集群和新竞争经济学论文外文翻译-中英文论文对照翻译

中文4020字

毕业论文（设计）外文翻译

一、外文原文

标题：CLUSTERS AND THE NEW ECONOMICS OF COMPETITION

原文：

What Is a Cluster?

Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field. Clusters encompass an array of linked industries and other entities important to competition. They include, for example, suppliers of specialized inputs such as components, machinery, and services, and providers of specialized infrastructure. Clusters also often extend downstream to channels and customers and laterally to manufacturers of complementary products and to companies in industries related by skills, technologies, or common inputs. Finally, many clusters include governmental and other institutions –such as universities, standards-setting agencies, think tanks, vocational training providers, and trade associations –that provide specialized training, education, information, research, and technical support.

The California wine cluster is a good example. It includes 680 commercial wineries as well as several thousand independent wine grape growers. (See the exhibit “Anatomy of the California Wine

Cluster.”) An extensive complement of industries supporting both wine making and grape growing exists, including suppliers of grape stock, irrigation and harvesting equipment, barrels, and labels; specialized public relations and advertising firms; and numerous wine publications aimed at consumer and trade audiences. A host of local institutions is involved with wine, such as the world-renowned viticulture and enology program at the University of California at Davis, the Wine Institute, and special committees of the California senate and assembly. The cluster also enjoys weaker linkages to other California clusters in agriculture, food and restaurants, and wine-country tourism.

Consider also the Italian leather fashion cluster, which contains well-known shoe companies such as Ferragamo and Gucci as well as a host of specialized suppliers of footwear components, machinery, molds, design services, and tanned leather. (See the exhibit “Mapping the Italian Leather Fashion Cluster.”) It also consists of several chains of related industries, including those producing different types of leather goods (linked by common inputs and technologies) and different types of footwear (linked by overlapping channels and technologies). These industries employ common marketing media and compete with similar images in similar customer segments. A related Italian cluster in textile fashion,

including clothing, scarves, and accessories, produces complementary products that often employ common channels. The extraordinary strength of the Italian leather fashion cluster can be attributed, at least in part, to the multiple linkages and synergies that participating Italian businesses enjoy.

A cluster’s boundaries are defined by the linkages and complementarities across industries and institutions that are most important to competition. Although clusters often fit within political boundaries, they may cross state or even national borders. In the United States, for example, a pharmaceuticals cluster straddles New Jersey and Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. Similarly, a chemicals cluster in Germany crosses over into German-speaking Switzerland.

Clusters rarely conform to standard industrial classification systems, which fail to capture many important actors and relationships in competition. Thus significant clusters may be obscured or even go unrecognized. In Massachusetts, for example, more than 400 companies, representing at least 39,000 high-paying jobs, are involved in medical devices in some way. The cluster long remained all but invisible, however, buried within larger and overlapping industry categories such as electronic equipment and plastic products. Executives in the medical devices cluster have

only recently come together to work on issues that will benefit them all.

Clusters promote both competition and cooperation. Rivals compete intensely to win and retain customers. Without vigorous competition, a cluster will fail. Yet there is also cooperation, much of it vertical, involving companies in related industries and local institutions. Competition can coexist with cooperation because they occur on different dimensions and among different players.

Clusters represent a kind of new spatial organizational form in between arm’s-length markets on the one hand and hierarchies, or vertical integration, on the other. A cluster, then, is an alternative way of organizing the value chain. Compared with market transactions among dispersed and random buyers and sellers, the proximity of companies and institutions in one location – and the repeated exchanges among them– fosters better coordination and trust. Thus clusters mitigate the problems inherent in arm’s-length relationships without imposing the inflexibilities of vertical integration or the management challenges of creating and maintaining formal linkages such as networks, alliances, and partnerships. A cluster of independent and informally linked companies and institutions represents a robust organizational form

that offers advantages in efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility.

Why Clusters Are Critical to Competition

Modern competition depends on productivity, not on access to inputs or the scale of individual enterprises. Productivity rests on how companies compete, not on the particular fields they compete in. Companies can be highly productive in any industry – shoes, agriculture, or semiconductors –if they employ sophisticated methods, use advanced technology, and offer unique products and services. All industries can employ advanced technology; all industries can be knowledge intensive.

The sophistication with which companies compete in a particular location, however, is strongly influenced by the quality of the local business environment. Companies cannot employ advanced logistical techniques, for example, without a highquality transportation infrastructure. Nor can companies effectively compete on sophisticated service without well-educated employees. Businesses cannot operate efficiently under onerous regulatory red tape or under a court system that fails to resolve disputes quickly and fairly. Some aspects of the business environment, such as the legal system, for example, or corporate tax rates, affect all industries. In advanced economies, however, the more decisive

aspects of the business environment are often cluster specific; these constitute some of the most important microeconomic foundations for competition.

Clusters affect competition in three broad ways: first, by increasing the productivity of companies based in the area; second, by driving the direction and pace of innovation, which underpins future productivity growth; and third, by stimulating the formation of new businesses, which expands and strengthens the cluster itself.

A cluster allows each member to benefit as if it had greater scale or as if it had joined with others formally – without requiring it to sacrifice its flexibility.

Clusters and Productivity. Being part of a cluster allows companies to operate more productively in sourcing inputs; accessing information, technology, and needed institutions; coordinating with related companies; and measuring and motivating improvement.

Better Access to Employees and Suppliers. Companies in vibrant clusters can tap into an existing pool of specialized and experienced employees, thereby lowering their search and transaction costs in recruiting. Because a cluster signals opportunity and reduces the risk of relocation for employees, it

can also be easier to attract talented people from other locations, a decisive advantage in some industries.

A well-developed cluster also provides an efficient means of obtaining other important inputs. Such a cluster offers a deep and specialized supplier base. Sourcing locally instead of from distant suppliers lowers transaction costs. It minimizes the need for inventory, eliminates importing costs and delays, and – because local reputation is important –lowers the risk that suppliers will overprice or renege on commitments. Proximity improves communications and makes it easier for suppliers to provide ancillary or support services such as installation and debugging. Other things being equal, then, local outsourcing is a better solution than distant outsourcing, especially for advanced and specialized inputs involving embedded technology, information, and service content.

Formal alliances with distant suppliers can mitigate some of the disadvantages of distant outsourcing. But all formal alliances involve their own complex bargaining and governance problems and can inhibit a company’s flexibility. The close, informal relationships possible among companies in a cluster are often a superior arrangement.

In many cases, clusters are also a better alternative to vertical integration.

Compared with in-house units, outside specialists are often more cost effective and responsive, not only in component production but also in services such as training. Although extensive vertical integration may have once been the norm, a fast-changing environment can render vertical integration inefficient, ineffective, and inflexible.

Even when some inputs are best sourced from a distance, clusters offer advantages. Suppliers trying to penetrate a large, concentrated market will price more aggressively, knowing that as they do so they can realize efficiencies in marketing and in service. Working against a cluster’s advantages in assembling resources is the possibility that competition will render them more expensive and scarce. But companies do have the alternative of outsourcing many inputs from other locations, which tends to limit potential cost penalties. More important, clusters increase not only the demand for specialized inputs but also their supply.

Access to Specialized Information. Extensive market, technical, and competitive information accumulates within a cluster, and members have preferred access to it. In addition, personal relationships and community ties foster trust and facilitate the

flow of information. These conditions make information more transferable.

Complementarities. A host of linkages among cluster members results in a whole greater than the sum of its parts. In a typical tourism cluster, for example, the quality of a visitor’s experience depends not only on the appeal of the primary attraction but also on the quality and efficiency of complementary businesses such as hotels, restaurants, shopping outlets, and transportation facilities. Because members of the cluster are mutually dependent, good performance by one can boost the success of the others.

Complementarities come in many forms. The most obvious is when products complement one another in meeting customers’ needs, as the tourism example illustrates. Another form is the coordination of activities across companies to optimize their collective productivity. In wood products, for instance, the efficiency of sawmills depends on a reliable supply of high-quality timber and the ability to put all the timber to use – in furniture (highest quality), pallets and boxes (lower quality), or wood chips (lowest quality). In the early 1990s, Portuguese sawmills suffered from poor timber quality because local landowners did not invest in timber management. Hence most timber was processed for use in pallets and boxes, a lower-value use that limited the price paid to landowners.

Substantial improvement in productivity was possible, but only if several parts of the cluster changed simultaneously. Logging operations, for example, had to modify cutting and sorting procedures, while sawmills had to develop the capacity to process wood in more sophisticated ways. Coordination to develop standard wood classifications and measures was an important enabling step. Geographically dispersed companies are less likely to recognize and capture such linkages.

Other complementarities arise in marketing. A cluster frequently enhances the reputation of a location in a particular field, making it more likely that buyers will turn to a vendor based there. Italy’s strong reputation for fashion and design, for example, benefits companies involved in leather goods, footwear, apparel, and accessories. Beyond reputation, cluster members often profit from a variety of joint marketing mechanisms, such as company referrals, trade fairs, trade magazines, and marketing delegations.

Finally, complementarities can make buying from a cluster more attractive for customers. Visiting buyers can see many vendors in a single trip. They also may perceive their buying risk to be lower because one location provides alternative suppliers. That allows them to multisource or to switch vendors if the need arises. Hong Kong thrives as a source of fashion apparel in part for this reason.

Access to Institutions and Public Goods. Investments made by government or other public institutions – such as public spending for specialized infrastructure or educational programs –can enhance a company’s productivity. The ability to recruit employees trained at local programs, for example, lowers the cost of internal training. Other quasi-public goods, such as the cl uster’s information and technology pools and its reputation, arise as natural by-products of competition.

It is not just governments that create public goods that enhance productivity in the private sector. Investments by companies –in training programs, infrastructure, quality centers, testing laboratories, and so on –also contribute to increased productivity. Such private investments are often made collectively because cluster participants recognize the potential for collective benefits.

Better Motivation and Measurement. Local rivalry is highly motivating. Peer pressure amplifies competitive pressure within a cluster, even among noncompeting or indirectly competing companies. Pride and the desire to look good in the local community spur executives to attempt to outdo one another.

Clusters also often make it easier to measure and compare performances because local rivals share general circumstances –

for example, labor costs and local market access –and they perform similar activities. Companies within clusters typically have intimate knowledge of their suppliers’ costs. Managers are able to compare costs and employees’ performance with other local companies. Additionally, financial institutions can accumulate knowledge about the cluster that can be used to monitor performance.

Source:PorterM E. Clusters and the new economics of competition[ J ]. Harvard Business Review, 1998, 76 (6), pp.78-83

二、翻译文章

标题：集群和新竞争经济学

译文：

一、什么是集群

产业集群是指与某一产业有关的企业和机构在地理位置上的集中，它包括一批对竞争起作用的、相互联系的产业和其他实体，例如包括零部件、机器和服务等专业化投入的供应商和专业基础设施的提供者。集群还经常延伸到下游渠道和客户，横向到互补产品的制造商，并通过技能，技术，或共同投入延伸到相关行业的公司。最后，许多集群包括政府和其他机构,例如大学，标准制定机构，智囊团，职业培训机构，贸易协会，他们提供专业的培训，教育，信息，研究和技术支持。

加州葡萄酒集群是一个很好的例子。它包括680个商业酒厂以及数千名独立的酿酒用葡萄种植者。（参照展览“加州葡萄酒集群的解剖。”），它是涵盖酒类制造和葡萄种植的的一个广泛的补充，包括葡萄播种，灌

溉，收获的设备，桶和标签的供应商；以及专门的公共关系，广告公司和众多的针对消费者和贸易观众的酒类出版物。很多本地机构的领导者都与葡萄酒相联系着，如世界著名的葡萄种植，和加州大学戴维斯分校葡萄酒学院的enology计划，以及加州参议院和议会的专门委员会。该集群还与加州其他的产业集群在农业，食品和饭店和葡萄酒乡村旅游有或多或少的联系。

意大利皮革时装产业集群也是同样的，它包含Ferragamo和古奇等知名制鞋企业，以及提供鞋类配件，机械，模具，设计服务和鞣革的专业的供应商。（参照展览“映射意大利皮革服装集群。”）它还由几个相关产业链组成，包括生产不同类型的皮革制品（由共同投入和技术相连）和不同类型的鞋类（由重叠的渠道和技术相连）。这些行业采用普通的营销媒体，在相似的市场细分中与相似的映像相竞争。一个相关的意大利集群在纺织服装，包括服装，围巾和配件，互补性的产品，往往采用普通渠道。意大利皮革时装集群非凡的实力可以部分的归因于意大利企业乐于参与的多重联系和多方协作。群集的边界由各种的联系和在竞争中最重要的互补的各行业和机构所界定。虽然集群往往是合适于政治范畴的，但是他们可以跨州，甚至国界。在美国，例如，制药集群跨越新泽西和宾夕法尼亚州到费城。同样的，德国的化工集群也可以跨越到瑞士德语区。

集群很少符合标准工业分类系统，该系统在竞争中并不能获取到许多重要行为主体和关系。因此，重要的集群可能被隐藏甚至未被认识到。在马萨诸塞州，例如，超过400家公司，至少39,000个高薪工作为代表，都以某种方式从事了医疗设备。群集是长期存在的，但是是隐藏的，仍然

掩埋在在较大的重叠的工业门类之下，例如电子设备和塑料制品。集群中的医疗设备管理人员最近才一起对这一问题进行研究，这将有益于他们所有的人。

集群促进竞争与合作。竞争对手激烈的竞争，赢得并留住客户。没有激烈的竞争，集群将失败。然而，也有合作，他们许多是垂直性的涉及相关产业和地方机构的公司。竞争与合作共存，因为他们发生在不同层面不同的成员之间。

集群代表在某方面和层次上的公平市场之中的一种新的空间组织形式，另一方面或是垂直整合。一个集群，是一个组织价值链的替代方式。与分散和随机买家和卖家中的市场交易相比，公司和机构在一个位置接近，以及它们之间反复交流，能够促进更好的协调和信任。因此集群能减轻因为距离而产生的内在问题，不附加任何固有的缺乏灵活性的垂直整合，或创建和维护有正式联系的管理挑战，如网络，联盟和伙伴关系。一个存在于独立、非正式联系的公司和机构中的集群，代表一组强大的组织形式，这种组织形式具有能够提供效率，有效性和灵活性的优势。

二、为什么集群在竞争中很关键

现代竞争取决于生产力，而不是依靠投入或个别企业的规模。生产力取决于公司如何竞争，而不是在所竞争的特定的领域。公司可以成为高生产力的，例如在鞋、农业或半导体方面，如果他们采用先进的方法，采用先进的技术，并提供独特的产品和服务。所有行业可以采用先进技术，所有的行业可以是知识密集型的。

但是，公司在某一特定领域竞争的水平高度，受到地商业环境质量的强烈影响。一方面，例如，没有一个高质量的运输基础设施，公司就不能采用到先进的物流技术。另一方面，离开了受过良好教育的员工，遇到复杂的服务也不能有效地竞争。在繁文缛节或不能迅速和公平地解决纠纷的法院系统的监管下，企业无法有效运作。商业环境的一些方面，如法律制度，例如，或企业所得税率，对各行业行业都有影响。然而，在发达经济体中，商业环境中起决定性部分的往往是特定的集群，这些构成了竞争的最重要的微观经济基础的部分。

集群影响竞争的三大主要方式：第一，通过增加在该地区的企业的生产力;第二，引导方向和创新的步伐，这是能加强未来生产率增长的基础;第三，刺激新企业的形成，这些新企业能够扩大和壮大集群本身的发展。群集允许每个成员受益，如果他们具有更大的规模，或如果他们已经加入了其他组织形式，都无需失去其灵活性。

集群和生产力。作为群集的一部分，允许企业在采购运作上更有效率的投入;获取信息，技术和必要机构，与相关公司协调；并测量和激励进步改善。

更好地获得员工和供应商。公司在充满活力的集群里可以更方便的寻找专业和经验丰富的员工，从而降低他们在招聘中的搜索和交易成本。由于集群标志着机会，并减少了寻找的风险，也可以更容易吸引其他地点的在一些行业起决定性的作用的有潜力的人才。

发达的群集还提供了其他重要的获得投入的有效手段。这种集群提供了一个深入的和专业的供应商基地。就地取材，而不是从遥远的供应商那

里降低交易成本。它最大限度地减少库存的需要，消除了进口费用和延误成本，而且因为当地的名声是重要的，如果降低了风险，供应商将提价或违背承诺。改善通讯状况，对供应商来说，更容易提供配套设施和服务支持，例如安装和调试。其他因素不变，那么，本地外包比外地外包更能解决问题，尤其是先进的专业的解决嵌入式技术，信息和服务内容的投入。

正式联盟与外地的的供应商一起可以减轻对外地外包的一些不利。但是，所有正式联盟都有自己内部复杂的谈判和管治问题，这些会抑制公司的灵活性。最后，集群中企业之间非正式关系往往可能能达成很好的协议。

在许多情况下，集群对于垂直整合也是一个更好的选择。与单位内部相比，外部专家往往更符合成本效益和更积极响应，不仅在组件生产，而且在诸如培训的服务方面都是如此。尽管广泛的垂直整合可能曾是一个准则规范，但是一个快速变化的环境可以使垂直整合低效，无效，缺乏灵活性。

即使有些采购最好是从远处，但是集群更能提供优势。如果供应商试图进入一个大的，集中的市场，价格将更加具有竞争性，因为他们知道这样他们就可以实现在营销和服务的效率。与集群在分配资源优势上相反的是，竞争导致资源价格更昂贵更稀缺的可能性。但公司确实有从外地采购资源的选择，这往往会导致限制一些潜在的成本处罚。更重要的是，集群的增加不仅不仅是采购的而且是采购的需求所致。

获得专业信息。广泛的市场，技术，竞争性的信息在一个集群内积累，并且群内成员可以优先获得。此外，个人关系和社区关系促进相互信任，促进信息的流通。这些条件使信息更好的交流。

互补性。集群成员之间的在关系网中的领头羊比其部分的总和能够产生更大的成果。一个典型的旅游产业集群，例如，一个旅客的体验质量不仅取决于主要景点的吸引力，而是在如宾馆，餐厅，购物商店，交通设施的配套业务的效率和质量上。由于集群成员相互依存，一个成员良好的品质能够促进其他人的成功。

互补性有许多形式。最明显的是当产品可以一一替代来满足客户的需要时，正如旅游业的例子。另一种形式是促进集体生产力提高的，包括众多公司的在活动中的协作。木制品，例如，锯木厂的效率取决于一个高品质的木材可靠的供应，并能够把所有的木材使得物尽所用，包括家具（最高质量），托盘和包装盒（低质量），或木屑（最低质量）。在90年代初，葡萄牙锯木厂遇到木材质量差的窘况，因为当地地主没有投资木材管理。因此，大多数木材加工处理之后是用在托盘和包装盒上，一这是一种低价值的利用，限制了土地所有者的价格增值空间。生产力的大幅改善是可能的，但是是在几个地方的集群同时改变的条件下。伐木作业，例如，必须修改切割和分类拣选程序，同时锯木厂必须以更加成熟的方式提高木材的开发能力。协作发展木材分类标准和措施，是一个重要且有利的一步。而地理上分散的公司不太可能认识到和抓住这种联系

出现在市场其他的互补性。集群经常增强在某一特定领域的声誉，使之更加有可能的使得买家转向供应商。意大利的时装和设计的良好的声誉，