thinking and procedure, and approaches of evaluation, was identified. On this basis, preliminary selection of theories and screening of experts for evaluation indicators was carried out to establish a possible, scientific, rational and feasible evaluation indicator system. The author, in this research, finally established a flexible and universal gray comprehensive evaluation model with integration of the said technological path and gray evaluation comprehensive model.Section five systematically measures and evaluates the international competitiveness of China’s publishing industry. In the research, the author statically studied and compared, from an international perspective, the strength of the international competitiveness in the publishing industry in12countries including China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Britain, Spain and Netherland, with the purpose of summing up advantages and disadvantages of China in the engagement of international competitions. The research also evaluated the dynamic development and evolvement situation of the international competitiveness of China’s publishing industry from2007to2012from a national perspective to analyze the driving forces and barriers for and the future directions of the enhancement of competitiveness. Combining the evaluation results, interior and exterior constraints on enhancing the international competitiveness of China’s publishing industry were systematically summarized in the last part of this section.Section six addresses the strategy of enhancing the international competitiveness of China’s publishing industry. Different targeted emphases, directions and strategies of enhancing the international competitiveness of the publishing industry from three different roles in the industry respectively, including governments at macro level, industry associations at intermediate level and companies at micro level, were proposed based on theatrical and empirical research findingsAs a conclusive and prospective section, the seventh and final section briefly summarizes the findings in the study, analyzes novelties and limitations of the study, to further propose prospects and vision for future studies.