产业集群中的竞争和合作：基于公共政策视角外文原文.pdfVIP

European Planning Studies, Vol. 11, No. 5, July 2003 Competition and Cooperation in Industrial Clusters: The Implications for Public Policy DAVID NEWLANDS [Paper first received, June 2001; in final form, November 2002] ABSTRACT Alfred Marshall believed that, while the benefits of clusters resulted from cooperation between firms, competition was an important driving force. In contrast, contemporary theories of clusters place most emphasis on collective action. This article seeks to distinguish processes of competition and cooperation within clusters, through a critical reading of different theoretical approaches. This distinction has important implications for the scale and nature of public policy. An emphasis on competitive processes implies a more macro-economic role for public agencies in seeking to raise investment in innovation while the fostering of cooperation implies measures to support decentralized public–private research collaborations. 1. Introduction For Alfred Marshall, the concentration of firms in close geographical proximity within ‘industrial districts’ allowed all firms to enjoy the benefits of large-scale industrial production and of technical and organizational innovations. While the benefits resulted from cooperation in knowledge creation and innovation, Marshall believed it was competition which drove industrial districts. The importance of localization of production within industrial districts is that, by providing opportunities for entrepreneurs to specialize and for the industrial district as a whole to secure internal economies of scale and external benefits denied to isolated firms, it improves the competitive position of individual firms. Collective action may assist the prospect of success of individual firms but there is the risk it blunts initiative and inhibits compe