The Research On Maritime Cluster's Core Competence

Industry Clusters as a new concept first appeared in the 1990s, and many Chinese and foreign scholars have devoted much to the research of it. However, there is still no consensus on the proper method to evaluate the core competence of it. In China, the study on maritime cluster is almost vacant. This situation is a potential threat to the healthy, persistent development of Chinese marine industry and will make against to the enhancement of maritime cluster's core competence. The main purpose of this thesis is to systematically study the shipping related industries as a big cluster——Maritime Cluster and to advance some reasonable strategies and suggestions for the shipping development of China.The main body of this paper includes three sections, in which maritime cluster's core competence is described. Section One (Chapter1-Chapter2) addresses basic concepts involved in the research on maritime cluster's core competen(?). Based on the theory of industry cluster, it proposes the theory of maritime cluster. Section Two (Chapter 3) constructs the theory of maritime cluster's core competence. Based on DIAMOND MODEL and GEM MODEL, the paper analyzes the factors which influence the competence from the following five aspects: Demand Situations, Factors Situations, Related Industries, interior and exterior environments. Finally, it put forward an Index System which includes 19 indexes to evaluate the core competence. Section Three (Chapter 4) builds an evaluation index system and evaluative mathematical model of maritime cluster's core competence, which has theoretical and managerial implications in fostering, strengthening and updating maritime cluster's core competence.The last part of this paper is the conclusion, in which the main findings and the limitation of this research are displayed. It is hoped that this research will be helpful to the future further research of maritime cluster.