| It is of great significance for local hidden champion suppliers who master core technologies in key fields to accelerate the solution of Chinese “bottleneck” technical problems and effectively break through the “blocking point”,“difficult point” and“break point” of Chinese industrial chains.An obvious trend is that in recent years,from the ministry’s heavy financial support awards and subsidies,to the intensive deployment of high-level meetings,“Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovation”enterprises and the cultivation of hidden champion suppliers have risen to an unprecedented height.In this context,the local hidden champion suppliers that have been embedded in the global value chain for a long time are still able to achieve their goals in the global value chain despite facing the “dual disadvantage”,that is,the disadvantage of resource endowment and the situational limitation of being in a weak position in the global value chain.It has developed by leaps and bounds and is increasingly playing an important role in the existing governance structure,which has attracted great attention from the academic and practical circles.Existing studies have shown that,as a core construct to analyze the behavioral strategies and operational rules of the value chain subject in the process of value creation,the theory of global value chain governance can provide a useful theoretical basis for this paper to explore the mystery of “leapfrog development of local hidden champion suppliers”.Therefore,this paper attempts to explore issues related to the governance of local hidden champion suppliers,such as “what governance strategies have been adopted in the process of formation and development”,“why have these governance strategies been adopted to achieve leapfrog development” and “as a result of governance,what governance roles have been undertaken at the present stage” and so on,to analyze the unique formation and development phenomenon of these “specialized and Fined”small and medium-sized enterprises.However,from the perspective of research progress,the existing literature has carried out early enlightening explorations around the emerging research field of local hidden champion suppliers governance and obtained rich theoretical results,but limited by the research subject,context and perspective,the existing research still remains unresolved.there are theoretical gaps in the governance strategy to be refined,governance mechanism to be clarified,and governance roles to be revealed,which makes the theoretical “legitimacy deficit”often faced when analyzing the above problems,which needs to be further explored and deepened in this paper.In view of this,in order to deeply explore and extract the unique strategic characteristics and development rules behind the governance practices of local hidden champion suppliers in global value chains,this paper takes “the governance strategy,mechanism and role of local hidden champion suppliers” as the research theme.According to the research logic of “governance strategy-governance mechanismgovernance result”,three sub-studies are carried out step by step,namely “governance strategies of local hidden champion suppliers”,“governance mechanism of local hidden champion suppliers” and “governance role of local hidden champion suppliers”.Since this paper is aimed at constructing or expanding new theories and is mostly a question of “How” and “Why”,it mainly adopts two types of qualitative research methods: the longitudinal multi-case research method and the procedural grounded theory research method.According to the theoretical sampling principle and item-by-item replication principle,7 typical local hidden champion suppliers,including Shuang Tong,Heng Shuai,Fang Bang,Jia Yin,Jun He,Xun Hui and Sintave are selected as the case sample enterprises.After systematic research,this paper mainly draws the following three conclusions:(1)Study 1 focuses on “Faced with the context constraints of ‘double disadvantage’,what key governance strategies have local hidden champion suppliers adopted in the process of formation and development under the background of global value chains? ” To solve this problem,three typical local hidden champion suppliers,Heng Shuai,Shuang Tong and Fang Bang are selected,and a multi-case study method is adopted,clarified two types of key governance strategies and their mechanism of action on the formation and development process of enterprises.Finally,this paper proposes a theoretical framework for the governance strategy of local hidden champion suppliers in the context of global value chains.This paper finds that,despite the context constraints of ‘double disadvantage’,local hidden champion suppliers embedded in global value chains for a long time quickly gain sustainable competitive advantages and market leadership through dynamic adjustment of relationship embedding strategy and market expansion strategy at different development stages.Specifically,firstly,relationship embedding strategy has experienced a dynamic adjustment process from “general transaction type” to“priority cooperation type” and then to “strategic partnership type”,which helps local hidden champion suppliers to quickly improve their product competitiveness and technology level in the industry.Secondly,market expansion strategy has experienced a dynamic adjustment process from “simple” to “diversified” and then to “complex”,which helps to rapidly improve the global market share and profitability of local hidden champion suppliers.Thirdly,the circular development mechanism of relationship embedding strategy and market expansion strategy helps the local hidden champion suppliers to obtain sustainable competitive advantages and maintain market leadership in the niche market.Finally,the ‘double disadvantage’,the huge domestic market capacity and knowledge of local market demand are the root causes for the emergence and successful implementation of the two types of governance strategies.This conclusion lays the foundation for the Study 2.(2)On the basis of Study 1,Study 2 unfolds with the question “What is the mechanism behind local hidden champion suppliers governance in the context of global value chain?” To solve this problem,by selecting 6 typical local hidden champion suppliers such as Fang Bang,Heng Shuai,Xun Hui,Shuang Tong,Jun He and Jia Yin,and adopting a multi-case study method based on the perspective of knowledge power dynamics.On the basis of identifying the process of knowledge power evolution of local hidden champion suppliers in global value chains,the correspondence between the knowledge power evolution and governance strategies of local hidden champion is clarified.Thus this paper reveals the internal roots of adopting the above two governance strategies in different development stages of knowledge power.The results are as follows: Firstly,the knowledge power of local hidden champion suppliers follows the evolutionary path of “passive obedience-active game-reciprocal bargaining”,and presents a nonlinear evolution pattern from“nominal power” to “substantive power”.Among them,on the basis of homogeneous knowledge,horizontal heterogeneous knowledge and vertical heterogeneous knowledge are the main sources that promote the formation and continuous rise of knowledge power of local hidden champion suppliers.Secondly,the knowledge power of local hidden champion suppliers with differentiated characteristics at each stage has a corresponding relationship with the relationship embedding strategy and market expansion strategy adopted in the same period,thereby promoting enterprises to achieve different development goals.This conclusion lays the foundation for the Study 3.(3)Study 3 presents an integrated framework of “Compared with the original‘dominated’ role,what governance role does local hidden champion suppliers with‘dual identities’ play in global value chains governance structure at this stage?” Based on the above two studies,this paper selects 4 typical local hidden champion suppliers,namely Heng Shuai,Jia Yin,Sintave,and Jun He.Based on the perspective of knowledge power and the method of splicing the procedural grounded theory and multi-case study,the governance role of local hidden champion suppliers is deeply analyzed and fully revealed by analyzing the differential function modes and main functions of different dimensions of knowledge power in internal and external governance activities of global value chains.This paper finds that: Firstly,with the help of procedural rooting theory research method,it is deconstructed that the knowledge power of local hidden champion suppliers in global value chains consists of five dimensions: Technology Power,Marketing Power,Relationship Power,Institutional Power and Acceptance Power.Secondly,using a multi-case study method,it discovers that local hidden champion suppliers with “dual identities”assume the roles of “knowledge collaborator”,“complementary” and “tractor” in the internal and external governance activities of global value chains through the heterogeneous roles of different dimensions of knowledge power in the face of customers or subordinate suppliers,respectively.Overall,the findings of this paper not only contribute to the literature related to hidden champion suppliers,knowledge power and global value chains governance,but also provide a theoretical reference for our government and related institutions to precisely cultivate and support more “Specialized,Fined,Peculiar and Innovation,”enterprises and hidden champions suppliers,effectively contribute to the “dual circulation” development pattern in China. |
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