The Impact of Network Relational Characteristics on Emerging Small Manufacturing Organizations' Development and Linkages

摘要本研究旨在探讨新兴小型制造企业间的互动与组织发展，以促进国家的健康、繁荣与福祉，了解小型制造企业如何发展伙伴关系，以优化营运与策略能力，提升企业竞争力。该调查的重点是在科罗拉多州农村社区发展的六个新兴小型制造中心之间的创新美国供应链联系的演变。由于生产价格的上涨和与国际供应商相关的风险，服装制造的各个方面正在回归美国。本研究旨在找出小型制造企业有效地形成网络和集群以获得市场竞争力的方法。研究结果将对美国多个地区产生影响，这些地区对培养小型到大型制造企业之间的合作感兴趣。这些建议旨在：1)在多个层面上分析小型制造商、区域集群和正式网络的组织发展现象；2)实证检验来自社会资本、网络和创新理论的重叠概念；3)建立一个框架来解释新兴小企业之间的网络发展。这个项目的范围包括混合方法研究六个新兴的小型制造中心如何组织成两个集群，然后是一个单一的网络。通过关注嵌入新兴组织的合作企业，该项目将发现网络关系特征在多大程度上通过知识创造、学习和创新采用提供竞争优势。包括观察、访谈、焦点小组和调查方法在内的数据收集将为这些特征对初创公司的影响提供进一步的见解。分析单元将包括中心、集群、网络和制造级别。本文将进行定性和定量分析，以了解小型制造组织的集群和网络如何发展，以及集群和网络对其市场竞争力的影响。

To advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare, this study focuses on the interactions and organizational development among emerging small manufacturing businesses to understand how they develop partnership in order to optimize operational and strategic capabilities to enhance their competitiveness. The investigation focuses on the evolution of innovative U.S. supply chain linkages among six emerging small manufacturing centers developing in rural Colorado communities. Aspects of apparel manufacturing are returning to the U.S. due to the increase in production prices and risks associated with international suppliers. This research aims to identify ways for small manufacturing businesses to effectively form networks and clusters to gain competitiveness in the market. Findings will have implications for multiple regions of the U.S. interested in cultivating collaborations among small-to-large manufacturing firms. The proposals aims to: 1) capture, at multiple levels of analysis, the phenomena involving organizational development of small manufacturers, regional clusters, and a formal network, 2) empirically test overlapping concepts from social capital, network, and innovation theories, and 3) establish a framework to explain how networking develops among emerging small firms. The scope this project involves the mixed-method study of how six emerging small manufacturing centers organize into two clusters, and then a single network. By focusing on cooperating ventures in which emerging organizations are embedded, the project will discover to what degree network relational characteristics provide a competitive advantage through knowledge creation, learning, and innovation adoption. Data collection involving observations, interviews, focus groups, and survey methods will provide further insights as to the impact of these characteristics on startup firms. The unit of analyses will include the center, cluster, network, and manufacturing levels. Qualitative and quantitative analyses will be conducted to understand the focal research question of how clusters and networks develop among small manufacturing organizations, and the implications of the clusters and the networks on their market competitiveness.