A Comparative Study On Competitive Advantages Of Export Enterprises In Qingdao Area

Qingdao, a typical open costal city, owns many export enterprises and enjoys a high trade dependency. Since2007, the global financial and economic crisis caused by "subprime crisis" has led to a slump in international market demand, and Qingdao also suffered a lot. Just under such a circumstance, export enterprises of different trade and different property right nature in Qingdao perform differently. According to the data, mechanical and electrical products decrease most significantly but aquatic products rise up, contrary to the situation. State-owned export enterprises decline sharply while private ones only slip by small margin. What cause these achievements disparities? Does it reflect the distinction of competitive advantage among different type of export enterprises? This is the departure point and purpose of this study.Thus, in this paper, we will first review the classical theories about competitive advantage and international competition. Making the full use of the theories and empirical researches produced by domestic export, we will analyze the competitive advantage and value chain of Chinese export enterprises. According to the characteristics of export enterprises, the paper will focus on modifying the basic form of value chain, introducing international environmental and governmental policy factors under the position of value creation, and leading the international competitive factors to the primary and support activities of enterprises. Based on such a value chain, competitive advantage of enterprises are distributed into three categories:primary activities, support activities and adaption to the environment. After theoretical analysis, we will apply "Diamond Model" to the descriptive analysis on the survey of competitive advantages of Qingdao’s export enterprises.The main part of the paper will conduct the case study and comparison of Qingdao’s typical export enterprises through two aspects:trade and property right nature. The trade screening is accordance with the export dedication rate, advantages of factors and the amount of trades and enterprises so that the mechanical and electrical trade, the textile industry and aquatic trade, three most representative trades of Qingdao are selected. Then, applying the Trade Competitiveness Index (TC index), the dominant export comparative advantage index (RCA index) and the export dedication rate, etc, we will conduct quantitative analysis on competitive advantages of above-mentioned trade. After that, selecting a representative foreign-funded enterprise from each trade, we will use modified value chain analysis to induce and compare the factors which influence the competitive advantages of three enterprises. It can be concluded that trade itself adds up to the competitive advantage to the enterprises from different angles. During the crisis, the textile export enterprise B and aquatic products export enterprises, labor-intensive industries, are more likely to exploit their advantages to the full. However, due to the fact that the competitive advantages of low factors costs lack sustainability and mainly embody in the process of primary activities, it is impossible to establish sustainable competitive advantage unless we extend the source of competitive advantages to each link of value chain. From this point, although the mechanical and electrical export enterprises A face with the decline of demand, its competitive advantages will last longer.On the basis of comparison of cross-industries, the paper also selects state-owned enterprises D and private enterprises E from the mechanical and electrical trades to make a cross-property-right-nature. We may find that in the supply activities of value chain, D, state-owned enterprise of larger scale and foreign-funded enterprise A own better industrial structure and stronger comprehensive research and development capacity while private enterprise E gives prominence on rapid adaptable elasticity.Overall, since the three enterprises are facing the international competitive pressure of different emphasis point, they have their own merits.To sum up, paper submits suggestions on strengthening competitive advantage of enterprises from the aspects of enterprises and government. Above all, enterprises are recommended to level up the standard of products and value chain as soon as possible. What’s more, focus on improving the capacities and resources underneath the competitive advantage. In addition, give consideration to both inward and outward to accelerate the strategy on diversification of market. It is suggested that government should support exports directly, create an environment of fair competition for export enterprises and lay stress on producing and improving production factors.