Decision mechanism between local and extra-local search for cluster firm´s growth: — Longitude case study of CHINT group

CHINT group, a typical cluster firm, is selected in this paper for discussing the decision mechanism of local search and extra-local search based on the cluster firms´ growth stages. The results indicate that local search and extra-local search show different effects on firms at different growth stages. Besides, we find an interesting phenomenon: along with cluster firms´ five growth stages, the role of local search changes from dominant to supportive, and finally becomes concise; while extra-local network seems to co-develop along with the firm´s growth positively.