Industry information | lack and expansion of self-discipline function of office consumables industry in China

1、 The emergence of Industry Association and the meaning of industry self-discipline

1. Production of Industry Association

In the market economy countries, the market structure presents a three-dimensional structure, that is, the government, the enterprises and the industry associations between the government and the enterprises, which are complementary, mutual support, mutual containment and mutual supervision. After the reform and opening up, trade associations began to rise in China, which is not only the demand of the overall industry development, but also the product of the transformation of government functions. Industry Association is the objective requirement and inevitable product of social and economic development to a certain stage. Its basic functions are industry self-discipline, industry service, industry representative and industry coordination. Therefore, it is the link and bridge between the government, enterprises and the market. On the one hand, it guides enterprises to the market and maintains the rights and interests of enterprises. On the other hand, it is also the necessary guarantee for maintaining the social and economic order under the market economy system. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the reform of the government system and the transformation of its functions, the "China cultural office equipment manufacturing industry association" and the "China Computer Industry Association" including the office consumables industry were established successively, and they performed the basic functions of industry self-discipline, industry service, industry representative and industry coordination according to the requirements of the government The link and bridge function between government, enterprise and market.

2. Meaning of industry self-discipline

Industry self-discipline is to regulate industry behavior, coordinate the interests of peers, maintain fair competition and legitimate interests between industries, and promote industry development. The meaning of industry self-discipline mainly includes: strict implementation of relevant laws and regulations; formulation and implementation of industry rules and regulations; provision of high-quality and standardized services to customers; industry self-discipline is also to safeguard the interests of the industry and enterprises, avoid vicious competition, and maintain the sustainable and healthy development of the industry; industry association is one of the natural supervision institutions of industry self-discipline.

Specifically, the self-discipline of industry association refers to the self communication, self coordination, self-discipline and self-management of the industry that the industry association is engaged in through the articles of association, conventions, member rules, etc., so as to make the behavior of member enterprises or industry enterprises conform to the requirements of national laws, professional ethics and social ethics. The articles of association, conventions and membership rules constitute the self-discipline system of the industry association.

3. The industry self-discipline is based on the industry association self-discipline. If an industry does not have an effective industry association, the industry self-discipline will not be possible. Industry self-discipline is the inevitable outcome of market economy system. Only by doing a good job in self-discipline, can the industry survive in the competitive market, and we can have a healthy and orderly market.

2、 The lack and expansion of self-discipline function of consumables industry in China

1. Development of office consumables industry and market in China

(1) China's office consumables industry started from the early 1980s with the introduction of foreign production lines and production technologies. Its development has gone through four stages: introduction, digestion and absorption, imitation manufacturing and independent innovation. By 2011, China's office consumables industry has gone through an extraordinary 30 years, and the consumables industry has changed dramatically. It can be said that China's consumables industry has moved from imitation period and independent R & D period to the mature period of independent innovation. It has developed from more than ten consumable production enterprises to nearly 600 office consumable production enterprises, among which large and medium-sized enterprises account for about 40%, while output value and output amount account for about 85%; China's annual export of consumables to all parts of the world accounts for more than 65% of the total consumables in the world, which has become the largest consumable production base, consumable sales center and consumable R & D center in the world.

(2) generally speaking, the sales market of printing consumables in China is developing normally. The annual sales volume of printing consumables is increasing at a rate of about 15%; the market share of domestic compatible products is increasing year by year; the product quality is obviously improved; the number of products with independent intellectual property rights is increasing; in addition, the amount of printing consumables purchased by foreign manufacturers in China is increasing substantially. However, the development of compatible consumables enterprises is still uneven. Small workshop type small compatible consumables enterprises sell low-cost and inferior consumables in the market, and counterfeit consumables are common in the market, which makes the market mixed. By the end of 2011, the products in China's printing consumables market include original (OEM) products, compatible (high-quality) products from domestic and foreign manufacturers, and compatible (fake and inferior) products. The market share of these three products is about 45%, 45% and 10% respectively. There are still a lot of fake and shoddy printing consumables, and they are sold at a low price. This not only harms the users, damages the rights and interests of consumers, but also causes environmental pollution. At the same time, it makes foreign sellers and agents complain a lot, which directly affects the reputation of China's printing consumables market, reduces the sales volume of domestic manufacturers and suffers economic losses. The reasons for the long-term existence of fake and inferior products in the market are as follows: first, the organizers of the manufacturers do harm to others and gain profits from themselves; second, the factories are simple and crude, the equipment is old, and the small workshops operate; third, the management of the enterprises is weak, and there is no standard production process; fourth, the production is not in accordance with the standard requirements, or even no standard production; fifth, the purchase of low-quality supporting products, etc And so on. To sum up, these enterprises did not implement enterprise self-discipline according to the self-discipline of consumable industry association.

In terms of the development and market situation of consumables industry, the self-discipline of enterprises, industries and industry associations are basically not up to the standard, and some government functions stipulated by the state have not been delegated to industry associations; industry associations are still complacent with the status quo, lacking the momentum and practical action of self-improvement and bold attempt. Therefore, there are many functional deficiencies in consumables industry, which make the development of consumables industry and market uneven, and affect the normal development of consumables industry.

2. The lack and expansion of self-discipline function of consumables industry in China

(1) lack of self-discipline function in consumables industry

Self discipline should include enterprise self-discipline, industry self-discipline and industry association self-discipline. The self-discipline responsibility of the industry association is the basis of the industry's survival and development, and the premise of the exercise of other social responsibilities. The public management responsibility is a part of the government entrusted empowerment function, while the charitable responsibility and the public welfare responsibility are an effective way for the industry association to improve the reputation of the industry and expand the social influence, so as to build a complete social responsibility system of the industry association. For the industry association, the object of its self-discipline is mainly for the member enterprises participating in the industry association. For the industry, it includes not only the member enterprises participating in the industry association, but also the industry enterprises not participating in the industry association. ? through self-discipline, industry associations coordinate product quality and price within the industry, avoid blind competition, reach industry consensus, and maintain the basic market order; at the same time, represent the interests of members of the industry, coordinate relations with other industries, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the industry from damage.

In recent years, with the promotion of relevant national policies, China's industry associations have achieved rapid development. However, due to the existence of various obstacles such as old inertial thinking, imperfect legislation, and self positioning deviation, the industry associations, including consumables industry associations, have not effectively played their due functions in the socialist market economy system. The successful experience of some trade associations or chambers of Commerce shows that if they want to expand their self-discipline space and establish their industry management status, they need to improve the service quality at home, actively participate in government market regulation activities at abroad, and also need to strive to improve the internal democratic governance mechanism of the association. However, the Self-discipline Function of most industry associations, including consumables industry associations, is not in place, and there are many aspects of the lack of self-discipline function:

① In the socialist market economy, compared with market regulation and state intervention, trade associations have unique advantages in microeconomic management. Premier Wen Jiabao pointed out at the third session of the 10th National People's Congress that the government should never be in charge of the affairs of intermediary agencies, and give full play to the role of trade associations, chambers of Commerce and other organizations. However, after three years, it still hasn't been implemented to the industry association, nor seen the role of the association in micro management. Its role is often limited to training, holding exhibitions, seminars, holding industry information journals or magazines, consulting, investigation, statistics, conference exchange and other shallow levels, far from the ideal position and value.

The consumables industry association should have achieved the goal of purifying market environment, maintaining and standardizing market competition order by restricting and punishing illegal operators, and promoting the overall development of the consumables industry. The realization of this goal will naturally enhance the social prestige and business status of the industry association, so that the industry association can provide higher-level services for member enterprises. However, the Consumables Industry Association in the current consumables market in China, the sale of counterfeit products, low quality, big price war, unfair competition behavior is helpless. The fundamental reason is that the government has not yet given the function to the industry association, so only the enterprises can cooperate with the industry and commerce to crack down on counterfeit goods, the consumables market is chaotic and can not be managed by the industry and commerce, resulting in the consumables market in an unregulated state. Its performance: first, the enterprises in the industry have vicious competition in the domestic market, which has a potential threat to the long-term healthy development of the industry. Second, entering the international market at a low price and competing to reduce the price may result in anti-dumping or countervailing lawsuits from importing countries. For example, since 2010, the Ministry of industry and information technology has issued "quality and reputation commitment activities of Chinese industrial enterprises" and "Implementation Opinions on standardizing the self declaration of industrial product quality enterprises" and other notices, which do not clearly give the functions of relevant industry associations, so the consumables industry association can only respond orally or issue a "proposal" to the member units in the name of the Council We call on enterprises to jointly create honest operation and ensure product quality, and create a reassuring consumption environment for consumers in all aspects of sales and after-sales, so as to urge the consumables enterprises to earnestly implement it. In fact, it has no binding force and supervision on enterprises.

② In terms of the organizational structure and personnel composition of the industry association, it is still the leadership from streamlining the organization and serving the enterprise, which reduces the social influence of the industry association. Although most of the government staff understand the theoretical positioning of the industry association, they often regard it as "the organization that arranges retired old comrades to give full play to their residual heat" in their practical work, so that most of the staff of the industry association are retirees of the government or enterprises, and even those "busy, unfinished" administrative work is pushed to the subordinate Industry Association. Under the guidance of such narrow ideas, the growth of China's industry associations is actually difficult to get the support of relevant government departments, the development space is greatly constrained, and the due industry self-discipline function cannot be fully played.

③ The boundary between administrative law enforcement and industry self-discipline has not been clearly defined, which limits the initiative and enthusiasm of industry associations to implement industry self-discipline. Although the relevant documents clearly put forward "the combination of administrative law enforcement and industry self-discipline", the scope definition of the Self-discipline Function of industry associations is only generally summarized as "improving various self-discipline management systems", "establishing and improving the industry self-discipline management and restraint mechanism", and there is no provision for the specific scope of industry self-discipline. The unfair competition in the consumables market, the enterprises that do not abide by the laws and regulations, the enterprises that sell fake and shoddy products, the work of market price coordination, etc. all have no function of self-discipline in the industry, not to mention the function of punishment. The industry association has no authority, which makes the industry association helpless in the confusion of the consumables market. At present, the consumables industry association can only guide enterprises to operate in good faith, effectively prevent price fraud, and guide consumers to rational consumption; it proposes that enterprises adhere to the principle of "fair, open, fair and good integrity", and consciously accept the supervision of the government and society.

④ Most industry associations are content with the status quo and lack the momentum and practical action of self-improvement and bold attempt. Although the above-mentioned social environment is not ideal and the legal system is not complete and other adverse factors hinder the Self-discipline Function of the industry association, they are only external factors after all. What really limits the role of the industry association is its own internal defects.. First of all, the service level of the industry association has not been generally recognized by the enterprises, and the service function given to the actual action is very little, thus gradually losing the attraction and cohesion. Due to the "inherent deficiency" in the generation mechanism, management system, personnel arrangement, ideology and other aspects, most of the industry associations in China, especially the leading official industry associations, have not established a strong enough sense of service since they were born. Secondly, the difficulty of funds is a common problem faced by all trade associations, which seriously limits the activity space of such associations. According to the relevant survey report, most of the industry associations' dues revenue is less than 30% of the operational needs. Due to the difficulty of funds, many industry associations, including consumables industry associations, can only hold briefings and meetings once or twice a year. However, due to the shortage of funds and the low payment of membership dues, many industry associations are forced to lower their salaries and welfare benefits, thus losing their attraction to professionals. Thirdly, the internal governance mechanism of the industry association is also one of the factors that hinder its development. Most of the trade associations are formed under the leadership of the government, and few of them are democratically elected. Moreover, although most trade associations have set up internal organizations such as the general assembly, the Council, the Executive Council and the association's articles of association, due to the lack of democratic election, supervision and incentive mechanism, the organizations are basically in vain, and the articles of association only play the role of "decoration".

⑤ The biggest deficiency of consumables industry association is that it does not have the qualification of national first level association. Up to now, China's consumable industry association and local consumable industry association are subordinate to the second level Association (called "branch" or "professional committee") under the first level association of "China Computer Industry Association" and "China cultural office equipment manufacturing industry association". Their functions and functions are concentrated in the first level association, and they cannot independently exercise the functions and functions of the industry association It is more difficult to implement self-discipline of consumable industry association. Without the approval of the first level association, even the exhibition and collection of membership fees are not good, and the function of the industry association is difficult to promote. In addition, consumables industry across three industry associations, it is difficult to coordinate operations. Only by centralizing the office consumables industry in China and establishing a "China office consumables industry association", can we exercise the functions and functions of the industry association under the guidance of the government, standardize the product quality and market order of the consumables industry, and gradually enhance the self-discipline and service functions of the association.

(2) expansion of self-discipline space of Industry Association

According to the central policy and the relevant documents of the State Council, since 2005, more and more central or local governments have begun to promote the "separation of the government and the local government", trying to implement the "three decoupling" between the industry association and its competent business departments in terms of personnel, office space and funds, in order to realize the "nongovernmental" transformation of the industry association run by the government, and also taking various measures to actively promote the industry association Development and function play.

In the development practice of China's industry associations, many industry associations are regarded as the "mother's family" of enterprises. When enterprises encounter difficulties, they do not seek the help of the association but from the government. The situation of "finding the association with difficulties, asking the association with questions, and putting forward suggestions to the association" has formed in enterprises. In order to promote the transformation of government functions in the social background, various industry associations should learn from the experience of excellent industry associations, and seek breakthroughs in the following aspects, and actively expand the space of industry self-discipline.