An Analysis Model of Industrial International
Competitiveness
Li Chuang
School of Economics and Management
Henan Polytechnic University
Jiaozuo, P.R.China
Abstract-The analysis model of industrial international
competitiveness is a basic theory and analytical framework to
guide the research on the industrial international competitiveness.
This paper discussed the relationship and difference between
industrial international competitiveness, product competitiveness,
enterprise competitiveness, and national competitiveness.
Moreover, this paper brought forward a new analysis model of
industrial international competitiveness, which is constituted by
eight basic elements. All eight factors drive the wheels of
industrial international competitiveness roll forward, so the
model is named "round wheel model".
Keywords-industrial international competitiveness; national
competitiveness; product competitiveness; round wheel model
I. INTRODUCTION
The research on international competitiveness involves
four levels: products competitiveness, enterprises
competitiveness, industrial competitiveness and national
competitiveness. Although there are separate studies for four
levels, systematic comparison study of the relationships
among them is rare [1-7]. In order to better understand the
connotation and extension of industrial international
competitiveness, it is necessary to identify what are products
competitiveness, enterprises competitiveness, industrial
competitiveness and national competitiveness.
The products competitiveness refers to the continuous
combat force of products in the international market, which is
the organic combination of the excess use-value for customers
and the excess value for enterprise. The products
competitiveness is mainly embodied in three aspects. The first
is the competitive advantages that come from inherent
physical value of the products, such as reliable quality, stable
performance, powerful functions. The second is the value
advantage of products demonstrated in the market, such as
preferential price, perfect services, and unique marketing
strategy. The third is the perception value advantages from
consumers, but the advantages often change because of
consumer groups, consumption patterns, and quantity of
consumption. Generally, the products competitiveness can be
expressed by a simple formula, that is: the products
competitiveness = (physical value × market value × customer
perception value). Furthermore, it is obvious that these three
aspects are all apt to be affected by short-term factors. In
particular, with frequent scientific and technological
revolutions, the product life cycle is significantly shorted, so
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when we research on the products competitiveness we should
mainly think over these short-term or individual factors.
The enterprises competitiveness means that, in the
competitive market, an enterprise effectively provide better
products or more perfect services than its competitors in the
long-term market competition, and gain more profits and
make greater progress. The enterprises competitiveness is
mainly involved in three aspects. The first is the products
competitiveness of enterprise. The second is the assets
competitiveness of enterprises which are used to product their
products, including manpower, materials and financial
resources. The third is the process competitiveness, which is
shown in the course of researching and developing, producing,
marketing and managing. The enterprises competitiveness can
be expressed by the formula: the enterprises competitiveness =
(product competitiveness × assets competitive × process
competitiveness). The enterprises competitiveness is the most
direct performance of the products competitiveness,
enterprises competition in other areas is on the start of product
competition and therefore the products competitiveness is the
basis and core of enterprises competitiveness. Conversely, as a
producer and operators, enterprise’s scientific research,
management, marketing, and other capacities directly affect
the level of products competitiveness, and they are powerful
guarantee for the products competitiveness. In other words,
besides enhancing their products competitiveness, enterprises
must also strive to improve their overall competitiveness in
order to win in the international competition for a long time.
The industrial international competitiveness can be
thought as the continuing combat force of one country’s
industry or specific industry in the international market. The
industry competition what we can observe seems to be equal
to enterprises international competition in the industry.
Therefore, the enterprises competitiveness is the basic
expression form and important component of the industrial
international competitiveness. However, the industry
competition does not mean that all the enterprises international
competitiveness within the industry or their simple joint
competitiveness. Because the orderly or disorderly
competition among the enterprises could affect the industrial
international competitiveness, in addition, the industrial
international competitiveness also includes other areas besides
the enterprises competitiveness, such as the enterprises
structure, the concentration rate of enterprises, industrial
policies, and so on. These factors all influence the level of the
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industrial international competitiveness, and the force and the depth
counterforce between these factors and enterprises would
affect the industrial international competitiveness. On the
other hand, enterprises always belong to a certain industry, so PC
enterprises development would inevitably be impacted by a
great deal of factors from the industry, therefore, the industrial EC
competitiveness, in turn, affect the enterprises competitiveness.
In addition, the life cycle of industry should be longer than the IC
life cycle of enterprises, mainly because enterprises can
rapidly change and adjust its development trends based on NC
scope
market demands, competition extent, industrial development,
and other environmental change, and even enter into other
industries. In contrast, from birth, development, growth and
mature to demise of the industry, it is a very long historical time
process. Therefore, the study of the industrial international
competitiveness should focus on analyzing those long-term, Figure 1. The sketch map of the relationships between the industrial
competitiveness and other competitiveness
macroeconomic factors, and try to avoid short-term and
individual factors which could give rise to the fluctuations of
research level, the products competitiveness and the
the industrial international competitiveness.
enterprises competitiveness belong to micro-level research,
The national competitiveness is the system capabilities of
the industrial competitiveness and the national
a country that could create more added values and national
competitiveness respectively belong to the meso-level and the
wealth that continues to grow and develop than other countries
macro-level study. As the different research levels, they
in the world, under the market economy environment and
maybe study the same issue from the different views and
conditions. The national competitiveness from WEF and IMD
analyze different issues from the diverse focus. Finally, from
is the most authoritative and influential. They think that the
the research method, it is easier to analyze the internal
national competitiveness comes from the eight aspects:
structure and mechanism of the research object at the micro
economic vitality, industrial efficiency, financial vitality,
level, and the life cycle of microscopic individual is generally
human resources, natural resources, foreign economic
shorter, and could change more easily under the influence of
activities, innovation capacity and national intervention.
short-term factors. Therefore, when we study the products and
Industrial efficiency mainly reflects the country's industrial
the enterprises competitiveness we should design some
competitiveness, which is a basic component of the national
short-term indicators to analyze their impact. On the contrary,
competitiveness. Except the industrial competitiveness, the
it is necessary to design some macroeconomic and long-term
national competitiveness also reflects the nation’s capacities
indicators from the overall situation to analyze their effect on
that offer economic fundamentals, financial services,
the competitiveness for the meso-level and the macro-level
infrastructure, national policies, and the national strategy
competitiveness, as much as possible eliminate the fluctuation
decision-making ability for industry and enterprise’s
effects from short-term or individual factors, and stress the
development, which are indispensable prerequisite and basis
interaction between the individuals and coordinate
for the country's industries and enterprises to participate in
relationships [8-10].
international competition, and affect international competition
In short, there are connection and differentiation among
potential of the industries and enterprises. On the other hand,
the products competitiveness, the enterprises competitiveness,
the added value of a country and the continued growth of
the industrial competitiveness and the national
national wealth are created by all enterprises within the
competitiveness. If NC on behalf of national competitiveness,
industry, in other words, the survival and development of a
IC on behalf of the industrial competitiveness, EC on behalf of
nation is based on the increasing prosperity of its industries
the enterprises competitiveness, PC on behalf of the products
and enterprises. Therefore, the industrial international
competitiveness, then their relationship could be shown by the
competitiveness and the enterprises competitiveness are the
Fig. 1.
foundation of the national competitiveness.
III. THE ANALYSIS MODEL OF INDUSTRIAL
II. THE RELATIONSHIP AND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS
INDUSTRIAL INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIVENESS The analysis model of industrial international
AND OTHER COMPETITIVENESS competitiveness is the basic theory and analytical framework
Through the above-mentioned analysis, we can easily to guide the research on the industrial international
find their differences in the following three aspects. Firstly, competitiveness, therefore, we should follow the following
from the contents of the study, they do share some principles to build up the analysis model of industrial
overlapping, but not including and being included. The international competitiveness: First, comprehensive principle
competitiveness source, influential factors, action degree, and that means systematically analyze various factors, avoid
other characteristics are very different. Secondly, from the one-sided, isolated; Second, programmatic principles, namely

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it is necessary to take into account the comprehensive and
systematical principles, and pay no attention to too details or
dispersion; Third, the operational principle that the model can
not be too general and abstract, it should be used to guide the
practice work. These three principles supplement each other,
and anyone can not be neglected. Based on the above
principles, this paper puts forward the analysis model of
industrial international competitiveness. The model is
composed of eight elements, and each element should be paid
attention to from domestic and abroad. The eight factors affect
each other, interact and jointly promote the wheels of
industrial international competitiveness roll forward. This
model also is named "round wheel model", and every factor is
specifically interpreted as following:
First, the environment. Industry international competitive
environment can be divided into economic environment and
political environment. The economic environment mainly
refers to the global trend of economic integration and a new
round of industrial division of labor, and other international
economic background, as well as national economic system,
economy status, economic growth potential and other
domestic economic background. The political environment
mainly refers to the international and domestic political and
foreign policy factors, such as political background, and even
include the many specific political events and various kinds of
political turmoil happened in the historical period. Although
the impact of environment on the industrial international
competitiveness is indirect but profound, which not only affect
the competition degree of industrial international
competitiveness, but also affect the level of industrial
competitiveness.
Second, the market. The most intuitive form of
expression of industrial international competitiveness is a
competition capacity in international market. Therefore, the
market is the core elements of the industrial international
competitiveness analysis. From the perspective of trade flows,
the industrial international competitiveness reflects the import
ability, export capacity and the balance capacity between
import and export in international market. However, as for the
specific analysis of the industrial international competitiveness,
we should deep analyze the action mechanism of market
structure, market demand, market rules, market order, and
other factors on the industrial international competitiveness.
First of all, according to the structure - acts - performance
principle of industrial organization theory, there is a certain
inevitable connection between structure and performance. A
great deal of experiences and practices have proved that
reasonable market structure is useful for the upgrading of
industrial international competitiveness. Secondly, to some
extent, the behavior characteristics of market demand decide
the competition level and competitive style of industrial
international competitiveness, the effective demand and
market capacity affect not only the scale effect of industry, but
also the growth rate of industrial development and
development space. Thirdly, the industrial international
competitiveness would be blocked or promoted by market
rules, which is because industry international competition is
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not equal to industry free competition, and market competition
rules are specific activities that state or government intervene
the industrial international competitiveness, in order to protect
their own disadvantage industries. With the regional
collectivization of world economy and the rise of new trade
protectionism, it would be more difficult for a country's
industries to enter foreign market. Even in the same
competition market, the same industry from different country
may face different competition rules. Therefore, carefully
studying the market competition rules of the host country is an
essential content of the industrial international
competitiveness research. Finally, the market order referred
here is the inspection of competition state from the actual
process, the health market order help industry improve the
international competitiveness, on the contrary, the disordered
market order is not conducive to the upgrading of enterprises
competitiveness, and weakened the whole industrial
competitiveness.
Third, the resources. The so-called resources generally
refer to all available production factors in the global, including
all types of natural elements, knowledge elements and capital
elements. In different development stages of industries, the
contribution rate of all kinds of production factors on the
industrial international competitiveness is constantly changing
in the different development stage. Generally, in the initial
stage of industrial development, knowledge elements and
capital elements are relatively underdeveloped, the natural
elements is the decisive force which affects the industrial
international competitiveness. However, with the industry
development toward the advanced stage, knowledge elements
and capital elements are accumulated more and more, which
would play more and more important role in improving the
industrial international competitiveness. Of course, these
changes would be different because of the industry feature,
natural elements are larger force in labor-intensive industries,
and knowledge elements and capital elements are larger force
in technology-intensive industries than natural elements.
Moreover, with the development of productivity, the scope
and content of resources are constantly expanding, and
production elements also gradually evolve from junior to
senior, along with the upgrading of the industrial international
competitiveness. Therefore, it is necessary for the study of
resources elements to consider the industry's own attributes,
and take into account the changes trend of elements
themselves in the different stages of productivity.
Fourth, science and technology. Science and technology
is the first productivity to promote industrial development, as
has been proved. When the industrial international
competition is becoming fiercer and fiercer today, industrial
international competition more and more lies on the utilization
efficiency of production factors, growth style of industrial
development, potential of industrial competitiveness and the
development front of industries, but all the mentioned must
depend on the development of science and technology of
industries. Therefore, all the industries in any countries have
been increasing scientific and technological input, speeding up
the transformation of scientific and technological
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achievements, quickening the innovation system for scientific
and technology and strengthening the implementation of
innovative incentives policies. Generally, science and
technology has been become the leading forces for the
upgrading of the industrial international competitiveness.
Fifth, the management. Here management is the
coordinating forces and mechanisms of various resources,
including a variety of modern management methods and
management thoughts. In the international competition of 21st
century, even if a certain industry has the first-class raw
materials, the first-class equipments and the first-rate
technology, it may also produce the second-rate products or
provide poor services, and the industry is obviously weak in
international competition, which is attributed to backward
management to a great extent. Without scientific management,
the advanced equipment could not play the normal roles, the
talents could not do their best in work, and the enterprise
organization is too weak. Moreover, with more mature
industrial technology and more frequent exchange of
international economic and technology, the common
production technology and production processes gradually
become widespread, industrial international competition more
depends on modern management thoughts and management
methods.
Sixth, the government. Industrial international
competition is an important component of the national
competition, the level of the industrial international
competitiveness reflects the status and role of industry in
international competition, to some extent, stands for the
economic power and competitiveness of country, indicates the
abilities of judgment and decision-making of the nation for its
industrial development and the industry resources organization
and coordination capacity. Therefore, the industrial
international competition would be full of the intervention
activities of state or government. Especially, the government
would provide strong support for and pay widespread attention
to disadvantage industries. On the one hand, the state can
provide industry with infrastructure, basic power, financial
services, education and culture in order to indirectly affect the
industrial international competitiveness. On the other hand,
the government may also directly intervene in the industrial
international competition through industrial policies,
macro-control, organizational coordination, strategic planning,
and other measures.
Seventh, the correlated industries. There are full of
materials circulation, the flow of information and capital flow
among industries, in other words, any industry is not isolated
here, the industrial development is inseparable from strong
support from other industries. The development and
competitiveness of correlated industries directly affect the
market demand, development impetus, and production factors
of a main industry. The stronger the relevance of the main
industry is, the more it depends on correlated industries and
auxiliary industries. Therefore, when we assess the industrial
international competitiveness, we do not separately evaluate
the industrial international competitiveness, but also in-depth
analyze the competitiveness of its correlated industries and
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auxiliary industries, which is the only way to make an
objective and accurate conclusion.
Eighth, the uncertain factors. Real life is always full of a
lot of uncertain factors or unexpected incidents, which might
bring luck and hope for the industrial development, on the
other hand, it would perhaps result in disaster and loss for the
industrial development. Therefore, these two aspects of
uncertain factors are indispensable external forces affecting
the industry international competitiveness.
IV. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the research on industrial international
competitiveness is a complex and systematic project, and its
level of research and study areas could change due to different
research purposes, as a result, the analysis model and affecting
factors would be different. Hence in the study process of
industrial international competitiveness we should consider
widely so that specific issues would be specifically analyzed,
which is the only way we come to an objective, accurate, and
in-depth conclusions.
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