1、 外文翻译 原文 Clusters and the new economics of competition Material Source: Michael E. Porter. Clusters and the New Economies of CompetitionJ.Harvard Business Review,1998(3). Author: Michael E. Porter Abstract: Todays economic map of the world is dominated by what are called clusters: critical masses in
2、 one place of unusual competitive success in particular fields. Clusters are not unique, however; they are highly typical and therein lies a paradox: the enduring competitive advantages in a global economy lie increasingly in local things knowledge, relationships, motivation that distant rivals cann
3、ot match. Untangling the paradox of location in a global economy reveals a number of key insights about how companies continually create competitive advantage. What happens inside companies is important, but clusters reveal that the immediate business environment outside companies plays a vital role
4、 as well. This role of locations has been long overlooked, despite striking evidence that innovation and competitive success in so many fields are geographically concentrated. Key words: clusters; Competition; competitive advantage; development Now that companies can source capital, goods, informati
5、on, and technology from around the world, often with the click of a mouse, much of the conventional wisdom about how companies and nations compete needs to be overhauled. In theory, more open global markets and faster transportation and communication should diminish the role of location in competiti
6、on. After all, anything that can be efficiently sourced from a distance through global markets and corporate networks is available to any company and therefore is essentially nullified as a source of competitive advantage. But if location matters less, why, then, is it true that the odds of finding
7、a world-class mutual-fund company in Boston are much higher than in most any other place? Why could the same be said of textile-related companies in North Carolina and South Carolina, of high-performance auto companies in southern Germany, or of fashion shoe companies in northern Italy? Although loc
8、ation remains fundamental to competition, its role today differs vastly from a generation ago. In an era when competition was driven heavily by input costs, locations with some important endowment natural harbor, for example, or a supply of cheap labor often enjoyed a comparative advantage that was
9、both competitively decisive and persistent over time. Competition in todays economy is far more dynamic. Companies can mitigate many input-cost disadvantages through global sourcing, rendering the old notion of comparative advantage less relevant. Instead, competitive advantage rests on making more
10、productive use of inputs, which requires continual innovation. Clusters affect competitiveness within countries as well as across national borders. Therefore, they lead to new agendas for all business executives not just those who compete globally. More broadly, clusters represent a new way of think
11、ing about location, challenging much of the conventional wisdom about how companies should be configured, how institutions such as universities can contribute to competitive success, and how governments can promote economic development and prosperity. What is a Cluster? Clusters are geographic conce
12、ntrations 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 special
13、ized 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
14、 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 se
15、veral thousand independent wine grape growers. 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 wi
16、ne 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 cluste
17、r 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 co
18、mponents, machinery, molds, design services, and tanned leather. 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 technol
19、ogies). 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 streng
20、th 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 clusters boundaries are defined by the linkages and complementarities across industries and institutions that are most important to com
21、petition. 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-s
22、peaking 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, represe
23、nting at least 30,000 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 r
24、ecently 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 r
25、elated 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 arms length markets on the one hand and hierarchies, or vertical integrat
26、ion, 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
27、trust. Thus clusters mitigate the problems inherent in arms-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 informall
28、y linked companies and institutions represents a robust organizational form that offers advantages in efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility. Access to Institutions and Public Goods. Investments made by government or other public institutions such as public spending for specialized infrastructur
29、e or educational programs can enhance a companys 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 clusters information and technology pools and its reputation, arise as natural by-produc
30、ts 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
31、 are often made collectively because cluster participants recognize the potential for collective benefits. 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 simila
32、r 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 per
33、formance. In addition to enhancing productivity, clusters play a vital role in a companys ongoing ability to innovate. Some of the same characteristics that enhance current productivity have an even more dramatic effect on innovation and productivity growth. Clusters do more than make opportunities
34、for innovation more visible. They also provide the capacity and the flexibility to act rapidly. A company within a cluster often can source what it needs to implement innovations more quickly. Local suppliers and partners can and do get closely involved in the innovation process, thus ensuring a bet
35、ter match with customers requirements. 译文 企业集群与新经济的竞争 资料来源 :迈克尔波特 .企业集群与新经济的竞争 .哈佛商业评论J.1998(3) 作者： 迈克尔波特 摘要：今天的经济世界地图充斥着所谓的集群 ：在某些方面 特定领域的 临界物质的不寻常的成功竞争 。集群 ,虽然 不是唯一的 ,但是 它们是很典型的 。 这是一个悖论 :持续 的 竞争优势 日益依赖于当地的 知识、人际关系、动机 等， 那 是遥远的竞争对手无法比拟 的 。 剖析 在全球经济中 的 悖论揭示了一些关键的洞察力 , 如何不断创造企业竞争优势。公司内部所发生的是 很重要的 ,但
36、是集群 表明 ,公司的商业环境起着至关重要的作用。这个角色已 被忽视了很长时间 ,尽管 创新与竞争在许多领域都获得了成功。 关键词： 集群； 竞争； 竞争优势；发展 现在公司能够提供来自世界各地 的 资金、商品、信息和技术 ,经常只要用鼠标一点 ,许多公司以往那些关于国家竞争 需要彻底改变 。在理论上 ,越 开放的全球市场和 越便捷 的交通和通讯 ，竞争角色会越少 。毕竟 ,任何事情都可能被 任何公司 有效地 通 过全球市场和企业网络 所 得到 ,因此 这本 质上是缴销竞争优势的一个来源。 但是如果 位置因素没那么重要，为什么在波士顿找到一个世界级的公共基 金公司比在其他地方概率大很多呢？同样
37、地为什么相关纺织品公司在 北卡罗莱那州和南卡罗莱纳 比在德国南部的高性能汽车公司和意大利北部的时装鞋公司说得起呢？ 虽然选址 仍然是最基本的竞争，但是其作用与现在大大不同。在这个时代，竞争因资金的大量投入和重要的天资天然港口选址愈演愈烈。例如廉价劳动力比较优势常常享有决定性和持久性的竞争力。 当今时代的 经济竞争更具有活力。公司可以有效通过全球采购减少资金投入不足造成的劣势，渲染老观念的比较优势已关系不大。 相反 ,竞争优势基于使 其 更有效的利用的 投 入 ,需要不断创新。 集群竞争力影响在国家 内 部以及边境国家 。因此 ,他们 导致 新的会议 议程上 不是 所有 的 企业管理人员 都可以
38、 参与全球竞争。更广泛的说 ,集群代表了一种新型的 关于位置的 思考方式 ,对 关于公司应该如何被配置 ,大学等机构如何 能导致竞争成功 ,政府如何可以促进经济发展和繁荣 等传统观点具有很大的挑战性 。 什么是集群？集群是相互关联的公司和机构在地理上一个特定的领域的集合。集群包含数组连接而成的工业及其它实体重要更激烈的竞争。他们包括 ,例如 ,供应商的专业输入 ,例如配件 、 机械设备 和 服务以及供应商的专业基础设施。 集群也经常延展至下游的渠道和客户以及周边制造商的互 补产品 ,与行业中的企业技能、技术、或 一般 投入。最后 ,许多集群包括政府和其他机构 ,如大学、标准制定机关、智囊团、职
39、业培训供应商 ,以及行业协会 ,提供专业的培训 、 教育 、 信息、研究和技术支持。 美国加州葡萄酒集群就是一个很好的例子。它包括 680 家 商业葡萄酒厂以及几千 株 酒葡萄的 独立 种植。 有广泛的补充产业 ,支持这两种酿酒葡萄种植存在 ,包括供应商股票、灌溉和收获葡萄设备、桶 ,和 标签 ；专业化的公共关系和广告公司 ； 和众多针对消费者 和交易观众的关于酒的出版刊物 。 有很多本地机构参与酒计划，如美国加州大学戴维斯分校 ,酒研究所 ,专门委员会 ,加州参议院和组装等 机构都参与了世界著名的葡萄酒酿造学计划。有微小关系的在加州集群的农业、食品餐厅、酒庄旅游业可以很好地集群。 考虑到意大
40、利皮革时装集群，包括著名的鞋公司 ,如菲拉格慕 、 古奇以及大量的专业化的鞋类配件 、 机械设备 、 模具制造、设计服务和鞣皮屑 的 供应商。它也是由相关行业的几个生产链所组成的，包括那些生产的不同类型的皮革制品（有共同的投入和技术作为连接点）和不同类型的鞋类（有重叠的渠道和技术作为连接点）。这些公司使用普通的销售媒体和与有类似消费群体的类似企业竞争 。 与服装相关的 意大 利集群 ,包括服装、围巾、及配件 和 互补产品常常使用相同的 渠道。 从具有惊人力量 的意大利 时尚 制造 的 集群可以 看出 ,至少在多重连接部分和协同双方参与 部分， 意大利企业 是欣然接受的 。 中小企业集群的界域是
41、根据整个行业体系的相关性和互补性而划分的 ,其竞争更加激烈 。虽然集群的 经常在 行政区划 分 边界 内 ,但是 他们可能会越过州甚至国境的。 例如， 在美国 ， 制药集群超越了新泽西州和宾夕法尼亚州的费城附近。同样 的 ,化学 制品的集群从 德国跨越到德语系瑞士。 集群很少符合标准工业分类系统 ,还没能获得在竞争优势中许多 重要的 因素 和关系 。因此重要的集群 可以被隐藏，或者甚至可以是未被认可的。例如，在马萨诸塞州有代表着至少30000 个高薪就业机会的 400 多家公司，在某种程度上全心投入到医疗器械行业。集群长期以来是存在的，但是是无形的，它们隐藏在更大的重叠的产业范畴如电子设备和塑
42、料制品。在医疗器械产业集群的管理层最近才开始合作工作，这对他们来说是非常有利的。 集群既可以加剧竞争，也可以促进合作。赢得强烈的竞争对手和留住客户。没有激烈的竞争 ,采用整群就会失败。然而也有合作 ,很多都垂直 的 ,涉及公司和相关行业和 本地机构。竞争与合作 是共同存在的 ,因为它们 发生不同大小的 规模和不同的参与者中。 集群代表一种新的空间组织形式，形成于手臂之间联储市场的活动与阶层 ,或垂直整合。 一个集群是组成价值链的另一种方式。与分散和随机的买卖双方的市场汇报相比较，周边的公司和机构在一个地方反复地交易可以培养更好的协调和信任。因此集群减轻内在问题，并没有对垂直统一管理的顽固性或者
43、创建和维护等正式联系网络、 联盟和合作伙伴 的管理挑战起到任何作用。一群独立或非正式的公司和机构与强健的组织形式是有效率、有效力和有灵活性的。进入机构和公共货物。来自政府或其他公共机构的投资，如专业基础设施的公共支出或能增强 公司生产力的教育计划。训练员工在当地项目的招聘能力，例如，内部训练以工资为代价。其他私营公用事业的物品，例如集群信息、技术池及其随着自然副产品竞争而提升的声誉。政府不仅仅制造公共物品，更能提高私营企业的生产能力。公司投资设立的培训计划、基础设施、质量中心、测试实验室 等等 ，使 生产率得以提高。这样的私人投资集体 通常有共同点 因为集群 参与者意识到共同利益的潜能 。 集
44、群使衡量和比较性能变得更容易，因为当地竞争对手分享总体情形。例如，人工成本和当地市场准入和他们执行类似的活动。在集群内的公司代表性地有供应商成本的内幕消息 。经理人可以和其他当地的公司比较成本和职员的表现。此外，金融公司可以累计用来监控性能的知识。 除了增强生产能力外，集群还在公司的持续创新能力上起着至关重要的作用。一些相同的特质增强当前的生产能力，使之在创新和提高生产力上具有更加引人注目的巨大影响。集群使创新机会更加明显。它们还提供能力和迅速行动的灵活性。集群内部的公司可以把他们需要的更加迅速地实施创新。当地的供应商和合作伙伴必须要做到在创新过程中保持密切关系，从而确保更好地配合客户的需求。
