A Study On High-Tech Park Competency Based On Cluster Development View And Dynamic Capability View

The rapid development of science and technology since 1970s, has boost a large quantity of high-tech start-ups all over the world. High-tech parks, as they are, right serve as geographic carriers of high-tech firms and their clusters. In terms of science and technology development, our country is also trying to catch up with the global tides, while promoting high-tech industries of information technology, telecommunication electronics, bio-technology, and etc. In August 1988, the State Council approved a National Torch Program designed to develop new and high technology industries in China. Since then, 53 national high-tech parks have been established, some well developed, like the Beijing Zhong Guan Cun Science Park and the Shanghai Zhangjiang High-Tech Park; some others underdeveloped, like the high-tech parks in Baoding, Nanchang, Anshan, Xiamen, Hainan, Nanning, Baoji. What factors can be attributed to the disparities among different high-tech parks? Is there a theoretical framework that can explain the development levels of high-tech parks? Can we conclude success kits from the cases of well-developed high-tech parks and apply them to those relatively underdeveloped high-tech parks? What measures and policy suggestions should we make for officials and managers of high-tech parks? All these questions are what we try to answer in this thesis.In order to answer the above-mentioned questions, this thesis compares the overall development levels of Chinese and foreign high-tech parks. On the one hand, it explores the possible reasons lying on the cluster view held by the general academics. On the other hand, it also studies the influences of enterprises and their competencies, the most micro level constituting a high-tech park. Based on the integrated analysis of high-tech parks, park clusters, and park enterprises, as well as the combination of macro and micro levels, this thesis proposes the following research questions. What factors are attributed to the level of high-tech park competency? Is there any correlation between high-tech park competency and performance? What kind of correlation if yes? Based on these questions, this thesis proposes the following research hypotheses. Firstly, cluster development and dynamic capabilities are key factors influencing high-tech park competency. In addition, there exists positive correlation between high-tech park competency and performance. Several research tools are applied in this thesis, including literature review, case study, questionnaire design, survey, factor analysis, structural equation modeling, canonical correlation analysis, and qualitative analysis, induction, and deduction,.There are quite a few existing theories of high-tech park and industry cluster research, among which exploring the development levels of high-tech parks and internal enterprises from the cluster perspective is the most popular one, and includes theories like the Growth Pole Theory, the Industry Cluster Theory, the Three Elements Theory, the Spatial Diffusion Theory, the Industry Location Theory, and etc. On the other hand, theories on organization capability, core capability, and business process based capability also make certain contribution to the enterprise competency research. All the above-mentioned theories, as they are, can only explain a certain part of the problem in case, while failing to study the interrelationship between high-tech park, cluster, and enterprise. Therefore, a key contribution of this thesis is to explore the interaction mechanism between high-tech park, cluster, and enterprise, taking into consideration both cluster development view and dynamic capability view. More specifically, this thesis makes the following contributions to the existing literature.Firstly, this thesis takes the cluster development view to study the trigger mechanism, evolution path, and path choice of high-tech park, thereby analyzing its competency. The trigger mechanism helps to integrate various strategic elements to trigger the cluster formation and positive feedback effect within the high-tech park. In terms of evolution path, high-tech park can stimulate the long wave effect (i.e. longer lifecycle than general products and industries) under the hyper flowing mechanism on elements and the incessant response mechanism on new technologies. From the cluster perspective, the development of a high tech park usually lies in the path of the mass reproduction of internal enterprises and the attraction of the external enterprises.Secondly, in order to analyze high-tech park competency from a perspective of dynamic capability, this thesis investigates the paradigm relevance between dynamic capability view and high-tech park development. It proposes that the dynamic capability of high-tech park is the ability a high-tech park applies to adapt itself to the evolution of environments and technologies, and to create for itself new sustainable competitive advantages. Moreover, it studies the competitive advantages of a high-tech park by analyzing external factors like political and economic factor, location factor, regional industry environment, and internal factors like systems and policies, infrastructure, featured service, innovative mechanism, and culture.Thirdly, this thesis attributes the enhancement of high-tech park competency to the evolution of park cluster and the reinforcement of dynamic capability. More specifically, the dynamic capability of high-tech park is based on and embodied by the dynamic capabilities of internal enterprises. On the other hand, the cluster effect also facilitates the diffusion and interaction of the dynamic capabilities of internal enterprises, thereby reinforcing them.Based on the above-mentioned theoretical framework, this thesis designs questionnaires and conducts surveys to explore the path relationship between enterprise competency, cluster competency, and high-tech park competency. Moreover, it studies the canonical correlation between high-tech park competencies and performances. The results show that cluster development path is primary to the fostering of the high-tech park competency, which can be finally mapped into the improvement of the high-tech park performance.Finally, this thesis makes the following policy suggestions. From the enterprise perspective, efforts should be put into the enhancement of innovation, learning and reaction capabilities, the integration of materials, human resources, knowledge, technologies, and financial resources, and the fostering of driving, learning, and reaction mechanisms. From the cluster perspective, the innovation, cluster, environment, and development competencies need to be enhanced while more cooperation and competition, better public investments and services, and nicer cultures and environments turn to be preferred. From the high-tech park perspective, internal and external competencies should both be emphasized while finer enterprise interactions, labor divisions, and specialities can boost internal competitive advantages, and improved industry structures, administration efficiencies, and legislation and jurisdiction will create better external environments for the development of high-tech parks.