The main significance of cluster effect

The development of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters is an important economic phenomenon in the world. China's small and medium-sized enterprise clusters also achieved rapid development in the 1990s, and the huge economic and social benefits brought by small and medium-sized enterprise clusters became increasingly obvious. It is of great significance to deeply analyze and study the economic phenomenon of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters for promoting regional economic development and social progress.

First, small and medium-sized enterprise clusters.

Small and medium-sized enterprise cluster refers to the collection of related industries with a leading industry as the core or a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in specific fields and their supporting institutions in this regional space. The prosperity of Silicon Valley in the United States, the revitalization of Italian economy and the rapid development of eastern coastal towns are largely attributed to the development of local enterprise clusters. With the globalization of market competition, economic development also highlights the trend of regional centralization, especially the gathering of local enterprises participating in the global industrial chain division. Enterprise clusters, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, are developing rapidly because they can quickly adapt to market changes and meet the individual needs of customers.

According to the industrial nature of enterprise clusters, industrial clusters can be divided into three types: first, traditional industrial clusters, mainly concentrated in traditional handicrafts or labor-intensive traditional industrial sectors, such as the development of textiles, clothing, shoes, furniture, hardware products and so on. A large number of small and medium-sized enterprises are concentrated in space, forming an organic market organization network. In this industrial cluster, the division of labor is relatively fine, the degree of specialization is high, and the market organization network is developed. Typical examples are Italy's characteristic industrial zone and Zhejiang's "block economy" zone. Second, high-tech industrial clusters mainly rely on local scientific research forces, such as famous universities and scientific research institutions, to develop high-tech industries. Enterprises cooperate closely and have a strong atmosphere of innovation. Silicon Valley in the United States and Zhongguancun in Beijing are typical representatives in this regard. Third, industrial clusters combining capital and technology, such as Otawa in Japan and Baden-Wü rttemberg in southern Germany.

Dialysis of Chinese and foreign small and medium-sized enterprise clusters, we found that small and medium-sized enterprise clusters generally have the following characteristics:

1. Enterprises in the cluster are independent of each other. It shows that each enterprise is still an independent legal person, maintaining its own ownership, affiliation and investment channels, carrying out independent accounting and conducting equal transactions in accordance with market principles.

2. Enterprises in the cluster are closely linked. There is a close interaction between enterprises in the cluster, which has extended from factory contact to industrial contact, including material and intangible information contact, and this contact has increasingly become the core content of inter-enterprise contact.

3. There are many specific relationships among enterprises in the cluster. It is manifested in obtaining external economy through specialized division of labor and cooperation between enterprises. This special relationship makes the small and medium-sized enterprises in the cluster move from a scattered and chaotic state to a systematic and orderly state.

4. Clustering is dynamic. Because there are few obstacles to enter or leave the cluster, the cluster is always in constant development and change, so the cluster can maintain its long-term vitality.

5. The basis of cluster operation mechanism is humanistic factors such as "trust and commitment". This humanistic factor is the link to maintain the long-term relationship between enterprises in the cluster, and makes the cluster have a unique competitive advantage in the face of foreign competitors.

Second, the development status of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters

Small and medium-sized enterprises, as microeconomic subjects with many groups, are increasingly showing their important position and role in the real economic and social development. No matter in developed or developing countries, they are numerous and have obvious functions, which are valued and supported by the government. In some developed countries, such as the United States, there are nearly 23 million small and medium-sized enterprises, accounting for 99.7% of the total number of enterprises in China. They have created more than 40% of the gross national product, provided two-thirds of new jobs, employed more than 53% of the national labor force and produced 96% of export products. The number of small and medium-sized enterprises in Italy accounts for 99.8% of all enterprises, and employees account for 78.2% of the employed population, accounting for more than 60% of the increase in gross national product, supporting half of the Italian economy. At present, there are more than100000 small and medium-sized enterprises registered in industry and commerce, accounting for 99% of the total industrial registration, accounting for about 60% of the total industrial output value, realizing 40% of profits and taxes, creating 75% of employment opportunities and 60% of export earnings. Small and medium-sized enterprises have become a new force to promote the sustained and rapid economic development in China.

Looking at the successful small and medium-sized enterprises in various countries, we can find that most of them do not exist sporadically, but gather together in the form of clusters, showing a strong cluster effect and benefiting a lot from the cluster effect. For example, the textile industry in northern Italy, the wine industry in California, the IT industry in Silicon Valley, and the automobile industry in Japan; Leather footwear industry in Wenzhou, China, computer information industry in Dongguan and textile industry in Foshan. In recent years, the popular "Zhejiang phenomenon" is mainly about enterprise clusters. As an objective economic phenomenon, small and medium-sized enterprise clusters have attracted extensive attention.

Third, the effect of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters

Regional small and medium-sized enterprise clusters can release the cluster effect. This cluster effect is not only the reasonable basis for the existence of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters, but also the driving force for the continuous improvement of small and medium-sized enterprise clusters. It is manifested through collective efficiency in three aspects:

L, external economy When the social benefit of an economic activity is greater than the private benefit, there is an external economy. The external economy in small and medium-sized enterprise clusters is what German economists call "agglomeration economy effect", that is, due to the geographical concentration of enterprises, the social division of labor is deepened, the links between enterprises are strengthened, and the utilization rate of regional resources is improved, resulting in cost savings. The effect of agglomeration economy is reflected in four convenient aspects, namely, the convenience of proximity, the convenience of enterprise freshmen, the convenience of innovation and the convenience of the formation and accumulation of social capital.

2. Joint action. Joint action refers to the conscious cooperation between manufacturers in small and medium-sized enterprise clusters for some common goals. Joint actions in a cluster can be measured by the number and direction of cooperation between manufacturers. The number of cooperative manufacturers refers to the sum of all kinds of cooperative manufacturers in an enterprise cluster, which can be bilateral cooperation between two manufacturers or multilateral cooperation between multiple manufacturers. The direction of cooperation between manufacturers depends on the basis of cooperative relationship between manufacturers. The cooperation between manufacturers of similar products is horizontal cooperation, and the cooperation between manufacturers in the industrial chain is vertical cooperation.

Joint action in small and medium-sized enterprise clusters can improve the technical ability, production ability, innovation ability and market ability of cooperative manufacturers, and can effectively promote the growth and competitiveness of enterprise clusters. Compared with the external economy of small and medium-sized enterprise cluster, it is a conscious and purposeful activity among the actors in the cluster, and it is a dynamic and positive cluster effect.

3. Institutional effect. Generally speaking, SME cluster is a new spatial organization form between enterprises and markets. As an organizational form, enterprise cluster has a certain institutional background. Institutional background is divided into micro-level and macro-level. The former has contracts and property rights, while the latter has political, social and cultural factors. Social capital is gradually formed and accumulated in the cluster, and the cultural atmosphere of honesty and cooperation prevails in the cluster; They can unify the market, standardize product standards, promote the same trademark and special technology, and the transaction cost of signing and executing contracts between manufacturers is low. In addition, the government, as an important action subject in the cluster, promotes the development of the cluster by formulating policies, selecting appropriate manufacturers to enter the cluster, maintaining the order of the cluster, and forming appropriate and favorable systems through specific cluster policies.

Fourthly, the enlightenment of developing small and medium-sized enterprise clusters.

Small and medium-sized enterprise clusters have promoted the rapid development of regional economy and given us many inspirations.

L, small and medium-sized enterprise cluster is an important way to cultivate and enhance industrial competitive advantage. Enterprise cluster means that several manufacturers are concentrated in a certain industry in a certain region, and through the efforts of various actors, 1+ 1 > is obtained by using the cluster effect. 2 Competitive advantage. Therefore, for some places, especially those industries with long industrial chain or prominent circuitous production mode, cluster development can quickly enhance the competitive advantage of this industry in the region, at home or abroad.

2. SME cluster is an important way to promote local economic growth and develop county economy. Generally speaking, due to the low start of county economy and the lack of competitive ability with big cities in high-level industries, the choice of developing industries in various places is gradually carried out around local characteristics. To develop characteristic industries, we need to make full use of industrial clusters, give full play to the cluster effect, enlarge and strengthen industries through the comparative advantages brought by the cluster effect, and promote the rapid growth of local economy.

3. SME cluster is an important way to promote the development of SMEs. The inherent defects in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises are small scale, difficult market access, weak market competitiveness, few financing channels, insufficient talent reserve and lack of information resources. By "clustering" and gathering together, enterprises can form an overall advantage and scale effect, establish and expand the popularity and "brand" effect of * *, realize complementary internal advantages and share * * * resources, thus effectively solving the congenital deficiency problem of small and medium-sized enterprises.

4. SME cluster is an effective way to promote urbanization. As far as China's current development stage is concerned, industrialization is still the foundation of urbanization, and the promotion of urbanization should be supported by industrialization. The important content of industrialization is rural industrialization, and the important way to realize rural industrialization is to mobilize farmers to establish small and medium-sized enterprises on the spot and promote farmers to become industrial employees on the spot. Cluster can promote the development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and at the same time drive the emergence of new enterprises. The growing enterprise groups will continue to generate new and higher urbanization demand, and the government will continue to improve infrastructure and optimize the development environment of enterprises to meet this demand. These benign complementarities will undoubtedly greatly promote the local urbanization process.

5. Small and medium-sized enterprise clusters provide a successful way for the development of industrial parks. In recent years, industrial parks have been established all over China. However, from the current situation, except for a few that have developed well and made great contributions to the local economic development, the prospects of many industrial parks are not optimistic. There are many reasons for this. One of the important reasons is that the enterprises (or other subjects) in the park lack certain industrial links, and the industrial park has become a simple "cluster" of various enterprises. As a result, some enterprises settled in the park have gained more or less development by using the preferential conditions and policies provided by the industrial park, but the park itself has not produced certain agglomeration effect with the increase of enterprises settled in, thus forming good economic and social benefits. Industrial agglomeration can better solve this problem. Most small and medium-sized enterprise clusters exist in the form of industrial clusters, and some successful industrial parks at home and abroad are specialized parks, which points out the road to success for the development of industrial parks. Many industrial parks should be adjusted with the help of cluster strategy to achieve rapid development, or new development zones should aim at industrial clusters to promote the healthy economic development of industrial parks and development zones.