1、中国制鞋业和温州模式：世界主要生产和出口鞋商的观点外文翻译外文翻译原文Chinas Shoe Manufacturing and the Wenzhou Model: Perspectives on the Worlds Leading Producer and Exporter of FootwearMaterial Source: Journal Eurasian Geography and Economics Author:Y. H. Dennis WeiINTRODUCTIONThe global map of industrial production is in a state o
2、f nearly unprecedented flux, reflecting Chinas spectacular rise and success in becoming a dominant player in the world economic arena. Although still identified with communist ideology, the countrys most dramatic growth in output has occurred in exportable consumer goods such as clothing and footwea
3、r.Exports from China have flooded global markets, so that the country has by nowearned the well-deserved reputation as the “worlds factory.” In 2008, its GDP became the worlds third-largest, surpassing that of Germany and challenging the leading position of the United States.How has China achieved i
4、ts remarkable rise in production, and what roles have its industries and regions played in the process? The countrys footwear industry represents a clearexample of Chinas rise in manufacturing, and thus provides some revealing answers to that question. The limited Western literature posits that Chin
5、as footwear factories are concentrated in the export-oriented Pearl River Delta PRD, where growth is driven by foreign investment and external production under a blueprint for development popularly known as the PRD model e.g., see Scott, 2006. But while this picture reflects the situation in the ear
6、ly 1990s, it needs to be updated, if for no other reason that several major centers of footwear production including Quanzhou Fujian Province, Chengdu Sichuan, and Chongqing and Wenzhou Zhejiang also have by now been established in China.This paper attempts to expand our knowledge of industrial and
7、regional development by presenting a study of footwear industry in the Wenzhou Municipality, which could be called Chinas “capital of local capitalism.” The municipality is known for the Wenzhou model of industrial districts and regional development, based on bottom-up development of family-owned sm
8、all business enterprises embedded in dense local institutions.Wenzhous districts resemble those of the Marshallian industrial districts MIDs more frequently studied and cited in the literature see A. P. L. Liu, 1992; Y. L. Liu, 1992; Parris, 1993; Ma and Cui, 2002; Sonobe et al., 2004; Ye and Wei, 2
9、005; Walcott, 2007; Wei et al., 2007; Huang et al., 2008. The resemblance, however, tends to fade since the late 1980s, after Wenzhous family enterprises have undergone two major rounds of institutional change and faced several strategic choices, in conjunction with the emergence of multiregional en
10、terprises MREs.In this paper, I will attempt to interpret the development and restructuring of Wenzhous footwear industry in an effort to provide a clearer picture in the context of Chinas regional development models e.g., PRD, Sunan, and Wenzhou. In so doing, I challenge both the New Regionalism li
11、terature that focuses on small firms and local assets, as well as perspectives that place undue emphasis on integration with global networks and exogenous factors of development. I will argue that neither approach provides adequate explanations of regional development in China.THE RESEARCH SETTINGMy
12、 research activities focused on the Municipality of Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang Province; Fig. 1, which covers an area of 11,784 km2. Inhabited by an estimated 7.9 million people in 2008, it had a concentration of 1.42 million in its urban district WSB, 2008. The district Wenzhou City formed the tr
13、aditional economic core of the municipality, which in aggregate accounted for 81.5 percent of its gross regional product ibidMy research on Wenzhou was initiated in the late 1990s, and from 2003 to 2005involved surveys and personal interviews with local companies and government officials. With renew
14、ed funding, we began another round of extensive field research in August 2008 in Wenzhou in collaboration with local researchers affiliated with the Wenzhou Institute of Economic Construction and Planning and a group of faculty and students from the Department ofUrban and Regional Economics at East
15、China Normal University. Our team included more than 40 researchers and students from Wenzhou as well as from other cities. Together we interviewed almost all business associations in Wenzhou N 20 as well as more than 100 firms recommended by these associations and representing different sectors and
16、 enterprise sizes; many are among the most influential enterprises in the region. With regard to its footwear industry, we interviewed the two relevant business associations and 15 typical companies, providing a representative sample of the entire shoe manufacturing cluster and production process. I
17、nterviews, averaging 1.5 hours, were conducted with business owners, general managers, and other high-level functionaries in charge of production, investment, and public relations of the shoe-making firms. Because our study of Wenzhou is deeply intertwined with the remaking of the Wenzhou model, I w
18、ill now briefly outline how that model has changed as a consequence of institutionalrestructuring.INSTITUTIONAL RESTRUCTURING AND REMAKING OFTHE WENZHOU MODELThe essence of the Wenzhou model is a system of production centered on family enterprises and embedded in thick, historically rooted local ins
19、titutions. Families typically form the main production units, relying on social networks and sales agents integrated within local markets for production factors and flexible marketing. Broadly speaking, Wenzhou has tended to be ahead of the reform curve Y. L. Liu, 1992; in the mid-1980s, when China
20、was still dominated by state-owned enterprises SOEs, family business units, many with “red hats” fake collective ownership, had become the backbone of Wenzhous economy. 17 Shoes from Wenzhou began to penetrate the markets of Chinese cities, which were then still dominated by SOEs and struggling to c
21、ope with the deprivations of a shortage economy. Nonetheless, the unfettered capitalism and protection afforded local firms by the Wenzhou government made the “made in Wenzhou” label synonymous with inferior quality. Wenzhou shoes had the reputation of lasting only for one week “week shoes” or even
22、one day “dawn?evening shoes”. In 1987, the municipal government in Hangzhou, capital ofZhejiang Province and one of the major markets for the shoes confiscated and burned thousands of pairs. By that time, the inherent problems of the original Wenzhou model had become serious, and local business lead
23、ers and governments pushed for change.The Wenzhou model underwent two rounds of institutional restructuring. The first, launched in the mid-1980s, was a bottom-up process initiated by local business people and supported by the local government. It centered on establishing shareholding cooperatives a
24、s a response to the needs to clarify property rights and improve scale economies, and transformed many family enterprises into cooperative ventures. By 1997, 36,000 cooperative enterprises existed in Wenzhou, with a gross output of 90 billion yuan comprising 70 percent of the municipalitys total Edi
25、torial Committee, 2008, p. 206. These firms possessed clearer property rights and became better organized. But in tandem with with the broadening of reforms in China as a whole, Wenzhou firms began to face intense competition from foreigninvested enterprises with better equipment and higher quality
26、products, as well as from private enterprises that had improved their competitiveness. And despite the shift of some firms to cooperative forms of ownership, most enterprises in Wenzhou still were locked in the orthodox Wenzhou model, being small in size and producing low-quality merchandise. The se
27、cond round of restructuring, initiated in the mid-1990s, was devoted to quality and focused on the transformation from shareholding cooperatives to shareholding enterprises and limited-liability corporations. It resulted in the emergence of multi-regional enterprises,or de-localized “region-less” gr
28、oups/conglomerates. This round of restructuring was in essence a “high-road” strategy based on efficiency, competitiveness, and innovation, with more local state involvement and integration with the global economy. Both businesses andthe local state launched campaigns to enhance the quality of produ
29、cts. Specific local government policies included financial support and bank loans to stimulate firm growth, allocation of land to large firms with large size and recognized potential, human resource development especially worker training, import and export subsidies, and improvements in urban infras
30、tructure. As a result of these two rounds of restructuring, Wenzhous industry has been upgraded, diversified, and expanded in spatial terms; some observers now refer to a “new” Wenzhou model. Wenzhou has continued to rise in the Chinese economy, with its footwear industry being one of the most repre
31、sentative sectors. Thus, while traces of the orthodox Wenzhou model can still be observed, a fundamentally new type of industrial district has began to emerge.THE NEW INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT MODELSimilarities with the Traditional ModelIn the past, when the industrial district functioned under the orthod
32、ox Wenzhou model, it in many ways resembled a classical MID?a territorial agglomeration of small firms embedded in thick local institutions.19 First, Wenzhou has produced footwear for over 500 years, including shoes explicitly for the royal family during the Ming Dynasty. In 1978, when China had jus
33、t commenced economic reforms, Wenzhou already had 19 footwear factories producing 500,000 pairs of shoes annually Huang et al., 2008. By August 2008, the number of such factories had climbed to about 2,700 over 4,000 if informal, individual factories are included, supported by 2,500 related firms sp
34、ecializing in leather, soles, machines, ornamentalaccessories, design, and other services.20 In aggregate, the industry employed ca. onemillion workers producing 1.2 billion pairs of shoes, and accounting for one-fourth ofChinas total output. In 2008, the value of industrial output derived from shoe
35、 production in Wenzhou was 65.2 billion yuan Fig. 2. Wenzhou is one of the largest footwear-industry centers in China, commanding 17 percent of the Chinese market in 2007 and gradually evolving into a highly specialized andcoordinated industrial cluster. The Wenzhou Municipality can obtain most of i
36、ts needs for components, semi-finished products, and services internally, including pig leather supplied from Shuitou, man-made leather from Longwan, buffalo leather Yangyi, footwear manufacturing machinery Wuniu, shoe bottoms Baishi, accessories and ornamental materials Huangtian, shoe production f
37、actories Lucheng, Oubei, and Ruian, and trading facilities Quxi see Fig. 1. Even half of the equipment needed by the industry can be purchased locally WFLIA, 2008.21Second, as in the MIDs, small and medium-sized enterprises SMEs have traditionally dominated production in Wenzhou.22 Among the 2,692 s
38、hoe enterprises enumerated in 2008, only 753 were classified as “above-designated size” by the State Statistical Bureau. Percentages of SMEs are even larger among companies producing footwear components e.g., soles, leather, accessories, or engaged in tanning and trading. This phenomenon is somewhat
39、 unique to the footwear industry, and reflects the rather insignificant cost savings from increasing scale Sorenson, 2003. Furthermore, the lack of intellectual property rights also prompts small shoe firms to produce without heavy investment in expensive technological innovation.Third, the footwear
40、 industry is spatially concentrated within the municipality?in Wenzhou, Ruian, Yongjia, and Pingyang?with many towns/townships the basic units of industrial districts engaging in specialized production Fig. 1. Most production and tradingcenters have close functional ties, built on local tradition an
41、d facilitated by local government policies.And finally, as in the traditional districts, local institutions and guanxi relationship networks are intensely interwoven, bound by trust and culture, and maintained by mutual exchanges and power relations. In recent years, many business associations have
42、been formed in Wenzhou, responding to the need for networking and trade protection. Of these, the Wenzhou Footwear and Leather Industry Association is one of the largest and most powerful, assisting the industry in negotiating local reforms and resource allocation, as well as in legal proceedings in
43、volving international trade barriers and disputes.Lastly, the crucible of institutional restructuring and creation of new businesses and networks has forged a new group of entrepreneurs and local government officials in Wenzhou with decisive influence on public policy. Newly assigned mayors, who in
44、prior decades often discouraged private enterprises, eventually became protectors of local capitalist activities and even accommodated the local push for marketization; as such they may be increasingly viewed like their counterparts in the MIDs. The significance of the footwear industry also makes i
45、t a natural focus of local government policies allocating such sought-after perquisites as additional land resources, bank loans, and tax rebates. In addition, the municipal government has lobbied heavily for local industry, seeking national and provincial recognition as well as government contracts
46、 and special economic privileges e.g., designation of economic zones.Diversification, Up-scaling, and External LinkagesWhile resembling the MIDs in ways outlined above, Wenzhous footwear industry district has managed to change over time. It has become apparent that the industrys rise, rather than be
47、ing solely based on cheap labor an assertion disputed by studies such as Lowder, 1999, is also due to important institutional reforms and industrial restructuring. The same can be said more generally about many other regions and economic sectors that have drivenChinas economic rise to the position o
48、f a “global factory.” Wenzhou has moved well beyond the orthodox industrial district model, expanding beyond SMEs, local agglomeration, and guanxi networks.As a result of institutional change in the direction of shareholding companies, a group of large firms and MREs producing brand name products ha
49、s emerged and become active in Wenzhou. Overall, company size in the footwear industry has tended to increase, with sales income exceeding over one billion yuan in eight firms in 2007 WFLIA, 2008; in the same year, four Wenzhou firms were included in the group of 10 most profitable firms in Chinas footwear industry. Restructuring also has improved the quality of footwear, with five registered as “famous brands” of China.24Facing intense competition and shrinking profit margins, Wenzhous shoe makers have attempted to diversify by establishing chain stores and specialized
