Competitive Advantage Of U.s. Trade In Services And Their Sources,

Goods and services constitute the value of the national economy. With the development of world economy and the improvement of industrial structure, services are increasingly becoming a major part of the value flow in the national economy, and a main issue for the analysis in economics theory. The world economy appeared in the second half of the 20th century is characterized by the rapid growth of the service trade. In particular, the United States has become the first powerful nation in the service trade with its strong competitive advantage. There are many to be learned for developing countries, particularly, China, from their successful experience in developing the service trade. According to the American economist Michael E. Porte's theoretical model of competitive advantage, this dissertation argues that the competitive advantage of the American service trade results from the joint effect of the various factors favorable to the service development. These factors are reflected in every aspects of the service industry and trade development. They include both domestic affairs and international strategies. In addition, these factors involve both the development of enterprises at a microcosmic level and the macroeconomic regulation. They are not only dependent upon the production and demand of services but also closely related to the industrial development. It can be argued that the successful combination of various factors and their joint effect lead to the success of the U.S. service trade, and that the competitive advantage of the U.S. service trade is the result of cultivating the advanced synthetic factors and giving full play to the synthetic advantages. My dissertation is divided into four parts: The first part offers a platform of the theoretical analysis for the paper. Apart from introducing the necessary economic concepts the author summarizes and makes comments on the analysis made to the service trade according to the trade theory, which includes the comparison superiority theory and competitive advantage theory. The author argues that the service trade cannot be explained aptly by the comparison superiority theory, while the competitive advantage theory takes the various synthetic factors into full consideration, and particularly fits the characteristic of the "highly interrelated" service trade. Therefore it is suitable to analyze the service trade with this theory. The second part focuses on the detailed analysis of the competitive advantage of the U.S. service trade. These advantages are reflected in high-tech service trades apart from the tourist service. The success of the U.S. in these service fields has not only made the country rank first in the world service trade, but also greatly pushed forward the development of national economy, thus having improved the domestic economic environment and strengthened its powerful position in the economic globalization. The third part traces to the source of competitive advantage of the U.S. service trade and analyses the synthetic factors of service trade development with the help of Porte's theoretical model of the competitive advantage. This dissertation argues that many key factors lead to the competitive advantage of the U.S. in service trade, including the perfect service infrastructure, advanced technology, highly-qualified human resources, increasing service demand, the promotion of the service trade by manufacturing industry and the virtuous interaction of the service trades, the environment of fair market competition, the advanced service enterprise structure and the global strategy. Besides, with the development of free trade, the emphasis and the promotion given to the service trade by the U.S. government are also decisive, and the attraction of American culture has played an important role as well. The forth part deals with the considerations concerning with the trade development strategy in China. The author presents the current situation of the Chinese service trade and argues that the advantage of our country service trade is achieved chiefl...