A Research on the Structure and Performance of Industrial Cluster Transnational Networks: Take Guangxi and Vietnam Manufacturing Clusters as an Example

Xu Luyuan, Zou Zhongquan

Foreign Economics & Management Vol. 41, Issue 01, pp. 102 - 113 (2019)  DOI:10.16538/j.cnki.fem.2019.01.008

Summary

Taking manufacturing clusters in Guangxi and Vietnam as an example, based on the survey data collected from questionnaires about 116 enterprises, this paper intends to validate all the hypotheses raised, and mainly discusses the following questions: Through what mechanisms do transnational cooperation networks improve the overall competitiveness of industrial clusters? How do individual network structures and the relations between them affect knowledge flows and technology diffusion between industrial clusters, and further promote their overall development? The contributions of this paper are: First, it builds a conceptual model of " the characteristics of transnational network structure-knowledge flow, technology diffusion-cluster performance” by integrating and expanding theories about global production networks, complex networks and industrial clusters, and explores the definitions of " transnational” and " cluster network” to study the interactions and relations between the development of industrial clusters in different nations and extend the theoretical research on transnational cooperation between industrial clusters. Second, based on the empirical study on the survey data about 116 enterprises in Guangxi and Vietnam, this paper summarizes the characteristics of the industrial cluster structure and analyzes the relations between knowledge flow, technology diffusion and cluster performance, providing references for the government to make polices about transnational cooperation between industrial clusters, which is also meaningful for the advocacy of " Belt and Road Initiative”.　　All in all, by taking the manufacturing industry of Guangxi and Vietnam as an example and through the approaches of questionnaires and structural equation modeling, this paper explores the relations between the transnational network structure of manufacturing clusters and the development of the overall clusters from the perspective of complex networks. The following conclusions are made: First, the individual and relational features of transnational cooperation networks promote technology diffusion and knowledge flow between the two parties, which validates the original hypotheses. Second, transnational knowledge flow and technology diffusion significantly improve the overall performance of manufacturing clusters. Moreover, the development of the overall clusters further promotes transnational knowledge flow and technology diffusion, reaching a benign circle. Third, through further exploration of the influence of networks’ relational features, it shows a negative correlation between resource sharing in transnational cooperation networks and technology diffusion, invalidating the original hypotheses. After a further analysis, this may be resulted from a small sample size or the development stage of the object. Currently, the transnational cooperation between the industrial clusters in Guangxi and Vietnam is still at its initial stage, mainly focusing on some elementary cooperation on the supply chain. Their social networks are yet to be improved, and talent flow and research communication between the two parties should be enhanced. This conclusion provides theoretical and practical references for the cross-regional cooperation between the industrial clusters in our country with countries along the road in the context of " One Belt and One Road”.

Keywords

Belt and Road Initiative; industrial cluster; transnational network structure; performance