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

Project Information

GEVACCON

Grant agreement ID: 894063

DOI

10.3030/894063

Project closed

EC signature date 20 April 2020

Start date 1 August 2020

End date 23 October 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 191 149,44

EU contribution

€ 191 149,44

Coordinated by

EIDGENOESSISCHE ANSTALT FUER WASSERVERSORGUNG ABWASSERREINIGUNG UND GEWAESSERSCHUTZ
Switzerland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GEVACCON (Geographies of Value Chain Construction in Emerging Complex Technologies: A Compparative Study of the Electric Vehicle Lithium-ion Battery Industry in China and Germany)

Reporting period: 2020-08-01 to 2022-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Geographies of Value Chain Construction in Emerging Complex Industries (GEVACCON) proposal dealt with central success conditions in the emerging global innovation races. 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. By this, I refer to new industries that consist of complex relationships regarding technological, geographical and governance characteristics (Figure 1). (1) Technologically, the complexity lies in the fact that different segments of the technology value chains are increasingly interrelated (for illustrative cases, see Malhotra et al., 2019 ). Changes in one segment require adjustments in other segments and induce reconfigurations of the whole technology value chain. Moreover, for each segment, multiple technological alternatives exist. Depending on cost, efficiency, and capability considerations, permutations of these options add to the overall complexity of innovation management. (2) Complexity is also added regarding the geographical configuration of the sectors that are connected by the technology value chains, as different resources (material, human, finance, etc.) have to be created in or sourced from different parts of the world. Therefore, actors, resources and institutions need to be coordinated strategically at regional, national, supranational and global levels. (3) Finally, these complexities need to be coordinated in new polycentric governance arrangements among the increasing diversity of actors in the value networks or innovation systems. In contrast to conventional industries, where linear value chain governance modes prevail, the value capture activities in emerging complex industries ask for more network-like or systemic thinking. Given these three dimensions of complexity in innovation management and value chain construction, new capabilities, regulations, and collaboration cultures have to be built-up by a diversity of stakeholders. The extant literature on innovation and industry dynamics is poorly prepared to deal with the increasing complexity of emerging industries in the above-mentioned 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 was therefore to investigate the newly emerging geographies of value chain construction in emerging complex industries. Specifically, I aimed to deconstruct the elements of the emerging industries along their technology value chains, and investigated in detail the geographical configurations of sectors that are interrelated by the multi-component technologies, as well as the new polycentric governance modes of the value networks and/or innovation systems in space.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

GEVACCON had 3 objectives, including Objective 1: conceptualizing success conditions in emerging complex industries, by taking into consideration the impact of the trinity of complexity. Objective 2: adopting mixed methods (patent data analysis and comparative case studies) to reveal the complex value chain construction process in space. Objective 3: identifying competitive strategies of both newcomers and incumbents in emerging complex industries. The project has achieved all the three objectives. And the results have led to three papers which are currently in different statuses of publishment:
Paper 1 "The role of natural resources in accelerating net-zero transitions: Insights from EV lithium-ion battery Technological Innovation System in China", submitted to Technological Forecasting and Social Change, minor revision, in revision (objective 1, 2)
Paper 2 "Attracting butterflies: A phase model of anchoring high-complexity industries in peripheral regions", submitted to Economic Geography, minor revision, in revision (objective 1, 3)
Paper 3 "The rise of China’s new energy vehicle lithium-ion battery industry: the coevolution of battery technological innovation systems and policies" published in Environmental Innovation and Sustainability Transitions (objective 1, 2, 3)
In terns of dissemination of results, the main dissemination activities included:
1 Invited lectures and academic talks related the project:
06.2022: “Green window of opportunities and the anchoring of high-complexity industries in peripheral regions: evidence from China”. Human Geography colloquium, Summer semester. Department of Geography, Kiel University
10.2021“Leapfrogging of latecomer regions in the global emerging green industry space”. Panelist for the kick‐off session of the GeoST thematic group, International Sustainability Transition (IST) Conference, Karlsruhe, Germany
12.2020: “The Geographies of Value Chain Construction in Complex Industries: A Comparative Study of the Electric Vehicle Lithium-ion Battery Industry in China and Germany”, PhD and Postdoc Forum. School of Public Policy & Management, Tsinghua University
2 Conference presentations relate to the project:
06.2022: From the “cradle of automobility” to the “battery hotspot”, the electrification of the automotive industry in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Global Conference on Economic Geography, Dublin, Ireland
04.2022: The role of critical raw materials in accelerating sustainability transitions: insights from the EV battery technological innovation system in China, TFSC Special Issue Paper Development Workshop, online.
09.2021: Keeping butterflies in the periphery: the emergence of the electric vehicle battery industry in Ningde, China, International Sustainability Transitions Conference, Kasrule, Germany
05.2021: China’s race for global leadership in electric vehicle battery sector: the co-evolution of battery technological innovation systems and political context, ECRP virtual workshop.
Exploitation:
Through collaborations with Cirus and Fraunhofer ISI in Germany, I engaged with policy practitioners to disseminate my project findings. I also interacted strongly with the EU Battery Alliance, the German Battery Association, the China Battery Association, and Power Battery Application Branch of China Industrial Association of Power Sources, to better understanding their priorities and concerns, and to provide knowledge from GEVACCON to help them better advise companies in designing appropriate competitive strategies.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

All these outreach activities and public engagements helped creating awareness of the importance of studying the geographies of value chain construction process in emerging complex industries, and therefore prepared policymakers, companies and the generic public in designing or implementing competitive strategies in the current and future innovation races. By interacting with the public, I was able to better understand their concerns, and therefore come up with more appropriate and realistic policy suggestions, and they also got a clearer understanding of how scientific research can contribute to successful transitions to more sustainable modes of production and consumption, which will be a major concern in the upcoming decades.

paper 1

paper 2

paper 3