Research On Formation And Assessment Of Transient Competitive Advantage In The International High-speed Rail Projects

With the proposal of “Going out” strategy of high-speed rail(HSR)in 2009,the “One Belt and One Road” strategic concept in 2013,and the “Made in China 2025” strategy in 2015,China’s HSR is facing precious development opportunities.It is extremely necessary to study how China’s HSR adapt to the global competition environment and get competitive advantage in a hyper-competitive environment.This study aims to apply the theory of transient competitive advantage to deeply reveal the formation mechanism of international HSR project contractors’ competitive advantages,and explore the relationship among industry-enterprise-project competitive advantage.It also aims to assess the transient competitive advantage of international HSR projects,and then analyze the contractor’s competitive advantage in different areas.By conducting multi-cases study,this study can provide strategies to enhance the competitive advantage.In accordance with the idea of "Environmental Analysis-Mechanism Analysis-MeasurementStrategy Implementation",this paper conducted the following research:(1)Comprehensive analysis of the current international HSR market competition sutiation.At the industry level,a comparative analysis of the various HSR industry structure was conducted from the perspective of positioning,correlation and ripple effects.Then,the relative advantage of the HSR industry was assess by using indicators such as safety and cost.At the firm level,taking civil engineering HSR companies and manufacturing HSR companies as the analysis objects,this paper explored the development path of typical HSR companies and measured the niche and social network relationships of HSR companies.At the product level,this paper analyzed the current status of the HSR locomotive market and discussed the competitive intensity of locomotive products.(2)Deeply exploring the formation of transient competitive advantages in international HSR projects.First,by using grounded theory,this paper identified the driving variables of the international HSR contractors’ transient competitive advantage.Then,the relatively important driving factors were identified through the questionnaire survey.Also,respondents’ perception on these drving variables was discussed.Finally,a theoretical model of the path between driving factors is established through literature review.Path analysis was performed through PLS-SEM to determine the formation path of the transient competitive advantage in the international HSR projects.(3)Revealing the relationship between the international HSR industry-enterprise-project competitive advantage.First,according to the SCP(Structure-Conduct-Performance)research paradigm,it discussed the role of the international HSR industry-enterprise-project competitive advantage.Second,through the related factors,the mapping factors of the driving variables of the transient competitive advantage of international HSR projects at the industry level and the enterprise level.Then the performance and basic characteristics of the HSR industry-enterprise-project competitive advantage can be defined.Third,through questionnaire surveys,and with the help of difference testing and correlation testing methods,the degree of correlation of the HSR industry-enterprise-project competitive advantage was quantified.Finally,the system dynamics method was used to simulate the changing trend of industry-enterprise-project competitive advantage.(4)Quantitatively evaluating the transient competitive advantage of international HSR projects.First,based on OPA(Ordinary Priority Approach),this paper established a measurement model for the transient competitive advantage of international HSR projects.Second,measurement indicators and their measurement standards were ensured.Third,ant colony algorithm was used to establish a portfolio optimization model for international high-speed rail project joint venture partners.Four,taking the Jakarta-Bandung HSR as an example,the transient competitive advantage of Chinese contractors and Japanese contractors were evaluated to test the reliability of the proposed model.Finally,considering the characteristics of the owner’s needs,the transient competitive advantage of HSR contractors in different regions were measured.(5)Looking for strategies to improve the transient competitive advantage of international HSR projects.In order to explore the improvement path of the transient competitive advantage of international HSR contractors,this paper used multi-cases study to analyze the successful projects obtained by HSR contractors.Four successful HSR project cases were selected.Case information was collected through web crawlers and focus group interviews.and then within case study and cross case study were conducted to summarize and analyze the transient competitive advantage improvement strategies.The driving variables of the transient competitive advantage of international HSR projects can be divided into resources-based(technical resources,experience and knowledge),action-based(organization and management,operation services)and performance-related(financial performance,operation services).Among them,resource factors have a significant positive effect on action factors and performance factors.Organizational management can play a positive role on performance factors.But the effect of marketing ability on performance factors is not obvious.In addition,the transient competitive advantage of international HSR projects is closely related to the competitive advantages of industry and enterprises.Specifically,project-level competitive advantage has a high correlation with manufacturing HSR companies in terms of technical resources,experience and knowledge,and has a high correlation with civil engineering HSR companies in terms of organizational management,marketing capabilities,financial performance,and operational services.In terms of the measurement of transient competitive advantage,the dominant regions of Chinese HSR contractors are concentrated in underdeveloped regions such as Africa and Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region.French HSR contractors have obvious advantages in Europe,North America,the Middle East and Latin regions.Japanese HSR contractors have relatively prominent competitive advantages in the global HSR market,while Korean and German HSR contractors do not have outstanding competitive advantages in the global HSR market.In theory,this study uses transient competitive advantage theory to analyze the formation mechanism of of international HSR projects contractors’ competitive advantage.Also,it establishes a measurement model and measurement framework for the transient competitive advantage of international HSR projects,which is a supplement to the existing knowledge on international project management theory and competitive advantage.In practice,this study deeply analyzes the competition situation of the international HSR market,which provides a reference for HSR contractors recognize the current competitive environment.In addition,this study puts forward a series of strategies,which can guide international HSR contractors to enhance their transient competitive advantages.