Enterprise economic benefit, industry economic benefit and social economic benefit are three different concepts. Both enterprise economic efficiency and industry economic efficiency refer to the maximization of output/input, but this does not mean that the production efficiency of each individual enterprise will certainly make the whole industry efficient. Because, if in a certain industry, the investment originally used for relatively inefficient enterprises (such as enterprises with backward technology, outdated equipment or backward management) is transferred to relatively efficient enterprises, which can lead to more output of the whole industry, then we can be sure that even if the production of a single enterprise is efficient, the resource allocation of the whole industry has not reached the original Pareto optimal. Similarly, the efficiency of the industry is not a sufficient condition for the effective allocation of social resources, which emphasizes the maximization of the whole social welfare. But at the same time, we should also see that the effective allocation of social resources inevitably means effective industries and enterprises. In other words, effective industries and enterprises are the necessary conditions for the effective allocation of social resources [3].
The difference between these three different concepts is helpful to understand the meaning of effective allocation of information resources more accurately. Some scholars often confuse the concept of effective allocation of information resources with that of information industry (industry). This understanding is very narrow. The understanding of information resource allocation can only be to examine its effectiveness in the context of maximizing the whole social welfare.
1.3 the first theorem of welfare economics and the conditions for effective allocation of resources
Under the condition of completely competitive market, price is a signal that can truly reflect the scarcity of resources. Through the role of price mechanism, it can automatically lead to the effective allocation of resources, that is, the general equilibrium is Pareto optimal.
In a perfectly competitive market, the pursuit of individual utility maximization by a single actor will lead to the effective allocation of social resources, that is, the general competitive equilibrium point is Pareto optimal. This is called the first theorem of welfare economics in economics [3].
Pareto optimization of resource allocation has three basic conditions:
The effectiveness of production, that is, it must be produced on the production possibility curve;
The effectiveness of various product proportions, that is, the products produced meet the needs and preferences of consumers;
The effectiveness of exchange, that is, there are no trading obstacles in the market, and the distribution and exchange of products are sufficient [4].
Although a perfectly competitive market can automatically lead to the effective allocation of resources at the lowest cost, the market is not omnipotent. Monopoly in the market, external effects of economic activities, incompleteness and asymmetry of public goods and information will distort the price signal, thus making it impossible for the market mechanism to automatically realize the optimal allocation of resources.
2 information resources and information resource allocation
2. 1 information resources
K.J.Arrow clearly pointed out that "information has economic cost" [5]. Although the understanding of "resources" in the early resource allocation theory usually refers to material resources such as labor, land and capital. However, contemporary economic theory has given a broader understanding of resources, taking knowledge and information as internal variables and constituting production factors together with tangible resources. The question is what is the real meaning of information resources under the background of studying the effectiveness of information resources allocation.
Many scholars insist on a "broad" understanding of this issue, and believe that information resources not only refer to information content, but also include various elements of information activities, such as information equipment, information personnel, information networks and information systems. However, the author believes that both information personnel and information equipment can only be a kind of "material" input in the process of information production, not information itself, and it is far-fetched to regard all elements of information production and information activities as "information resources". Because of this, we will face an unanswerable question: If these people and devices are not used for information activities, are they still not information resources?
Therefore, the author believes that the understanding of the meaning of information resources cannot be from the perspective of pragmatics. Information resources can only be the information content itself, or the output of information production and information activities, that is, various forms of information products and services.
2.2 Information resource allocation
Undoubtedly, the problem of information resource allocation should be included in the category of resource allocation. From the perspective of the whole social economy, the effective allocation of resources is the effective allocation of all resources including information resources. If the information industry (industry) is regarded as a "black box", the allocation of information resources should consider the input (including the quantity, mode and structure of input) and output (including the quantity, quality, form and type of output) of the information industry, then the effective allocation of information resources means the arrangement of input and output of the information industry under the condition of effective allocation of resources in the whole society. However, it is impossible to study the effectiveness of information resource allocation without the operational efficiency of information industry and information enterprises. Therefore, the effectiveness of information industry, information production and information market must be included in the micro-level research scope.
3 the effectiveness of information production
The effectiveness of information production is the basic condition for the effective allocation of information resources. The effectiveness of information production means that it is impossible to find another mode of production to increase the output of some information products without reducing the output of other information products. That is, to maximize the output/input of information production. The effectiveness of information production requires the information industry to produce on the production possibility curve, that is, increasing the output of one information commodity can only be achieved by reducing the output of other information commodities. At present, quite a number of information institutions are facing a dilemma. On the one hand, resource conditions and equipment level need to be improved urgently; On the other hand, the product form is monotonous, the quantity and quality of output are extremely disproportionate to the existing resource conditions, and the information production efficiency is extremely low.
3. 1 The main body of information production is non-enterprise.
Traditionally, information service institutions are public institutions, and the source of funds mainly depends on financial allocations. The products and services they provide are basically free or symbolically charged a small amount of work expenses, and they can't and don't need to compensate the production cost at all, so they lack interest-driven incentives and lose the internal motivation of product development and market expansion. This is the internal cause of low production efficiency and idle resources of information institutions.
The key to solve this problem is to establish an effective incentive mechanism. The author thinks that the profit-making function and public welfare function of information institutions can be separated, personnel, funds and information resources can be clearly divided, the former can be transformed into operating mechanism, established and operated according to the modern company system, enterprise management can be implemented, and the production and operation activities of information enterprises can be regulated by economic leverage, so that the market can decide the operating mode of enterprises and choose or eliminate enterprises, forcing information enterprises to consciously attach importance to cost-benefit analysis, improve service quality and improve the utilization rate of resources and equipment. The latter can operate as a purely public service organization, and formulate a set of corresponding performance evaluation indicators and evaluation systems to promote it to improve the quantity and quality of services. This will not only ensure that the original public service function will not be affected, but also strip off some human and material resources, drive it to innovate information products and expand the market with economic benefits, enter a virtuous circle of rolling development, and improve the efficiency of resource utilization.
3.2 Information enterprises lack economies of scale.
China's information service enterprises can be roughly divided into two categories: one is evolved from traditional scientific and technological information, restricted by compartmentalized administrative subordination, lacking necessary social division of labor, acting in their own way, with great similarity in equipment level and resource conditions and obvious duplication of functions; The other is a small private information intermediary organization, which is generally small in scale, with poor equipment and poor quality of employees, and can only produce "copy-level" information products. The lack of social division of labor and the decentralization and miniaturization of enterprises have led to the development of information service industry showing the characteristics of low-level repetition, low product processing depth and single form, and some information institutions can not even maintain simple reproduction. This situation has inhibited the growth and development of the information industry. Only by breaking the original administrative subordination and taking the road of scale and intensification through socialized division of labor and cooperation can we get rid of the current predicament and misunderstanding, realize economies of scale and improve the overall production efficiency of the information industry.
3.3 Externality of information production
The externality of economic activities refers to the situation that the economic behavior of individuals or enterprises can directly affect (increase or decrease) the economic interests of others without obtaining benefits or paying the price for this influence. Because information has the characteristics of low replication cost and easy diffusion, information often shows externalities, and it is difficult for producers to supervise its operation and use process, which requires high maintenance costs. A large number of "hitchhiking" make the marginal income of information producers less than the marginal social benefits, which leads to the information producers unable to obtain effective compensation through the market mechanism, insufficient information production and ineffective information resource allocation.
On the issue of external effects, Pigou once drew another condition for maximizing social welfare, which is called the "golden rule", as a supplement to Pareto marginal conditions: to maximize social and economic welfare, it is necessary to make the marginal social benefits of any economic behavior equal to its marginal social costs [6]. In other words, producers must pay the price for "negative externalities" or gain benefits from "positive externalities" in some way. "Market failure" requires the government to come forward. Only by strengthening the protection of information property rights to exclude "free riders" and protect the interests of information producers, or directly giving information producers some financial assistance to compensate their production costs, can the efficiency of information output be effectively improved.
4 the effectiveness of the information market
The effectiveness of information resource allocation requires not only the production in an effective way, but also the maximum satisfaction of consumers' needs, that is, the information products produced can reflect consumers' preferences and realize value in an appropriate way. When the market is completely competitive, consumers' marginal substitution for different commodities is ultimately equal to their production ratio, thus ensuring that production meets consumers' needs. In fact, at present, China's information market is basically in a state of disorder and ineffectiveness, which undoubtedly leads to the ineffectiveness of information exchange and ultimately the ineffectiveness of information resource allocation. Therefore, only by developing and perfecting the information market can we develop the information industry, optimize the allocation of information resources and promote the sustained growth of the entire national economy. In a perfectly competitive market, resource allocation can automatically realize Pareto efficiency through the role of price mechanism. However, information is a special commodity, and the information market can't be an ideal completely competitive market.
4. 1 Incomplete and Asymmetric Information Market
An important function of price in the market is the information of the scarcity degree of traditional resources. But in the information market, this signal function of price has been greatly weakened, mainly because of two aspects:
The price of information is generally based on its utility, and the utility of information has great uncertainty, which largely depends on consumers' preference (subjective evaluation) and utilization ability of information;
There is a serious information asymmetry in space (between producers and consumers) and time (before and after), and consumers cannot accurately grasp the quality and utility of information in transactions. This makes the trading activities in the information market have great randomness and blindness, which hinders the effectiveness of information trading. At present, two main solutions can be found: 1) information producers can eliminate market obstacles caused by information asymmetry by establishing good goodwill in long-term market activities; 2) The government came forward to formulate strict laws and regulations to regulate the production and business activities of the information market [7].
4.2 contradiction between supply and demand in the information market
Due to the inherent characteristics of information itself, the automatic adjustment function of market mechanism to the relationship between information supply and demand is obviously weakened, and the demand signal of the demand side cannot be smoothly transmitted to the producers through the market, so a strange phenomenon often appears in the information market, that is, on the one hand, a large number of information products and production capacity are idle; On the other hand, the buyer can't find the required information products, resulting in "insufficient effective supply" [8]. This contradiction reflects that information production deviates from the needs of consumers, and the proportion of output structure is unreasonable, resulting in serious efficiency loss.
4.3 Establish a standardized and unified information market
Generally speaking, the development of China's information market is still immature, with mixed information enterprises, scattered information market and small transaction volume, which is basically in a state of disorder and laissez-faire. Due to the high knowledge content of information products, it does not have a solidified form, which requires higher professional quality of practitioners. It is difficult to fundamentally change the status quo by piecemeal "stall". We must intensify our work in two aspects and speed up the pace:
Implement and strengthen information market management, improve laws and regulations, standardize the information market, rectify unqualified and illegal information enterprises, change the image of information enterprises as "shell companies" and rebuild consumer confidence.
Using advanced technical means and Internet to build a networked information market can expand the contact range between supply and demand sides, form a unified national market, greatly reduce the cost of information transaction and improve the operating efficiency of the information market.
5 Information industry resource allocation
The information industry is essentially a "system industry" [9], serving all industries and pursuing the goal of "system welfare". This means that starting from the effectiveness of resource allocation, the information industry should not only seek its own direct economic interests, but also focus on its contribution to the overall goal of national economic growth.
5. 1 information industry policy objectives
No matter in theory or practice, few people believe that a completely laissez-faire economic policy will lead to the optimal allocation of resources, and the government must make macro-control of economic activities with the help of policy levers. Fundamentally speaking, the overall goal of industrial policy is to optimize the allocation of industrial resources, and the goal of information industry policy is no exception. However, at the operational level, information industry policies are bound to face diversified goals, such as adjusting industrial structure and increasing R&D investment; D investment, enhancing the innovation ability of enterprises, establishing a venture capital mechanism, promoting the commercialization of technological achievements, standardizing the information market and accelerating the construction of information infrastructure are all important objectives of information industry policy. However, the diversification of policy objectives often leads to policy discontinuity, which makes policy implementers at a loss. Unstable and unclear policies are equal to no policies.
The effectiveness of the policy requires a clear central task or basic goal in the information industry policy, and other policy measures should promote and ensure the realization of this basic goal. The author believes that at present, China's information infrastructure construction has a certain foundation, and the key is how to revitalize existing assets and improve output efficiency. The only way to solve this problem is to accelerate the process of information industrialization, which should undoubtedly be the basic goal of China's information industry policy at this stage.
5.2 structural adjustment of the information industry
China's information industry has a considerable scale and foundation, but there are also many structural problems that need to be solved urgently. In order to achieve the goal of sustained national economic growth, the government must increase investment in the information industry, adjust the structure of the information industry, improve the conditions of information resources and the level of information equipment, and ensure the improvement of the quantity and quality of information output.
5.2. 1 market structure
Because the administrative monopoly caused by the administrative subordination of information enterprises coexists with excessive competition caused by repeated construction and functional reset, the information market is in a state of disorder, and the mode of "big and complete" and "small and complete" will inevitably bring inefficiency. Therefore, we must get rid of compartmentalization, reorganize the existing information institutions according to the requirements of socialized division of labor and the principle of complementary advantages, straighten out the institutional relationship, break the industry monopoly and regional blockade, and build a fair, standardized and moderately competitive unified market.
Product structure.
Information institutions in China generally have the problems of primary products and single forms. Sticking to the simple document service mode and limited to providing services such as reporting and retrieval can obviously not meet the market requirements. The adjustment of product structure must be market-oriented, actively seek customers, expand the market, and make more efforts in processing depth and product diversification. The author believes that modern information enterprises should gradually form a diversified product system including six major sequences:
Business information provides enterprises with various business information data such as technology, technology, price, market demand and competition;
Technical products include not only documents of new technologies, new products and new processes, but also all-round technical services, organize forces to further develop technical achievements with market value, and then provide the formed product technologies to production enterprises;
Information system should take the planning, design and engineering of enterprise information system as an important business of information enterprise;
Management consulting includes enterprise diagnosis, project demonstration, CI planning and marketing planning.
Strategic consulting provides comprehensive strategic research reports such as industry dynamic analysis, market forecast and decision-making plan for government departments and large enterprises;
Traditional literature service.
Personnel structure
Traditionally, intelligence agencies pay more attention to basic literature work, so their staffing is mainly based on intelligence personnel. Once they enter the market as for-profit enterprises, they must change the traditional thinking mode, allocate personnel according to market requirements, especially strengthen marketing and development forces, and turn "dead materials" into "living products", which will not only help increase the profits of enterprises themselves, but also make greater contributions to the development of the whole social economy and optimize the allocation of social and economic resources.
Generally speaking, the reform ideas of information industry can be summarized as follows: commercialization of information institutions, commercialization of information products, industrialization of information services and collectivization of information industry.
6 Conclusion
Because the allocation of information resources involves a wide range of fields, not only the production efficiency within the information industry, but also the allocation efficiency of the whole social resources; There are both micro-level production and operation problems and macro-level policies and regulations. Therefore, due to the limitation of space, the author can't make a comprehensive and in-depth exposition on this. The purpose of this paper is only to put forward a train of thought and framework for the study of information resource allocation efficiency.
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