经济金融企业管理外文翻译外文文献英文文献Word格式文档下载.docx

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Porter,1990）.

CapitalizingononeofthemostproductiveareasoftherecentliteratureonSMEs,werestrictourfieldofresearchtosmallenterpriseslocatedinclusters.Thereisnowawealthofempiricalevidence（Humphrey,1995;

Nadvi&

Schmitz,1999;

Rabellotti,1997）showingthatsmallfirmsinclusters,bothindevelopedanddevelopingcountries,areabletoovercomesomeofthemajorconstraintstheyusuallyface:

lackofspecializedskills,difficultaccesstotechnology,inputs,market,information,credit,andexternalservices.

Nevertheless,theliteratureonclusters,mainlyfocusedonthelocalsourcesof

competitivenesscomingfromintraclusterverticalandhorizontalrelationships

generating‘‘collectiveefficiency’’（Schmitz,1995）,hasoftenneglectedthe

increasingimportanceofexternallinkages.Duetorecentchangesinproduction

systems,distributionchannels,andfinancialmarkets,andtothespreadofinformation

technologies,enterprisesandclustersareincreasinglyintegratedinvaluechainsthat

oftenoperateacrossmanydifferentcountries.Theliteratureonglobalvaluechains

（GVCs）（Gereffi,1999;

Gereffi&

Kaplinsky,2001）callsattentiontotheopportunities

forlocalproducerstolearnfromthegloballeadersofthechainsthatmaybebuyersor

1

producers.Theinternalgovernanceofthevaluechainhasanimportanteffectonthescopeoflocalfirms’upgrading（Humphrey&

Schmitz,2000）.

Indeed,extensiveevidenceonLatinAmericarevealsthatboththelocalandtheglobaldimensionsmatter,andfirmsoftenparticipateinclustersaswellasinvaluechains（Pietrobelli&

Rabellotti,2004）.Bothformsoforganizationofferopportunitiestofostercompetitivenessvialearningandupgrading.However,theyalsohaveremarkabledrawbacks,as,forinstance,upgradingmaybelimitedinsomeformsofvaluechains,andclusterswithlittledevelopedexternaleconomiesandjointactionsmayhavenoinfluenceoncompetitiveness.

Moreover,bothstrandsofliteraturewereconceivedanddevelopedtoovercomethesectoraldimensionintheanalysisofindustrialorganizationanddynamism.Ontheonehand,studiesonclusters,focusingonagglomerationsoffirmsspecializingindifferentstagesofthefilie′re,movedbeyondthetraditionalunitsofanalysisofindustrialeconomics:

thefirmandthesector.Ontheotherhand,accordingtothevaluechainliterature,firmsfromdifferentsectorsmayallparticipateinthesamevaluechain（Gereffi,1994）.Nevertheless,SMEslocatedinclustersandinvolvedinvaluechains,mayundertakeaprocessofupgradinginordertoincreaseandimprovetheirparticipationintheglobaleconomy,especiallyastheindustrialsectorplaysaroleandaffectstheupgradingprospectsofSMEs.

Thecontributionthispapermakesisbytakingintoaccountallofthesedimensionstogether.Thus,withinthisgeneraltheoreticalbackground,thisstudyaimstoinvestigatethehypothesisthatenterpriseupgradingissimultaneouslyaffectedbyfirm-specificeffortsandactions,andbytheenvironmentinwhichfirmsoperate.Thelatteriscruciallyshapedbythreecharacteristics:

（i）thecollectiveefficiencyoftheclusterinwhichSMEsoperate,（ii）thepatternofgovernanceofthevaluechaininwhichSMEsparticipate,and（iii）thepeculiarfeaturesthatcharacterizelearningandinnovationpatternsinspecificsectors.

Thestructureofthepaperisthefollowing:

inSection2,webrieflyreviewthe

conceptsofclusteringandvaluechains,andfocusontheiroverlapsand

complementarities.Section3firstdiscussesthenotionofSMEs’upgradingandthen

2

introducesacategorizationofgroupsofsectors,basedonthenotionsunderlyingthePavitttaxonomy,andappliedtothepresenteconomicrealityofLatinAmerica.Section4reportstheoriginalempiricalevidenceonalargesampleofLatinAmericanclusters,andshowsthatthesectoraldimensionmatterstoexplainwhyclusteringandparticipatinginglobalvaluechainsofferdifferentopportunitiesforupgradingindifferentgroupsofsectors.Section5summarizesandconcludes.

2.CLUSTERSANDVALUECHAINS

Duringthelasttwodecades,thesuccessfulperformanceofindustrialdistrictsinthedevelopedworld,particularlyinItaly,hasstimulatednewattentiontothepotentialofferedbythisformofindustrialorganizationforfirmsofdevelopingcountries.Thecapabilityofclusteredfirmstobeeconomicallyviableandgrowhasattractedagreatdealofinterestindevelopmentstudies.1

Indevelopingcountries,thesectoralandgeographicalconcentrationofSMEsis

rathercommon,andawiderangeofcaseshassincebeenreported.2Obviously,the

existenceofacriticalmassofspecializedandagglomeratedactivities,inanumberof

caseswithhistoricallystrongroots,doesnotnecessarilyimplythattheseclusters

shareallthestylizedfactswhichidentifytheMarshalltypeofdistrict,asfirstly

definedbyBecattini（1987）.3Nonetheless,clusteringmaybeconsideredasamajor

facilitatingfactorforanumberofsubsequentdevelopments（whichmayormaynot

occur）:

divisionandspecializationoflabor,theemergenceofawidenetworkof

suppliers,theappearanceofagentswhoselltodistantnationalandinternational

markets,theemergenceofspecializedproducerservices,thematerializationofapool

ofspecializedandskilledworkers,andtheformationofbusinessassociations.

Tocapturethepositiveimpactsofthesefactorsonthecompetitivenessoffirms

locatedinclusters,Schmitz（1995）introducedtheconceptof‘‘collectiveefficiency’’

（CE）definedasthecompetitiveadvantagederivedfromlocalexternaleconomiesand

jointaction.Theconceptofexternaleconomies4wasfirstintroducedbyMarshallin

hisPrinciplesofEconomics（1920）.AccordingtoSchmitz（1999a）,incidentalexternal

economies（EE）areofimportanceinexplainingthecompetitivenessofindustrial

clusters,butthereisalsoadeliberateforceatwork:

consciouslypursuedjointaction

3

（JA）.Suchjointactioncanbewithinverticalorhorizontallinkages.5

Thecombinationofbothincidentalexternaleconomiesandtheeffectsofactive

cooperationdefinesthedegreeofcollectiveefficiencyofaclusterand,dynamically,

itspotentialforfosteringSMEs’upgrading.Bothdimensionsarecrucial:

Only

incidental,passiveexternaleconomiesmaynotsufficewithoutjointactions,andthe

latterhardlydevelopintheabsenceofexternaleconomies.Thus,ourfocusisonthe

roleofintraclusterverticalandhorizontalrelationshipsgeneratingcollective

efficiency.

However,recentchangesinproductionsystems,distributionchannelsandfinancialmarkets,acceleratedbytheglobalizationofproductmarketsandthespreadofinformationtechnologies,suggestthatmoreattentionneedstobepaidtoexternallinkages.6Gereffi’sglobalvaluechainapproach（Gereffi,1999）helpsustotakeintoaccountactivitiestakingplaceoutsidetheclusterand,inparticular,tounderstandthestrategicroleoftherelationshipswithkeyexternalactors.

Fromananalyticalpointofview,thevaluechainperspectiveisusefulbecause（Kaplinsky,2001;

Wood,2001）thefocusmovesfrommanufacturingonlytotheotheractivitiesinvolvedinthesupplyofgoodsandservices,includingdistributionandmarketing.Alltheseactivitiescontributetoaddvalue.Moreover,theabilitytoidentifytheactivitiesprovidinghigherreturnsalongthevaluechainiskeytounderstandingtheglobalappropriationofthereturnstoproduction.

Valuechainresearchfocusesonthenatureoftherelationshipsamongthevariousactorsinvolvedinthechain,andontheirimplicationsfordevelopment（Humphrey&

Schmitz,2002b）.Tostudytheserelationships,theconceptof‘‘governance’’iscentraltotheanalysis.

Atanypointinthechain,somedegreeofgovernanceorcoordinationisrequiredin

ordertotakedecisionsnotonlyon‘‘what’’shouldbe,or‘‘how’’somethingshould

be,producedbutsometimesalso‘‘when,’’‘‘howmuch,’’andeven‘‘atwhatprice.’’

Coordinationmayoccurthrougharm’s-lengthmarketrelationsornonmarket

relationships.Inthelattercase,followingHumphreyandSchmitz（2000）,we

distinguishthreepossibletypesofgovernance:

（a）networkimplyingcooperation

4

betweenfirmsofmoreorlessequalpowerwhichsharetheircompetencieswithinthechain;

（b）quasi-hierarchyinvolvingrelationshipsbetweenlegallyindependentfirmsinwhichoneissubordinatedtotheother,withaleaderinthechaindefiningtherulestowhichtherestoftheactorshavetocomply;

and（c）hierarchywhenafirmisownedbyanexternalfirm.

AlsostressedistheroleplayedbyGVCleaders,particularlybythebuyers,in

transferringknowledgealongthechains.Forsmallfirmsinlessdevelopedcountries

（LDCs）,participationinvaluechainsisawaytoobtaininformationontheneedand

modetogainaccessto