The Study On Cross-border Network Between Industrial Clusters

With the advent of the third industrial revolution and the deepening of economic globalization, transportation and communication technologies improve rapidly, and the trans-regional mobility of the resources is increasing dramatically. Not only MNCs join in GPN, but also SMEs are embedded in GPN. In the meantime, the openness of industrial clusters is more evident. Innovation resources such as capital, technology and talents have flown more frequently between different industrial clusters. The relations between different industrial clusters are closer. The connections between different industrial clusters in different economic entities are appeared as the symbol of a new global economic spatial organization which is crucial to push forward the global economy. So, it is very important and significant to analyze the preconditions, mechanism and evolution in the perspective of economic geography.The dissertation receives the support from Humanity and Social Science Youth foundation of Ministry of Education of China (Granted Code:08JA790044), Shanghai Science and Technology Development Fund Soft Science Project (Granted Code:11692101000). Further, the interview, discussion and survey with more than20enterprises, association and management departments in Zhangjiang High-tech Park is the foundation of the dissertation. In the perspective of network space, there are two main research branches of economic geography:theory of industrial clusters, which emphasize local network; global production networks, which underline global connection. Researches about industrial clusters have included concept, character, structure, mechanism, type and evolution. Some scholars have paid more attention to outer relations’importance to the development of industrial cluster recently, and have done more researches to analyze the mechanism of global pipeline. Literatures about GPN mainly analyze the interaction between the connotation, structure, mechanism, MNCs and national regulations. However, both the industrial clusters and GPN cannot explain the phenomenon, mechanism and process which industrial clusters in different economies are connected with each other. Based on theories about networks in economic geography, this dissertation puts forward a new analytical framework beyond industrial clusters and GPN, and systematically elaborates the concept, connotation, mechanism, precondition, restriction, component, cooperation and evolution of the cross-border network between industrial clusters. This dissertation analyzes the network of Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industrial clusters on the base of field investigation and gets some conclusions as follows:Firstly, cross-border network between industrial clusters enhances the integration capability of global resources. The cross-border network between industrial clusters is a spatial organization system formed by formal and informal contact in two industrial clusters (industrial clusters A and B) of different areas. The cross-border network between industrial clusters can take regional advantages to integrate innovative resources and promote economic development more efficiently. The regimes which support industrial clusters in cross-border network may be very different or similar. The cross-border network between industrial clusters has some characteristics such as field discontinuous, interdependence, complexity of system, etc. The cross-border network includes two industrial clusters located in different economies and global pipeline. Industrial cluster includes companies, research centers, universities, intermediaries, as well as local networks, regimes and cultures. The cross-border network can make the full use of the superior resources from different industrial clusters so as to facilitate the labor-division and the cooperation, and promote overall economic development.Secondly, there are some preconditions and restrictive factors to form the cross-border network between industrial clusters. Although economic globalization keeps moving and the externality of industrial clusters is more obvious, not all industrial clusters can link with each other to form the cross-border network. The preconditions include similar industrial foundations, different locations, lots of FDI, different technological levels. The regimes may have completely different ways to play a role in the cross-border network between industrial clusters. Different cultures may constraint the development of the cross-border network. Thirdly, network power and cross-border technical community have promoted the evolution of cross-border network between industrial clusters. Organization proximity and relation proximity are two interactive expressions by two industrial clusters in different areas. Specifically, global pipelines include FDI, the cooperation between downstream and upstream enterprises, talent-flowing, by which the cross-border network between industrial clusters promotes development efficiency. The factors of network power and market advance the development of the cross-border network between industrial clusters by promoting global pipeline. Regime and culture play a complex role in the evolution.According to the cooperation of industrial clusters, the cross-border network between industrial clusters follows a kind of life cycle with different phases or stages of incubation, growth, mature and decline or revitalization that differs in their characteristics. In the incubation, one industrial cluster has become matured, while another just starts. Backward regions get initial development because of entrepreneurs to start a business or the transnational enterprises establish a branch from remote areas. The industrial clusters start to make initial contact with each other. During the growth of the cross-border network between industrial clusters, the linkages between industrial clusters are increased, and the cooperation becomes frequent. With the influence of the transnational branch’s network power, backward region attracts upstream and downstream enterprises of Industrial Cluster A, and promotes to form local network and Industrial Cluster B. In the mature phase, the global pipelines include not only enterprise cooperation but also talent flow. Industrial cluster B gets rapid development and narrows the technology gap with the Industrial Clusters A. By formal and informal cooperation, Industrial Cluster A and B promotes the cross-border network between industrial clusters to matured phase. When the negative locking and lack of communication with the outside world happens, the cross-border network between industrial clusters may come to a decline phase. If technological gatekeepers gain breakthrough technology through the cooperation with the research institutions, high-level external enterprises, therefore developed new products, and extended new market, the cross-border network between industrial clusters can revive.Fourthly, the cross-border network of Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industrial clusters has come to the matured phase. From1992when Zhangjiang IC industrial clusters appeared to now, the cross-border network of Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industrial clusters went through incubation, growth and mature phases. In the incubation phase, due to the potential and huge market development in mainland China, innovation resources such as entrepreneurs, capital and talents in Hsinchu flaw into Zhangjiang. There are large technological gap between Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industries, mainly in manufacturing and packaging of ICs. In the growth phase, affected by the network power of Taiwanese-invested enterpris and the market attractiveness by mainland China, IC design enterprises set up subsidiaries in Zhangjiang, which cause more resources in Hsinchu flowed into Zhangjiang. The network of Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industrial clusters had absolutely advantages in IC manufacturing, and the IC design industry developed rapidly. In the mature phase, senior talents flow more frequently and the cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises became closer between Zhangjiang and Hsinchu. Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industrial clusters collaborate to promote global IC industry development. Driven by IC manufacturing, IC design industry got rapid development in the cross-border network of Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industrial clusters, and narrowed the technological gap between Zhangjiang and Hsinchu.The regime in Zhangjiang High-tech Park pushed forward the formation and development of the cross-border network of Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industrial clusters by attracting talents and FDI, et al. The regime in Hsinchu hindered the development of global pipeline by impeding capital and advanced technologies drain. The cooperation between intermediaries, such as "cross-strait IC industrial cooperation development forum" has provided the regulatory support to the Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industrial clusters in the mature phase. There are similar cultures in Zhangjiang and Hsinchu, which accelerated the development of the cross-border network of Zhangjiang and Hsinchu IC industrial clusters.