The Influencing Factors Of The Intention Of Cluster Firm Relocation: Empirical Study Based On Zhejiang Cixi Industrial Clusters

Firm relocation of our country appeared in 1990s, and turned more and more frequent after 21th century, especially in Zhejiang, Guangdong and other private economically developed southeast coastal areas, some industries large-scalely migrated to midwest areas, also some of them migrated to metropolis. Since large-scale firm relocation usually triggered a series of social issues and economic issues, the phenomenon is paid a wide range of great concern by theorists, business and government.Meanwhile, we find most of migrated enterprises are cluster enterprises, but the theory of industrial cluster tells us enterprises in cluster are able to enjoy more competitive advantage than those outsides due to the cluster, for example, cost advantage, relations resources acquisition advantage and so on. So what factors on earth forced them to abadon the asymmetric competitive advantage and migrated to other areas? What effects will the industry cluster, the new form of ecnomic organization, have on the intention of relocation? Driven by these questions, this paper put forward the perspective of cluster network embeddedness based on literature review, and then refering to the face-to-face interview results, grouped the factors into three categories: enterprise itself factors, regional cost factors and cluster network embeddedness. Lastly, the research model and hypothesis were raised.This paper made a questionnaire survey of 301 firms among Zhejiang Cixi industry clusters, and obtained 294 valid questionnaires. Finally, after collecting and collating data, this paper verifies the research model and hypothesis by using SPSS13.0. The results can be concluded as follows:1. Cluster network embeddedness has an significant effect on the intention of cluster firm relocation. With the growing willingness of cluster network embeddedness, the intention of cluster firm relocation firstly reduces, and then gradually goes strong. Cluster network embeddedness nearly has a U-shaped relationship with the intention of cluster firm relocation.2. Regional cost factors haven't significant effect on the intention of cluster firm relocation. It gives us an inspiration:nowdays, the whole country are concentrating on economic development. Furthermore, the phenomenon of frequent labor mobility becomes more and more significant. In this context, the difference of regional cost between the various regions are no longer as obvious as it in the past, but gradually reach the same.3. Industry type and the market of main product have a quite significant effect on the intention of cluster firm relocation, particularly the market of main product. The cluster firms which sell their main products in local city or province have the weakest intention of relocation, but those cluster firms which sell their main products in whole country or abroad are usually easiest to relocate. It indicates that close to market is an important factor influencing the intention of cluster firm relocation.