经济金融企业管理外文翻译外文文献英文文献Word文件下载.docx
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competitiveness,contrastingwiththe‘‘low
road,'
typicaloffirmsfromdeveloping
countries,whichoftencompetebysqueezingwages
andprofitmarginsratherthanbyimproving
productivity,wages,andprofits.Thekey
differencebetweenthehighandthelowroadto
competitivenessisoftenexplainedbythe
differentcapabilitiesoffirmsto‘‘upgrade.'
Inthispaper,upgradingreferstothecapacity
ofafirmtoinnovatetoincreasethevalueadded
ofitsproductsandprocesses(Humphrey&
Schmitz,
2002a;
Kaplinsky&
Readman,2001;
Porter,1990).
Capitalizingononeofthemostproductiveareas
oftherecentliteratureonSMEs,werestrictour
fieldofresearchtosmallenterpriseslocatedin
clusters.Thereisnowawealthofempiricalevidence
(Humphrey,1995;
Nadvi&
Schmitz,1999;
Rabellotti,
1997)showingthatsmallfirmsinclusters,
bothindevelopedanddevelopingcountries,are
abletoovercomesomeofthemajorconstraintsthey
difficult
skills,specializedoflackface:
usually
accesstotechnology,inputs,market,information,
credit,andexternalservices.
Nevertheless,theliteratureonclusters,mainly
focusedonthelocalsourcesof
competitivenesscomingfromintracluster
verticalandhorizontalrelationships
generating‘‘collectiveefficiency'
(Schmitz,1995),hasoftenneglectedthe
increasingimportanceofexternallinkages.Due
torecentchangesinproduction
systems,distributionchannels,andfinancial
markets,andtothespreadofinformation
technologies,enterprisesandclustersare
increasinglyintegratedinvaluechainsthat
oftenoperateacrossmanydifferentcountries.The
literatureonglobalvaluechains
(GVCs)(Gereffi,1999;
Gereffi&
Kaplinsky,2001)
callsattentiontotheopportunities
forlocalproducerstolearnfromthegloballeaders
ofthechainsthatmaybebuyersor
1
producers.Theinternalgovernanceofthevaluechainhasanimportant
effectonthescopeoflocalfirms'
upgrading(Humphrey&
Schmitz,2000).
Indeed,extensiveevidenceonLatinAmericarevealsthatboththelocal
andtheglobaldimensionsmatter,andfirmsoftenparticipateinclusters
aswellasinvaluechains(Pietrobelli&
Rabellotti,2004).Bothformsof
organizationofferopportunitiestofostercompetitivenessvialearning
andupgrading.However,theyalsohaveremarkabledrawbacks,as,for
instance,upgradingmaybelimitedinsomeformsofvaluechains,and
clusterswithlittledevelopedexternaleconomiesandjointactionsmayhave
noinfluenceoncompetitiveness.
Moreover,bothstrandsofliteraturewereconceivedanddevelopedto
overcomethesectoraldimensionintheanalysisofindustrialorganization
anddynamism.Ontheonehand,studiesonclusters,focusingon
agglomerationsoffirmsspecializingindifferentstagesofthefilie′re,
movedbeyondthetraditionalunitsofanalysisofindustrialeconomics:
thefirmandthesector.Ontheotherhand,accordingtothevaluechain
literature,firmsfromdifferentsectorsmayallparticipateinthesame
valuechain(Gereffi,1994).Nevertheless,SMEslocatedinclustersand
involvedinvaluechains,mayundertakeaprocessofupgradinginorderto
increaseandimprovetheirparticipationintheglobaleconomy,especially
astheindustrialsectorplaysaroleandaffectstheupgradingprospects
ofSMEs.
Thecontributionthispapermakesisbytakingintoaccount
allofthesedimensionstogether.Thus,withinthisgeneraltheoretical
background,thisstudyaimstoinvestigatethehypothesisthatenterprise
upgradingissimultaneouslyaffectedbyfirm-specificeffortsandactions,
andbytheenvironmentinwhichfirmsoperate.Thelatteriscruciallyshaped
bythreecharacteristics:
(i)thecollectiveefficiencyofthecluster
inwhichSMEsoperate,(ii)thepatternofgovernanceofthevaluechain
inwhichSMEsparticipate,and(iii)thepeculiarfeaturesthatcharacterize
learningandinnovationpatternsinspecificsectors.
Thestructureofthepaperisthefollowing:
inSection2,webriefly
reviewthe
conceptsofclusteringandvaluechains,andfocusontheir
overlapsand
complementarities.Section3firstdiscussesthenotionofSMEs'
upgrading
andthen
2
introducesacategorizationofgroupsofsectors,basedonthenotions
underlyingthePavitttaxonomy,andappliedtothepresenteconomic
realityofLatinAmerica.Section4reportstheoriginalempiricalevidence
onalargesampleofLatinAmericanclusters,andshowsthatthesectoral
dimensionmatterstoexplainwhy