Research On The Evolution Of Endogenous Traditional Industry Clusters

With the rapid development of science and technology, informatization and networking trend deepens after the World War Ⅱ. As driving force of regional economy, the strategy of industry cluster has been widely used in many countries and regions. However, through theoretical and empirical analysis, scholars pointed out that industry cluster model for the growth of regional economy is not once and all from the perspective of the evolution. Industry cluster is the process of changing the interaction between inside and outside the environment, including the ups and downs. Some clusters keep vitality in the long term, while others decline slowly or even disappear. Therefore, the relevant research of industry clusters evolution gradually has become the focus in the academic and policy practice areas.The domestic research is focusing on the empirical case study of China with the application of existing theories in advanced countries, most of which pay more attention to the concept of clusters and their formation, and power systems. However, the studies of evolutionary mechanism of endogenous traditional industry cluster are less. This paper attempts to promote the research on the endogenous traditional industry clusters. It consists of four parts. Part 1 includes Chapter 1,2 and 3, which is based on the defining related concepts and reviews of basic theories of competitive advantage, new regionalism and complex adaptive systems theory. Part 2 involves Chapter 4, analyzing practice of wine clusters in France, Portugal, the United States and Australia in order to explore the role of related elements and their characteristics in the evolutionary development of wine industry clusters. Part 3 includes Chapter 5, mainly building the theoretical framework of evolutionary mechanism of endogenous traditional industry cluster through elaborating evolutionary features, obstacles, dynamic system and measures. Part 4 covers Chapter 6, which selects Xinghua Village liquor cluster of Shanxi as a case study. On the base of designing the questionair of survey and reviewing its development background, it establishes the competitiveness index system of endogenous traditional industry cluster through quantitative analyses of the cluster’s competitiveness structure and makes a comparision with other liquor clusters, and qualitative study of the space structure of its evolutionary process. It reveals the importance of competitiveness elements and their synergies characteristics during the upgrading and evolution of traditional industry cluster.The theoretical research of this paper shows that the competitive advantages, complex adaptive systems and new regionalism are the applicable basic theories of the theory framework of the evolutionary mechanism of endogenous traditional industry cluster. The main findings of empirical study are that Xinghua Village liquor cluster is on the growing stage, the role of endogenous elements is more essential, the spatial extends gradually from gather to structural diffusion and the innovation development depends on the interaction of exogenous and endogenous dynamic forces. But the competitive advantages of Shanxi Xinghua Village, compared with other major liquor industry clusters in China, are not stronger. It still has lots of weak points, reflecting in the size of the necessary materials, the business value and degree of specialization, preferential policies, and the scale of relevant industries.To sum up, the main emphasis of this research is to build the theory framework of analyzing the evolution of endogenous traditional industry clusters and further examine it from the case of Shanxi Xinghua Village liquor cluster. It reveals the theoretical and empirical meanings in sharpening the competitiveness and speeding up spatial evolution of the endogenous traditional industry clusters in China. Due to the limitation of time and experience, it shows insufficient in the following three aspects: Firstly, it needs to analyze all the six kinds of evolutionary paths based on theory framework; Secondly, it analyzes few case studies—only one liquor cluster, lacking more comparative analysis. Thirdly, when it comes to data analysis and methodology, there are needs of modifying some index and supplement of more data details to enhance the objectivity. The research also finds that against the background of the new normal development in China with the increase of government control, the competitive-cooperation between inside and outside the cluster, the evolutionary mechanism of endogenous traditional industry clusters has become more important theoretically and practically, which is worthy of sustained attention and further researches.