The Effect Of Regional Environment On Emerging Industry Cluster Innovation Performance

With the spring up of new technologies, emerging industry began to develop rapidly, and showed obvious agglomeration. Emerging industry develop agglomerately because of that industrial cluster has production advantages such as elements concentration, low trade costs and others, and has innovation advantages such as competition and cooperation of companies, cooperation of research network, knowledge and technology spillover effect. Cluster development can also enhance the ability to resist risks effectively. However what should be noted is that emerging industrial clusters are facing many challenges and performance differences are obvious between clusters at the present development stage in our country.The paper focuses on “what are the factors which make any significant industry cluster innovation performance”,and takes “the emerging industry” as the research object. The paper presents that any industrial clusters are embedded in the environments, and impacted by the environments. Although along with the acceleration of globalization process and the progress of science and technology, a number of regional resources begin to become universal resources, which changed the dependent manner of regional environment, but did not weaken and eliminate the important effects of environmental factors on regional economic developments, even resources more focused on some regions having good environments, thereby the environments on the cluster development is more important. But obviously environments are not the decisive factors influence the industrial cluster innovation performance.Therefore, based on industrial cluster theory, enterprise competence theory,innovation theory and literature review, the paper discusses the question of “how regional environments affect cluster innovation performance” and puts forward the cluster innovation capability as an intermediary variable, trying to open the black box of the interation mechanism between regional environments and cluster innovation performance. Specifically, the paper explores the following issues. Firstly, what are the critical regional environmental factors that influence the performance of emerging industry clusters? Secondly, what is the relationship between cluster innovation capability and cluster innovation performance? Thirdly, what is the relationship between regional environments and cluster innovation capability? Finally, what is the overall relationship between regional environments, cluster innovation capacity and innovation performance? The main contents of this paper are in the following parts:(1) The exploratory case study. Based on the literature review, 12 enterprises in four emerging industrial clusters are chosen for case study. Through theoretical presupposition, case selection,with-in case analysis and comparison, 11 initial research propositions are put forward about the relations between regional environments 、 cluster innovation ability and cluster innovation performance.(2) The theoretical model construction and empirical test. Based on the exploratory case study,combined with existing research,the paper put forward the refine hypothesis and conceptual model of“regional environments-cluster innovation ability-cluster innovation performance ”. The research investigates 268 clustered firms, and adopes methods such as factor analysis, multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling to test and modify the concept model. The analysis results indicate that regional environments can promote cluster innovation performance through cluster innovation capability.The research also explores the evolement of cluster innovation capablility and cluster innovation performance with the time of emerging industry cluster’s shaping.In detail, some conclusions are presented as below:Firstly, based on empirical analysis, the paper veifies that the four kinds of regional environment all have significant impacts on cluster innovation performance directly or indirectly. And the effect of social culture environment on cluster innovation performance is direct, the effects of other environments are indirect.Secondly, cluster innovation capability includes the innovation capability which is obtained by the enterprise alone and the innovation capability which is obtained by the cooperation innovation of enterprise. They both will have have significant positive impacts on cluster innovation performance.Fourthly, Social and culture environment has a positive impact on cluster innovation performance directly, while the other kinds of regional environment have a positive effect on cluster innovation performance by cluster innovation capability. Specifically, the innovation elements environment, regional policy environment influences cluster innovation performance indirectly through the mediating role of cluster innovation capability. The cluster atomosphere environment has a inverted u-shaped influence on cluster innovation performance through the capability obtained by enterprise alone, and has a positive effect on innovation performance through the capability obtained by cooperation innovation.Fifthly, cluster innovation capability and performance will show great difference if the cluster shaping time is below ten years, and will tend to stable if shaping time is above ten years. Also,between 4 to 6 years will show the optimal performance.