1、中文 4020 字 毕业论文（设计） 外文翻译 一、 外文原文 标题： CLUSTERS AND THE NEW ECONOMICS OF COMPETITION 原文： What Is a Cluster? Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies and institutions in a particular field. Clusters encompass an array of linked industries and other entities important to competi
2、tion. They include, for example, suppliers of specialized inputs such as components, machinery, and services, and providers of specialized infrastructure. Clusters also often extend downstream to channels and customers and laterally to manufacturers of complementary products and to companies in indu
3、stries related by skills, technologies, or common inputs. Finally, many clusters include governmental and other institutions such as universities, standards-setting agencies, think tanks, vocational training providers, and trade associations that provide specialized training, education, information,
4、 research, and technical support. The California wine cluster is a good example. It includes 680 commercial wineries as well as several thousand independent wine grape growers. (See the exhibit “Anatomy of the California Wine Cluster.”) An extensive complement of industries supporting both wine maki
5、ng and grape growing exists, including suppliers of grape stock, irrigation and harvesting equipment, barrels, and labels； specialized public relations and advertising firms； and numerous wine publications aimed at consumer and trade audiences. A host of local institutions is involved with wine, suc
6、h 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 cluster also enjoys weaker linkages to other California clusters in agriculture, food and restaurants, and wine-coun
7、try 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 components, machinery, molds, design services, and tanned leather. (See the exhibit “Mapping the Italian Leather
8、 Fashion Cluster.”) 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 technologies). These industries employ common market
9、ing 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 strength of the Italian leather fashion cluster can
10、 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 competition. Although clusters often fit within
11、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-speaking Switzerland. Clusters rarely conform
12、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, representing at least 39,000 high-paying jobs, are i
13、nvolved 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 recently come together to work on issues that
14、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 related industries and local institutions. Com
15、petition 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 integration, on the other. A cluster, then, is an alt
16、ernative 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 trust. Thus clusters mitigate the problems in
17、herent 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 informally linked companies and institutions represent
18、s a robust organizational form that offers advantages in efficiency, effectiveness, and flexibility. Why Clusters Are Critical to Competition Modern competition depends on productivity, not on access to inputs or the scale of individual enterprises. Productivity rests on how companies compete, not o
19、n the particular fields they compete in. Companies can be highly productive in any industry shoes, agriculture, or semiconductors if they employ sophisticated methods, use advanced technology, and offer unique products and services. All industries can employ advanced technology； all industries can b
20、e knowledge intensive. The sophistication with which companies compete in a particular location, however, is strongly influenced by the quality of the local business environment. Companies cannot employ advanced logistical techniques, for example, without a highquality transportation infrastructure.
21、 Nor can companies effectively compete on sophisticated service without well-educated employees. Businesses cannot operate efficiently under onerous regulatory red tape or under a court system that fails to resolve disputes quickly and fairly. Some aspects of the business environment, such as the legal system, for example, or corporate tax rates, affect all industries. In advanced economies, however, the more decisive aspects of the business environment are often cluster specific； these constitute some of the most important microeconomic foundations for competition.
