ON URBAN COMPETITIVENESS AND THE METHODS, PROCESS OF EVALUATION
LI Na1, YU Tao-fang2
1. Department of Urban & Resources Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China;
2. Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Abstract On the base of the analysis of related competitive concepts world wide, the concept of urban competitiveness is discussed. The definition of urban competitiveness is the capacity of attracting, capturing, possessing, controlling and transforming resources to create value/wealth, to improve life quality level and urban sustainability of a city in certain external environment. Therefore, the urban resources, the capacities and the external environment for competition lie at the core of this definition. According to related competitiveness theories in the management fields, the "Environmental Model", the "Resource School" and the "Capacity School", three kinds of evaluation methods for urban competitiveness is analyzed. These methods are the regional economic analysis, the benchmarking analysis and the SWOT analysis.
Regional economic techniques can be useful in assessing competitiveness in regard to traditional industries and in assessing competitiveness for labor-intensive industries as well. Another shortcoming of regional economic techniques is that the data frequently does not include activities or contributions of the informal sector, which makes the techniques less useful in low-income cities. However, the approach is useful in terms of general resource allocation and monitoring effectiveness of initiatives, and in helping define what it means to be competing. Based on the definition of urban competitiveness and the relevant evaluation assessment methods, the general process and contents for urban competitiveness assessment is put forward step by step. And the main contents include issue identification, competitiveness focus groups, proposed urban competitiveness assessment process, economic structure analysis, identification of benchmark cities, local endowment analysis, economic strengths identification, external threats and opportunities assessment, internal strengths and weaknesses assessment, competitiveness strengths and weakness assessment, competitiveness strategy formulation and indicators and establishment of monitoring system.
2005, Vol. 20 
