Introducing the theory of industrial cluster

Industrial cluster refers to many enterprises with different scales and grades in a certain region, as well as various institutions, organizations and other actors related to their development, which are closely linked through criss-crossing network relations, representing a new form of spatial economic organization between the market and the hierarchy.

From the perspective of industrial structure and product structure, industrial cluster is actually the processing depth of a certain product and the extension of industrial chain. In a sense, it is the adjustment, optimization and upgrading of industrial structure. From the perspective of industrial organization, industrial cluster is actually the vertical integrated development of an enterprise or a large company or a large enterprise group in a certain area. If industrial structure and industrial organization are combined, industrial cluster actually refers to the meaning of industrial cluster and cluster development. That is to say, one or some industrial chains formed within a certain region or between regions. The core of industrial cluster is the high concentration of industries in a certain spatial range, which is conducive to reducing the institutional costs of enterprises (including production costs and transaction costs), improving economies of scale and scope, and improving the market competitiveness of industries and enterprises. From the micro-level analysis of industrial clusters, that is, from the perspective of a single enterprise or industrial organization, through vertical integration, enterprises can replace high-cost market transactions with low-cost intra-enterprise transactions to achieve the purpose of reducing transaction costs: through vertical integration, the stability of enterprise production and sales can be enhanced; Through vertical integration, we can form a certain competitive advantage in production cost, raw material supply, product sales channels and prices, and improve the entry barriers of enterprises; Through vertical integration, enterprises can improve their sensitivity to market information; Through vertical integration, enterprises can enter high-tech industries and high-profit industries and so on.

A cluster or cluster means that the same or similar things appear in a certain place. As early as 1970s or earlier, foreign scholars (czamanski1974) introduced clusters into economics and put forward the concept of industrial clusters. 1990, Professor Porter of the United States once again put forward the concept of industrial cluster in the book National Competitive Advantage, and analyzed the competitive advantage of a country or region by using the method of industrial cluster. Since then, the concept of industrial cluster has been widely accepted by scholars and has become all the rage. According to Professor Porter's understanding, industrial cluster is an organic whole composed of closely related enterprises and other corresponding institutions in an industrial field. Industrial clusters should at least include the following factors: first, they are related to a certain industrial field. Generally speaking, enterprises and other institutions in industrial clusters are often related to a certain industrial field, which is the basis for the formation of industrial clusters. Secondly, there is a close relationship between enterprises in industrial clusters and other institutions. Enterprises and related institutions in industrial clusters are not isolated, but nodes in the whole contact network, which is the key to the formation of industrial clusters. Third, industrial cluster is a complex organic whole. Industrial clusters include not only enterprises, but also related chambers of commerce, associations, banks and intermediaries. It is a complex organic whole and the physical composition of industrial clusters.

Industrial agglomeration and industrial cluster

Industrial concentration refers to the share of the largest enterprise in an industry in the whole industry, which is a focus of industrial organization research. Industrial concentration can be reflected by absolute concentration index and relative concentration index. Absolute concentration index is usually reflected by the proportion of the largest enterprise in an industry to a certain index (such as market share) of the whole industry, from which we can see the monopoly degree of the largest enterprise in the whole industry, while relative concentration index is mainly measured by Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient based on Lorenz curve, which can reflect the concentration of all enterprises in the whole industry. Generally speaking, unless otherwise specified, industrial concentration mainly reflects output.

The degree of monopoly of enterprises in the industry is not directly related to the spatial distribution of the industry, nor does it pay special attention to the relationship between enterprises in the industry. Therefore, the concepts of industrial agglomeration and industrial cluster are far apart, and there is no direct connection between them.

Industrial agglomeration and industrial cluster

Agglomeration refers to the process of spatial concentration of things. As early as a century ago, Weber began to use the concept of agglomeration in the theory of industrial location, focusing on the spatial agglomeration of industries. Industrial agglomeration refers to the spatial concentration and distribution of industries, which is the research focus of economic geography. Industrial agglomeration mainly studies the spatial distribution pattern of industries, paying special attention to the spatial transformation process of industries from dispersion to concentration. Industrial agglomeration develops in a certain * * * same space, and can enjoy infrastructure and benefit from economies of scale. Industrial agglomeration and industrial cluster are closely related, but there are differences. Industrial spatial clusters can form industrial clusters, but not all industrial clusters can form industrial clusters. Although some industries are gathered together, they are not related to each other and cannot form industrial clusters. Therefore, industrial agglomeration is only a necessary condition for the formation of industrial clusters, but not all conditions.

Industrial chain and industrial cluster

Industrial chain is a very traditional concept, which refers to the connection of a product from raw materials, processing, production to sales. As early as 1958, Hirschman's Economic Development Strategy discussed the concept of industrial chain from the perspective of forward and backward connection of industries. At present, the concepts related to industrial chain include value chain, production chain, supply chain and commodity chain. Although the statement has changed, the essence of its content has not changed, but the relationship between industries has been expounded from different research angles. Compared with industrial clusters, industrial chain also emphasizes the relationship between industries, but mainly pays attention to the relationship between industries, and pays less attention to institutions outside the industry, such as chambers of commerce, associations and intermediaries. In addition, the industrial chain has no concept of spatial agglomeration. The concept of industrial cluster is much richer than that of industrial chain, which includes not only the relationship between industries, but also the relationship between industries and other related institutions, and also emphasizes spatial agglomeration.

Industrial parks and industrial clusters

The construction of industrial parks in China is closely related to the construction of economic and technological development zones. 1984, the central government began to set up economic and technological development zones in coastal areas. At that time, the basic requirement of the country for the development zone was "three modernizations and one integration", that is, focusing on industry, exporting and utilizing foreign capital to develop high-tech industries. With the development of different types and levels in China, various types of industrial parks have been established accordingly. The original intention of industrial park construction is to mainly use foreign capital, so the industries in the park are mainly enterprises outside the park. Therefore, industrial park is a typical economic growth model driven by external forces. Because of this, many industrial parks do not take their own regional background into account in the process of development, which leads to the disconnection between the industrial orientation of the park and the surrounding areas and the lack of contact with local enterprises, and it is impossible to realize the joint development of the park and regional industries. Different from industrial parks, industrial clusters emphasize the close relationship between industries and rely on the internal development theory. However, in some industrial parks, the relationship between enterprises is very close, forming industrial clusters. Therefore, industrial parks provide space for the formation of industrial clusters, and whether industrial clusters can be formed depends on the relationship between enterprises.

The role of industrial clusters in regional development

Industrial clusters rely on internal contact networks, which effectively promote the rapid development of local regional economy. By cultivating local industrial clusters, local governments in many countries have effectively combined the internal force of local production system with the external force of international resources, improved regional competitiveness and gained many successful experiences. In recent years, some coastal areas in China have begun to form a number of influential industrial clusters, which have become an important way to stimulate regional economic development, improve industrial competitiveness and achieve leap-forward development. The influence of industrial clusters on regional development is mainly manifested in the following aspects.

(A) Industrial clusters are an important way to promote regional economic growth. In fact, industrial clusters effectively combine industrial development with regional economy through specialization of division of labor and facilitation of transactions, thus forming an effective production organization model, which is an important way to promote local regional economic growth.

First of all, developing industrial clusters can improve regional production efficiency. A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises gather in a certain area, which can further deepen the production division and cooperation in this area. Developing in this cluster can not only share the high efficiency brought by the division of labor, but also greatly reduce the transportation cost brought by daytime transactions between enterprises because of the proximity of space. In addition, in modern industrial clusters, cooperative transactions in economic activities can often achieve a * * * understanding of social and cultural background and values. This cooperative division of labor based on social network trust can reduce mutual fraud among enterprises and play a very important role in maintaining cluster stability and improving production efficiency.

Secondly, the development of industrial clusters can produce snowball-like agglomeration effect and attract more related enterprises to gather here. Expand and strengthen the agglomeration effect. The external economy generated by agglomeration itself is the driving force for external enterprises to enter. Once the embryonic form of industrial cluster is formed, it enters a virtuous circle process of internal self-strengthening, that is, attracting more related enterprises and units to gather in the cluster, and the newly added enterprises and units increase the cluster effect, thus producing snowball effect and promoting the rapid development of regional economy.

Third, the development of industrial clusters can promote the rapid derivation and growth of new enterprises in clusters. In the cluster, not only many related enterprises gather here, but also many corresponding R&D service organizations and professionals. When new enterprises develop here, they can face more market opportunities and get richer market information and talent support, thus reducing market risks. Moreover, due to the continuous refinement of the division of labor within the cluster, more new enterprises can be derived, thus further enhancing the competitiveness of the cluster itself.

(2) Industrial cluster is an important way to realize regional innovation system. Innovation is the most fundamental internal driving force of regional development. However, due to the complexity of innovation activities, it is difficult for enterprises to carry out innovation activities alone, and it often requires the participation of many related enterprises and scientific research departments to successfully innovate. This requirement is precisely reflected in the network characteristics of industrial clusters. First of all, within the industrial cluster, it is easy to produce the cumulative effect of professional knowledge, production skills and market information. Within the industrial cluster, there are a large number of related production enterprises, scientific research institutions, chambers of commerce, associations and intermediaries. , they have a strong cumulative effect of knowledge and information, at the same time, a large number of production enterprises are always facing the pressure of peer competition, which on the one hand provides enterprises with an important source of innovation and necessary material foundation, on the other hand, it also enables enterprises in the cluster to innovate continuously. Secondly, the close network relationship between enterprises makes it easier for production enterprises and related institutions to form a whole of mutual learning, which promotes the process of collective learning, reduces the learning cost and promotes more innovative activities.

(C) Industrial clusters are an important way to enhance regional competitiveness. The theoretical research and development practice of industrial flexible agglomeration and regional competitiveness shows that the competitive advantage of a country or region comes from the advantages obtained by the industry in its internal agglomeration process. A large number of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters characterized by flexible specialization form dense regional network organizations through division of labor and cooperation. * * * Faced with the rapidly changing external market environment and technical conditions, the productivity of these specialized industrial clusters is constantly improving, and innovative activities are constantly emerging, thus showing strong regional competitiveness, such as northeast and central Italy, Silicon Valley in the United States, and southern Germany. Looking back at the history of the development and evolution of regions and enterprises, we can find that in the industrial age, the regional economy is relatively independent, and there are few links between them except resource competition. Enterprises pursue the maximization of personal interests. In the information age, modern transportation and communication technologies have greatly weakened the influence of geographical space on regional economic relations, and the global flow of resources, technology and information has increased, making the region a node under the global production network and closely related to each other. Driven by the networking of regional economic ties, enterprises not only pursue the maximization of individual interests, but also the maximization of overall interests in cooperation, and then divide them into overall interests. The cooperation between enterprises has also been continuously strengthened, forming a closely linked industrial cluster, which has become the main way to enhance regional competitiveness. Therefore, areas that develop rapidly through flexible industrial agglomeration often have stronger innovative functions and competitiveness.

What is an industrial cluster?

1990, Mike Porter first put forward the word industrial cluster in the book National Competitive Advantage to analyze the cluster phenomenon. Regional competitiveness has great influence on the competitiveness of enterprises. Porter's investigation of 10 industrialized countries found that industrial clusters are a common phenomenon in the process of industrialization, and all kinds of industrial clusters can be clearly seen in all developed economies.

Industrial cluster refers to a geographically concentrated and interactive group composed of enterprises, specialized suppliers, service providers, financial institutions, manufacturers of related industries and other related institutions in a specific region. The depth and complexity of different industrial clusters are different. It represents a new form of spatial economic organization between market and level.

Many industrial clusters also include sales channels, customers, manufacturers of auxiliary products and specialized infrastructure suppliers. , government and other institutions providing specialized training, information, research and development, and standard setting, as well as industry associations and other relevant non-governmental organizations.

Therefore, industrial clusters go beyond the scope of general industries, forming a * * * body in which various industries are integrated and various types of institutions are interconnected within a specific geographical scope, which constitutes a competitive advantage with regional characteristics. The development of industrial clusters has become an important indicator to examine the development level of an economy or region.

From the perspective of industrial structure and product structure, industrial cluster is actually the processing depth of a certain product and the extension of industrial chain. In a sense, it is the adjustment, optimization and upgrading of industrial structure.

From the perspective of industrial organization, industrial cluster is actually the vertical integrated development of an enterprise or a large company or a large enterprise group in a certain area.

If industrial structure and industrial organization are combined, industrial cluster actually refers to the meaning of industrial cluster and cluster development. That is to say, one or some industrial chains formed within a certain region or between regions.

The core of industrial cluster is the high concentration of industries in a certain spatial range, which is conducive to reducing the institutional costs of enterprises (including production costs and transaction costs), improving economies of scale and scope, and improving the market competitiveness of industries and enterprises.

From the micro-level analysis of industrial clusters, that is, from the perspective of a single enterprise or industrial organization, through vertical integration, enterprises can replace high-cost market transactions with low-cost intra-enterprise transactions to achieve the purpose of reducing transaction costs: through vertical integration, the stability of enterprise production and sales can be enhanced; Through vertical integration, we can form a certain competitive advantage in production cost, raw material supply, product sales channels and prices, and improve the entry barriers of enterprises; Through vertical integration, enterprises can improve their sensitivity to market information; Through vertical integration, enterprises can enter high-tech industries and high-profit industries.

The Influence of Industrial Clusters on Industrial Competitiveness

Industrial competitiveness is the ability of a country or region's industry to reflect and adjust its resource endowment structure (comparative advantage) and market environment. Enterprises related to the same industry live together, compete with each other and cooperate with each other, which has a strong role in promoting the competitiveness of the industry. Modern organization theory holds that industrial cluster is the aggregation of innovative elements and the amplification of competitiveness. Professor Porter believes that the geographical agglomeration of industries can have a wide and positive impact on the competitive advantage of industries. Judging from the competition in the world market, enterprises in industries with internationally competitive products tend to concentrate rather than disperse.

1, industrial clusters have improved the overall competitiveness of the industry.

Generally speaking, after the formation of industrial clusters, the competitiveness of the whole region will be enhanced by reducing costs, stimulating innovation, improving efficiency, intensifying competition and other ways to form cluster competitiveness. This new competitiveness is beyond the reach of non-cluster and non-cluster enterprises. In other words, other things being equal, cluster is more competitive than non-cluster. Cluster intensifies competition, and competition is an important driving force for industries to gain core competitiveness. Competition is not only manifested in the competition for the market, but also in cooperation.

One of the most important characteristics of industrial clusters is geographical neutrality, that is, a large number of related industries are concentrated in a specific geographical range. Due to geographical proximity, the self-strengthening mechanism of internal competition in industrial clusters will form a natural selection mechanism of "survival of the fittest" within the cluster, which will stimulate enterprise innovation and enterprise derivative. In industrial clusters, a large number of enterprises gather together, not only to launch fierce market competition, but also to carry out various forms of cooperation. Such as jointly developing new products, opening up new markets and establishing production supply chains, thus forming a cooperative competition mechanism in which competition and cooperation coexist. The basic characteristics of this cooperation mechanism are mutual assistance and collective action. Through this mode of cooperation, SMEs can achieve efficient network interaction and cooperation in training, finance, technology development, product design, marketing, export and distribution, so as to overcome their internal disadvantages of economies of scale and compete with stronger competitors. Within the industrial cluster, once many single small enterprises that are less competitive than large enterprises are connected through developed regional networks, their competitiveness is no longer the competitiveness of a single enterprise, but a brand-new cluster competitiveness, which is more advantageous than the simple superposition of the competitiveness of all single enterprises. Cluster makes many small and medium-sized enterprises that did not have the market viability not only survive, but also enhance the overall competitiveness of the cluster because of their participation in the cluster.

2. Industrial cluster strengthens the effective cooperation among enterprises in the cluster.

In most market economy countries, enterprises are the main body of innovation system, so informal interaction such as technical cooperation between enterprises has become the most direct and important form of knowledge transfer. Therefore, the basis of cooperation between enterprises is trust rather than contract. Without the deep trust between enterprises and business leaders, it is difficult to achieve the expected cooperation goals in any form of contract. The development of cluster just meets this requirement, and the basis of cluster operation mechanism is humanistic factors such as trust and commitment. Due to geographical proximity and close ties between leaders, enterprises in the group form the same formal or informal codes of conduct and practices, and it is easy to establish close cooperative relations between them, thus reducing opportunism and reducing the risks and costs of cooperation. Therefore, the chances of cooperation and the possibility of success will undoubtedly increase greatly. Cooperation between enterprises can create greater strength than the simple sum of the strengths of individual enterprises. However, not all enterprises can cooperate effectively because they may not be able to find partners. Even if there is, it should be rigorously researched. However, the cooperation between enterprises in industrial clusters has unique advantages. Modern organization theory predicts that the form of enterprise alliance in the industry is likely to be the future trend, which will replace one-on-one competition among companies, and suppliers, customers and even competitors will come together to share skills and resources and bear the cost.

3. Industrial clusters improve the innovation ability of enterprises and promote their growth.

Cluster is not only conducive to improving productivity, but also conducive to promoting enterprise innovation. This innovation is embodied in many aspects such as concept, management, technology, system and environment. Generally speaking, the impact of clusters on innovation is mainly concentrated in three aspects:

(1) Cluster can provide a good innovation atmosphere for enterprises. Cluster is a hotbed to cultivate the learning and innovation ability of enterprises. When enterprises are close to each other, they will be subjected to invisible competitive pressure, forcing them to constantly carry out technological innovation and organizational management innovation. Due to the competitive pressure and challenges, enterprises in the cluster need to innovate and improve in product design, development, packaging, technology and management to meet the rapidly changing market demand. The knowledge innovation of an enterprise can easily spill over to other enterprises in the region, because these enterprises can learn new knowledge and technology quickly through field trips and frequent face-to-face exchanges. In industrial clusters, due to geographical proximity, enterprises can cooperate closely and deal face to face, which will be conducive to the spread of various new ideas, concepts, technologies and new knowledge, thus forming a knowledge spillover effect, gaining a "learning economy" and enhancing the research and innovation capabilities of enterprises.

(2) Cluster is conducive to promoting the transfer and diffusion of knowledge and technology. There is a self-reinforcing relationship between industrial clusters and the spread of knowledge and technology. In the new economic era, the industrial layout is no longer like the simple gathering of all walks of life in the industrial economy era, but the interrelated and highly specialized industries gather in a region regularly to form industrial clusters with their own characteristics. Due to the spatial proximity and the same industrial and cultural background, clusters can not only strengthen the spread and diffusion of explicit knowledge, but also strengthen the spread and diffusion of tacit knowledge, and further promote the flow and diffusion of explicit knowledge through the rapid flow of tacit knowledge. Because there are many similar enterprises in industrial clusters, the competitive pressure stimulates the technological innovation of enterprises, and also forces employees to keep up with each other and keep learning; The proximity between enterprises brings opportunities for on-site visits and face-to-face communication, and this regional environment of learning and competition promotes the technological innovation of enterprises; The leading enterprises in the cluster will lead the development direction of industrial technology. Once a core technology has made an innovation breakthrough, the enterprises with various specialties in the cluster area will soon cooperate and innovate, support each other and participate in this networked innovation mode together. Facts have also proved that the diffusion speed of knowledge and technology in industrial clusters is obviously faster than that of non-cluster enterprises.

(3) Cluster can reduce the cost of enterprise innovation. Due to geographical proximity, they can communicate with each other frequently, which provides more learning opportunities for enterprise innovation. In particular, the exchange of tacit knowledge can stimulate the generation of new ideas and methods. Because of the existence of "learning curve", it is easy and low-cost for specialized small enterprises in clusters to learn new technologies. At the same time, the competition and cooperation mechanism based on mutual trust is also helpful to strengthen the cooperation between enterprises in technological innovation, thus reducing the cost of new product development and technological innovation.

Cluster also has an important influence on the entry and growth of new enterprises. On the one hand, good innovation atmosphere, fierce competition environment and perfect local supporting system make clusters have competitive advantages in attracting new enterprises; On the other hand, the neutral geographical position and good external environment not only encourage the emergence of new industrial workers, but also contribute to the growth and scale expansion of existing enterprises. After the formation of industrial clusters, not only the attracted factories will take root in the local area, but also many new enterprises will grow in the local area. Because the long-term formation of a complete industrial chain system in the cluster has prompted enterprises to "take root" in the cluster, unless the whole industrial chain is transferred, enterprises will consider transferring to other regions.

4. Industrial clusters play the sharing effect of resources, which is conducive to the formation of "regional brands".

Industrial clusters have the characteristics of geographical agglomeration. Therefore, industry-related enterprises and their supporting enterprises and corresponding auxiliary institutions, such as local governments, trade associations, financial departments and education and training institutions, will gather in space to form a flexible production consortium, which will constitute the core competitiveness of the region. In addition, the formation of clusters makes the government more willing to invest in public facilities such as education, training, testing and appraisal; In addition, the establishment of these facilities has obviously promoted the development of enterprises in the cluster. The enjoyment of public goods makes the resources in industrial clusters more efficient. With the success of industrial clusters, the industries and products that the clusters rely on are constantly going to the world, naturally forming a worldwide regional brand. "Location brand" means that industrial location is a symbol of brand, such as French perfume, Italian fashion, Swiss watches and so on. A single enterprise needs huge capital investment to establish its own brand. However, enterprises can easily form a "regional brand" through clusters and the overall strength of enterprises in clusters, increase advertising investment and make use of group effects, thus benefiting every enterprise. Compared with a single enterprise brand, location brand is more vivid and direct. It is the concentration and refinement of the essence of many enterprise brands, and has a wide and lasting brand effect. This is a valuable intangible asset. This kind of regional brand is produced by enterprises in the same production place. Once it is formed, all enterprises in the region can enjoy it. Therefore, regional brands also have external effects. This regional brand effect is not only beneficial for enterprises to communicate with the outside world, open up domestic and foreign markets and determine appropriate sales prices, but also conducive to enhancing the image of the whole region and creating favorable conditions for attracting investment and future development. The enjoyment of regional brands has greatly enhanced the comparative competitive advantage of enterprises in the cluster.

The role of the concept of industrial cluster

The concept of industrial cluster provides a new perspective for thinking, analyzing national and regional economic development and formulating corresponding policies. Industrial clusters provide new ideas for economic growth, the role orientation of enterprises, governments and other institutions, and even the relationship between enterprises and governments, enterprises and other institutions.

Industrial clusters explore the competitive advantages of specific regions as a whole. Industrial cluster breaks through the boundary between enterprise and single industry, focusing on the interaction between enterprises, related institutions, governments and non-governmental organizations with competitive and cooperative relations in a specific region. In this way, they can systematically think about the coordinated development of economy and society from a whole region, examine the industrial clusters that may constitute the competitive advantage of a specific region, and consider the competition and cooperation between adjacent regions, rather than just considering the interests of some single industries and narrow geographical space.

Industrial clusters require the government to rethink its role orientation. The view of industrial cluster is closer to the essence of competition, which requires the government to focus on eliminating obstacles that hinder the growth of productivity, and emphasize promoting the efficiency and innovation of cluster industries through competition, thus promoting the continuous expansion of the market and prospering the regional and local economies.

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