How Do Innovation Capabilities of Industrial Cluster Evolve in the Context of E-Commerce?: A Case Study from China

Abstract

The amount of e-commerce conducted has grown exponentially as the development of internet. So far, some studies focus on the impacts of e-commerce on competitiveness on the level of enterprises. However, many researchers pay little attention to this topic on the industrial clusters level. The mechanisms between development of e-commerce and industrial clusters have not been discovered yet. As vital sources of national competiveness, industrial clusters play a pivotal role in the development of industry. In the context of e-commerce, some clusters can leverage the openness, ease of use, and transactional efficiencies it brings about to improve their innovation capabilities and subsequently improve the competitiveness. But some don't gain advantages from it. Because the fact that knowledge spillover and the motive of imitation, enterprises in industrial cluster has a high risk of product homogeneity and intense price competition. In the long run, their innovation capabilities may be impaired. This paper explores how different industrial clusters confront the new conditions and how their innovation capabilities evolve in the context of e-commerce using case from China.