| The influence of various environmental changes makes the development of theme park industry in China face new opportunities and challenges.The first change is from the competitive environment.Internationally renowned theme park groups,such as Walt Disney Corporation,Universal Parks and Resort and Merlin Entertainment Group,have been layout the Chinese market,which not only brought advanced management experience to the theme park market,but also intensified market competition.While domestic theme park enterprises are also in the growing and expanding stage,in addition to OCT Parks China,Fanta Wild Group,Chime Long Group and Haichang Holding Group,the other groups which are originally non-tourism groups are joining to invest in constructing theme parks across China.The reorganization of the competition pattern of theme park industry shows that theme parks need to seek a new mode of competition to cope with the increasingly fierce competition.The second change is the market environment.The increasingly rational consumption view of tourists brings about changes in the mainstream market of theme park consumption,so that the development of theme parks has been changed from the early Era of High profits(such as "Splendid China" just used more than one-year-time to recover investment costs)to the era of micro-profits gradually,which means the investment recovery period is longer,and even relies on the subsidies from the corporate-related real estate business profit.These changes in the market environment caused by the demand refreshing indicate that theme parks need to use new methods to make the original source market bigger.The third change is from the policy environment.With the tightening of the policy of theme park construction control,the development of theme parks and their bundled incentive policies will gradually become more cautious and the speculation opportunities from theme park development are reduced.Corporations can no longer take through real estate profits to balance theme park revenue.Instead,it is necessary to develop truly attractive and competitive product and marketing strategies that emphasize the sustainability and competitive advantage of the project.In addition,the development of theme parks is expected to become an important driving force for the recovery of global tourism after the outbreak of Covid-19.In this context,the traditional Marketing Mix which has the most direct impact on theme park performance can no longer satisfy the needs of the development of theme park industry.What’s more,as the behavior of the theme parks significantly affected by the epidemic to reduce human resources and advertising costs also weakened the marketing ability,it forced theme parks to resolve the challenges of survival and prosperity through implement the joint innovative marketing strategies.Central Florida is the world’s first and biggest theme park market,gathering many world-renowned theme parks under the group of Walt Disney Corporation,Universal Parks and Resort,Merlin Entertainment Group,and Six Flags Entertainment Group.It shows that even under the fierce competition,the region’s theme parks have cooperated and brought common prosperity.Witnessing the successful cases of Marketing Coopetition Strategy in other tourism product markets(such as hotel and aviation industry)and in theme park markets abroad,domestic theme park managers began to consider whether they could look for opportunities to implement coopetition strategy with competitors to promote cooperative innovation through resource sharing,and achieve the synergistic and spillover effects,that is,to make the overall market of their tourist destinations bigger and more profitable,so that both parties can obtain better performance.The situation that Shanghai has constructed Shanghai Disney Resort,Shanghai Happy Valley,Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park,and many other super-large theme parks are on the construction and will be opened in the near future foreshadows and promotes us to think: whether the theme park agglomeration in the same destination can follow or innovate the Central Florida’s Coopetition Strategy to achieve two goals,that is making Shanghai to be an International famous tourist city and making all the theme parks be benefited.After reviewing on the literature,it is found that the research on the Horizontal Coopetition Strategy among theme parks is not fruitful,which makes this dissertation somewhat groundbreaking.However,it also faces challenges in the literature review,theoretical basis framing,model construction,data acquisition and empirical research.Three core questions are put forward:(1)research on the basis of the implementation of domestic theme park coopetition strategy;(2)research on the performance of the implementation of domestic theme park coopetition strategy;and(3)research on the mechanism of the implementation of domestic theme park coopetition strategy.In order to systematically and in-depth analysis on the above three core questions,this study is divided into six chapters so that it takes the basic paradigm of combining theoretical research and empirical research.Besides Chapter One “Introduction” and Chapter Six “Research Conclusions”,the main content is Chapter Two to Five which is in accordance with the Theme Park Coopetition Strategy “Implementation Basis-Implementation Performance-Implementation Mechanism” structure.In order to ensure the scientific,normative and innovative nature of the research,this study will adopt a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods,including the literature research method,case analysis method,quantitative analysis method and game theory method,to carry out specific analysis.Chapter One presents an introduction to the research question.The background conditions such as the obvious changes of theme park competition pattern and tourists’ market,the urgent innovation of marketing strategy and the severe impact of the epidemic make the research extremely important.It will demonstrate the possibility of form the coopetition strategy of theme park enterprises in China,construct the performance model of theme park coopetition strategy in China,explore the mechanism of theme park coopetition strategy in China.It will also provide new cooperation inspiration for domestic theme park managers,guidance for theme park enterprises to implement coopetition strategy,theoretical basis for local governments to formulate policies to promote theme park coopetition and advice for Chinese theme parks to enter the international market.Chapters Two to Five are the main parts of the core problem analysis.Chapters Two is the theoretical research part supporting the following analysis.It reviews on the core concept definition,relevant literature review and theoretical basis analysis from the dimensions of “the basis of the implementation of domestic theme park coopetition strategy”,“the performance of the implementation of domestic theme park coopetition strategy”,“the mechanism of the implementation of domestic theme park coopetition strategy”.Chapter Three is research on the Basis of the Implementation of Domestic Theme Park Coopetition Strategy by using theoretical analysis and empirical study.First of all,it implements the Anti-trust law and Anti-unfair competition law to support the regulatory basis on the perspective to guarantee the free and fair market competition.Secondly,it demonstrats the benefit basis from two dimensions of theme park enterprises and tourist destinations.For the theme part enterprises,it uses the Transaction Cost Theory,Resource-Based Theory,Resource-Ability Theory and Resource-Relationship Theory to explain the synergy effect.For the destination,it can achieve the spillover effect by pooling the tourism resources to improve the competitiveness of tourist destinations and the total number of tourists,using joint marketing strategies to enhance the overall image of tourist destinations,and sharing the knowledge to promote the collaborative innovation of tourist destinations.Finally,it analyzes on the case of the Coopetition Strategy between theme parks in Central Florida and found that the benefit basis of implementing theme park Coopetition Strategy is reflected in two aspects,one is that the single theme park can increase tourist consumption,broaden the theme park visitor market segment,extend the competitive advantage,reduce the operating pressure and determine the direction of innovation;the other is that the destination is more likely to balance international tourism trade deficit,attract research intelligent,grasp international attention and bring direct economic and social benefits to tourist destinations.Chapter Four is the part of construction and verification of the Performance Model of the Implementation of Domestic Theme Park Coopetition Strategy.Based on the interview and the literature,it constructs the performance model of theme park coopetition strategy and puts forward the corresponding research hypothesis.In this model,the marketing strategy of the theme parks is the independent variable,the performance of the theme parks is the dependent variable and the theme park coopetition strategy is the intermediary variable.Through collecting data from the questionnaire issued by current and former managers and related staffs of domestic theme parks,it uses the Confidence Analysis,the Validity Analysis,the Exploratory Factor Analysis,the Validation Factor Analysis and the Intermediary Effect Analysis of Structural Equation Model respectively.It is found that the research assumptions of all the three groups of relationship are validated and positively related.Finally,according to the Path Coefficient,it concludes the key variables of the conditions for the implementation of the coopetition strategy of Chinese theme parks,of the marketing combination strategy of Chinese theme parks suitable for the implementation of the coopetition strategy,and of the significant impact on performance achieved by the coopetition strategy of Chinese theme parks.Chapter Five is a concrete analysis of the Implementation Mechanism of Domestic Theme Park Coopetition Strategy.This study firstly establishes the Game Theory Model of domestic theme park coopetition strategy and puts forward that theme park enterprises will be “Reciprocals” or “Opportunists” in the implementation of the coopetition strategy and they will choose from two strategic behavior choices as“Adherence to cooperation” and “Betrayal in the process”.The result shows that the(Persist on cooperation,Persist on cooperation)payment matrix cannot be achieved because of opportunist.It then changes the three key elements of Game Theory as the Participants(Identifying Competitors),the Payment Matrix(Strengthening Supervision)and the Game Rules(Increasing the Cost of Punishment)to conduct the Evolutionary Game Theory Analysis to explore how to stabilize the coopetition strategy.It is found that the implementation process of domestic theme park competition strategy is essentially a process of “Cooperation-Conflict-Compromise(or Failure)” between the two parties,so it is possible to formulate the implementation mechanism of domestic theme park coopetition strategy along the main line of implementing Trust-building Mechanism(change participants),Value Creation Mechanism(changing payment matrix)and Conflict Resolution Mechanism(changing the game rules).Firstly,Trust-building Mechanisms are needed to gradually build and adjust between the coopeting parties through the process of selecting the right coopeting partners,releasing and seeking competing intentions,making cost-benefit analysis,and exchanging commitments.Secondly,domestic theme park enterprises mainly play the role of coopetition strategy through value creation which ensures the benefits of both parties.The core of Value Creation Mechanism lies in the Knowledge Resource Sharing and Innovation Mechanism,in which the two parties realize knowledge sharing can be effective by reaching consensus on the goal of knowledge sharing,formulating rules of knowledge sharing,setting the way of knowledge sharing,and adapting to the evolution of knowledge sharing;and realize innovation can be noticeable by the Review Mechanism of Innovation Nature,the Review Mechanism of Innovation Performance and the Evolution Mechanism of Innovation Performance.Thus,the innovation motivated by the knowledge sharing brings value creation.Thirdly,it is necessary to develop Conflict Resolution Mechanism in the process of implementing the theme park coopetition strategy.Domestic theme park managers must predict and control the tension and conflict in the implementation process of the coopetition strategy,deal with opportunistic behavior through prevention,regulation and punishment mechanism,ensure the smooth progress of knowledge sharing,serve innovation through intellectual property protection,and establish a mechanism that can balance competition and cooperation and strength to resolve the conflicts arising in the implementation of the coopetition strategy,and ultimately ensure the success of the coopetition strategy and tend to long-term stable development.Chapter Six is the problem-solving part,which mainly illustrates three important research conclusions of and policy suggestions,summarizes the lack of research,and puts forward the prospect of the future research.The innovation point of this study is embodied in four aspects: Firstly,the innovation research on the Basis of the Implementation of the Coopetition Strategy of Theme Park makes the domestic theme park managers identify whether they have the guaranteed conditions to implement the coopetition strategy.Such as from the perspective of Anti-trust law and Anti-unfair competition law to examine the regulatory basis,and from the perspective of Cost Transaction Theory,Resource-Based Theory,Resource-Capacity Theory and Resource-Relationship Theory to examine the interest basis of the implementation of the coopetition strategy,that is,whether to achieve synergy effects for all the theme park enterprises taken part in the cooperation activities and achieve spillover effects for the regional tourist destinations.Secondly,the innovative construction of the Performance Model of Theme Park Coopetition Strategy.This study puts marketing strategies in different situations of competition,cooperation or coopetition to test whether marketing strategies can stimulate market demand for theme park products and improve corporate financial and non-financial performance.The theme park coopetition strategy performance model,which regards the competition strategy as an intermediary variable,explores the substantive variables that have a significant impact on performance of theme park marketing strategy.Thirdly,the construction and application of the Implementation Mechanism of the Coopetition Strategy of Theme Park.This study suggests that the coopetition strategy mechanism is essentially a kind of Interest Game Theory problem,which can be described and studied through Game Theory.The dynamic evolution process of theme park coopetition strategy is to be unstable affected by the external environment.It is necessary to realize value creation and value distribution through the Mechanism of Knowledge Sharing and Joint Innovative on the basis of the Trust-building Mechanism,so that it can make the coopetition strategy become stable under the influence of Conflict Resolution Mechanism.Fourthly,the study is discussed based on China’s research perspective.it is raised by observing the trend of coopetition trend in domestic theme parks.The questionnaires done by the domestic theme park managers are used to obtain empirical research findings.And it provides a guidance for domestic theme park enterprises to develop a targeted coopetition strategy implementation mechanism.In a word,the theoretical significance of this study lies in: demonstrating the Basis of the Implementation of Theme Park Coopetition Strategy;constructing the Performance Model of Coopetition Strategy of domestic theme park enterprises;and constructing the Implementation Mechanism of Coopetition Strategy of domestic theme park enterprises.The practical significance of this study lies in: changing the stereotypes that existed in the past of pure competition between theme park enterprises to improve the understanding of theme park enterprises to use coopetition strategy;providing analytical models and cases for domestic theme park enterprises to analyze and apply performance model of coopetition strategic;providing implementation mechanism for domestic theme park enterprises using coopetition strategy;and providing suggestions for domestic theme park to enter the international theme park market.Through interdisciplinary and multi-method research,this study confirms that the coopetition strategy,as the third strategic choice outside the competition or cooperation strategy,will play a greater role in guiding the growth,prosperity and leading process of domestic theme park enterprises in the future,will enhance the confidence of managers,and will provide guidance for the development of reasonable and effective coopetition activities between theme parks in China. |
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