Network Economy and Development Innovation: China Regional Entrepreneurial Clusters

摘要

To gain insights for the formation of entrepreneurial networks and regional economic development. This paper applies graph theory and social network analysis to study the China regional entrepreneurial clusters. What are underlying logics which separate survival and primitive entrepreneurial clusters from high-growth innovative entrepreneurial clusters? In specific, how do these geographically and socially linked need based entrepreneurs in rural area of China evolved into innovative industrial clusters? What are internal and external incentive mechanism driving these clusters' growth and in turn changing the world around them? How did these grass root survival entrepreneurs and their respective informal and formal institutions interactively develop, adapt, and finally produced a sustainable economic development? By study these entrepreneurial clusters in Zhejiang province, China, the paper concludes that the evolution path and structural mapping of a network, as well as these functions and attributes of a network's entities codetermine a network internal process and ultimately influence its performance and outcomes. The findings have important implications for entrepreneurship studies and economic development especially for emerging markets.