The Empirical Studies Of Catering Enterprise Cluster Evolution Mechanism

With the progress of urbanization and the improvement of people's standard of living in recent years, gourmet streets (cities) have been set up in many places, which help to make life easier as part of urban facilities, offer employment opportunities, increase revenues and promote the image of a city.In theory, gourmet streets (cities) are in fact clusters of catering businesses, which belong to the category of business clusters (or industrial clusters). Studies on business clusters are currently concentrated on those of manufacturers and few touches upon the clusters of catering businesses, which, as part of the service industry, are apparently quite different from clusters of manufacturers. Research into such problems as their evolution mechanism and management contributes not only to practice but also to the theory of business clusters.To make an intensive study of the evolution mechanism of catering business clusters, the paper employs static and dynamic approaches to expound the causes for the clusters, their evolutionary tracks and management modes in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Cases are also cited in this part.Three reasons that have an impact on the gathering of catering businesses are discussed in Chapterâ…¡(Agglomeration Effects of Businesses), Chapter III (the Exterior Factors of the Surrounding Areas) and Chapterâ…£(the Interior Factors of the Business).The first section of Chapterâ…¡is a theoretical analysis of the agglomeration effects of catering business clusters. The second section sets out to find out which of the above analyzed effects are substantial and crucial by spot interviewing, while the third section further examines the influence that these effects have on the main managerial issues of a business. The interviews of personnel in catering businesses and statistics make it clear that such clusters have some advantages and disadvantages peculiar to the catering businesses as well as those that are common to business clusters. As a rule, the strength of such clusters lies in its advertising effect while, on the other hand, fierce competition leads to rising of rents. The ratio of raw material cost doesn't show remarkable signs of increase.The first section of Chapterâ…¢illustrates with pictures the influence of the spatial distribution of customers on catering business clusters, using statistics from field surveys of more than 40 densely-populated urban areas. The second and third sections expound the correlation of spatial density of catering businesses, market facility density and regional macro-economic elements. The fourth section analyzes the effect of the preference of customers on catering business clusters. Based on case study, Chapter IV is an attempt to conclude which, of the variety of competitive, cooperative and innovative organizational behaviors conducted by a business, are the most influential on catering business clusters. The part comes up with the conclusion that the distribution of catering business clusters is subjected to some market facilities and positively correlated to macro-econmic factors that reflect the activity space and economic attributes of customers. More importantly, the preference of customers is also positively correlated to the scale of catering business clusters.The analysis of the evolving stages of catering business clusters and the factors influencing their evolution includes the agglomeration effects of catering businesses, the exterior factors of the surrounding areas and the interior factors of the business on different stages. The first section of Chapterâ…¤presents the evolving courses of catering business clusters in both theory and practice. The second, third and fourth sections bring forth the factors that influence the different evolving stages with case study in terms of the agglomeration effects of catering businesses, the exterior factors of the surrounding areas and the interior factors of the businesses. This chapter discusses the competitive, cooperataive and innovative features that catering business clusters have and that manufacturing business cluster do not. The impact of these features on their evolution is also talked about here. This chapter summarizes the evolving stages of these business cluters and the factors that work on each stage. According to the analysis, catering business clusters, whether naturally developed or artificially designed, comprise three phases of development:forming, developing and declining, each of which is mainly influenced by exterior environment. The influence of the agglomeration effect on their evolution is limited. The forming of such clusters depends mainly on the scale and distribution of consumer markets. Policy and management determine the developing of such clusters, and the reasons for their declining include malfeasant competition between interior businesses, change of consumer market, urban development, restriction of the environment and facilities, competition between business clusters, and unexpected risk, etc. Generally speaking, catering business clusters featuare short term of evolution and high exterior risk.The last part of the paper discusses the management models, competence types, performance assessment and specific management methods at separate phases of the catering business clusters. The first section of Chapterâ…¥comes up with two management models after doing case study of the catering business clusters. The following three sections are a breakdown of their management and examine respectively their competence types, performance assessment and specific management methods at different stages. This chapter is not only a further discussion of Chapter V but a speculative enquiry into the applicable managerial measure. Two management modes, service mode and investment mode, are put forward in this chapter, and a comparison of the influence of the two modes on the evolution of such clusters is also carried out. A comprehensive evalution model of the cluster performance is set up in accordance with TOPSIS, on the basis of which managerial measures at different stage of evolution are suggested.