Japanese Study Asian Cluster Links

Remember my earlier articles about how industry clusters need to work together and how they need to examine how business strategies are impacting cluster development? There have been a series over the past six months. It appears that somebody is beginning to listen. Read this study proposal described below.

Osaka and Nagoya universities in Japan will be studying the following Asian clusters: southern China, Chu-Chiang River Delta in China, Penang, Selangor, Johor in Malaysia, Hochiminh and Hanoi in Vietnam, Bangalore in India, Zhong Guan Cun in China, Hsinchu Science Park in Taiwan, and Leam Chabang in Thailand.

Their main objectives are to find out the reasons generating changes in the clusters, and examine whether the clusters are expanding or contracting, how much multinational corporations in the clusters have introduced value chain management (VCM), what are the effects of introducing the VCM on agglomerating firms in Asia, what relationships exist between and among clusters in Asia, and whether they are competitive or cooperative. In addition, the study will examine what are the effects of China's emerging clusters on other clusters in Asia, and what are the roles of the IT industry in the clusters.

Multinational corporations have been introducing value chain management (VCM) under globalization. It has become crucial to their survival that they attain the local maximum point by their introduction of VCM since transportation costs are significant to reduce costs including inventory costs. The study will examine what are effects of the introduction of VCM on industrial clustering in Asia.

This should be interesting. Go here to learn more.