Geographies of Value Chain Construction in Emerging Complex Technologies: A Compparative Study of the Electric Vehicle Lithium-ion Battery Industry in China and Germany

Descripción del proyecto

Liderar las industrias complejas emergentes

La innovación se ve impulsada por la capacidad de detectar y aprovechar las conexiones y las oportunidades. Las industrias emergentes están listas para transformar el liderazgo. El proyecto GEVACCON, financiado con fondos europeos, mantiene que el desafío para conseguir el liderazgo industrial está en gestionar la innovación de las industrias complejas emergentes. En concreto, las nuevas industrias que gestionan las relaciones complejas entre las características tecnológicas, geográficas y de gobernanza. Las publicaciones actuales no ofrecen mucha información sobre cómo afrontar la creciente complejidad de las nuevas industrias en estas tres dimensiones cuando se habla de las carreras mundiales por la innovación. El desarrollo de la industria del vehículo eléctrico con baterías de iones de litio y el conjunto de agentes a lo largo de las cadenas de valor de las baterías en China y Alemania servirán como estudios de caso representativos para examinar cómo las economías emergentes y los países altamente industrializados compiten con sus rivales en el ámbito de las cada vez más complejas industrias.

Objetivo

We are currently witnessing accelerating shifts of global leadership in many emerging industries, fueled by increasing digitalization and globalization, as well as pressing concerns about grand socio-ecological challenges. GEVACCON maintains that the challenge for gaining industrial leadership is to manage innovation in emerging complex industries-- namely, new industries that consist of complex relationships regarding technological, geographical and governance characteristics. The extant literature on innovation and industry dynamics is poorly prepared to deal with the increasing complexity of emerging industries in these three dimensions, and hence offers little insight to actors who want to gain leadership in the emerging global innovation races.The overarching motivation of GEVACCON, therefore, is to investigate the geographies of value chain construction in emerging complex industries by taking into account complexity in the abovementioned three aspects. As a representative case of emerging complex industry, the value chain construction processes of the electric vehicle lithium-ion battery (EV-LIB) industry in China and Germany will be investigated. By 1)systematically synthesizing three literature streams: innovation system studies, economic geography, value chain governance, as well as by 2)exploring how battery manufacturers in these two countries mobilize and utilize different resources from different parts of the world, and integrate those elements in their value chain construction processes, GEVACCON aims to develop a comprehensive analytical framework in disentangling the value chain construction in complex technology industries. Moreover, given the accelerating shifts of global leadership in many of the emerging complex industries, it also aims to draw competitive strategies for both newcomers and incumbents in the new generation of innovation competitions. Empirical analysis will be based on semi-structured interviews as well as patent data analysis.