Abstract: As network organization between market andhierarchies, industrial cluster and supply chain have got rapiddevelopment in both theory and practice worldwide. But it is rare that from thesupply chain perspective to study industrial cluster, so this paper firstly illustratedthe features of industrial cluster based on industrial cluster i.e. clustersupply chain. Among many issues coordination of cluster supply chain isbecoming one of major focus that has great influence on industrial clusterdevelopment, In particular, in
Key words: industrial cluster; core firm; networkorganization; cluster supply chain; coordination mechanism
1. Introduction
With the development of new organizationalparadigm and globalization, industrial cluster not only is becoming one ofmajor competitive weapons for individual firm but also is main source ofnational competition from a state perspective. Industrial cluster, this kind ofnetwork organization breaking through R. H. Coase theory (1937）, make boundaries of enterprises within industrialcluster more and more blurred, within which each individual firm coordinatesnot only its own resources of the various internally, but also all of otherfirms within network externally and integrates these exterior resources intoits own system, which challenges the conventional coordination mechanism onlysuitable for inter-firm to improve efficiency in resource allocation. Such as,this paper will try to explore how to coordinate within a new network organization---clustersupply chain.
2 ClusterSupply Chain and Its Features
2.1 IndustrialCluster and Supply Chain
As for definition of industrial cluster,there are numerical versions put forward by scholars home and abroad, in orderto seek the shared views, we list some typical and dominant versions and cointhe new term ‘cluster supply chain’--a new kind of supply chain (networkorganization) to analyze its coordination mechanism in depth.
Industrial agglomeration firstly originatesform Alfred Marshall’s ‘industrial district’ (1920) and Alfred Weber’s ‘classicdistrict’ (1929), then followed by Hoover E. M. (1948), Lichterberg R. M. (1960),Henderson J. V. (1984) who further explored and illustrated agglomerationeconomy.
Alex Hoen (1997) urged that firms withinindustrial cluster link forward and backward through innovation chain andproduct chain to sharpen the competitive edges, Theo J. A., Rolelandt, Hertog P. D. (1998) denoted that in order toshare new complementary technologies, obtain gains from shared specializedassets, speed up learning process, reduce transaction cost, overcome marketbarriers and diffuse innovative risk, so inter-dependant stakeholders such as firms,knowledge-producers, brokers, contractors and customers link together and weavevalue-added network, this value-added network is just ‘cluster’.