Making sense of high value manufacturing: relating policy and theory

Abstract

Government policy agendas in high-cost economies focus on manufacturing competitiveness promoting what they term High Value Manufacturing (HVM). HVM is seen as the solution to the problem of manufacturers in high-cost economies being outcompeted by those in low-cost economies. Despite the ubiquity of the term HVM, there is little academic engagement with it leaving HVM an under-theorized, emerging phenomenon lacking in academic legitimization. Our purpose is therefore to gain a 'theoretical foothold' to allow the phenomenon of HVM to be characterized. Policy documents from the UK and German governments and the European Commission are empirically analysed to determine the themes within their arguments. A literature consultation is conducted to reveal the underlying theoretical strands informing these arguments. A synthesis follows that relates the themes within the policy documents to the identified theoretical strands. We find that policy uses a plurality of multi-disciplinary, randomly drawn elements. However, despite this, some patterns can be identified with elements drawn from operations strategy, supply chain management and innovation. By defining these elements, this article makes sense of the policy rhetoric and builds a clearer understating of HVM so facilitating sharper and more structured research into its nature and its contribution to contemporary manufacturing competitiveness.

Impeding factors for the generation of collaborative innovation performance in ecosystem-based manufacturing

“…In doing so, we contribute to innovation ecosystems theory (Jacobides et al, 2018;Adner, 2006) by introducing a new conceptvalue co-appropriation which means ensuring the necessary mechanisms are in place to enable all actors participating in collaborative activity in an ecosystem receive a fair share of the created new value. This is important as the actors in an ecosystem become more dependent on each other as innovating without effective value co-appropriation leads to failure (Paton et al, 2021;Jacobides et al, 2018). This study verifies that knowledge, financial and demand constraints are inherent in the existing literature (Pellegrino and Savona, 2017;Amara et al, 2016;D'Este et al, 2012D'Este et al, , 2014Wagner et al, 2011;Madrid-Guijarro et al, 2009;De Jong and Marsili, 2006).…”

“…Further, we argue that the value appropriation dynamic deals with who gets what from the collective effort generated in the ecosystem (Paton et al, 2021). This includes payback and return on investment but also includes non-monetary returns such as relationships, knowledge and long-term partnership building.…”

“…Effective and fair value coappropriation means balancing risks and benefits for all actors including SMEs and suppliers in innovation ecosystems. That is the reason why the value appropriation dynamic (Paton et al, 2021;Adner, 2017;Clarysse et al, 2014) deals with who gets what from the ecosystem. This is a key dynamic that determines a firm's performance and competitiveness in the ecosystem.…”

“…Made in Britain, Innovate UK, National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, Reshoring UK and High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult. These initiatives aim to address the productivity puzzle while increasing collaborative innovation in the manufacturing ecosystem (Paton et al. , 2021; MacBryde et al.…”

“…Made in Britain, Innovate UK, National Manufacturing Institute Scotland, Knowledge Transfer Partnership, Reshoring UK and High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult. These initiatives aim to address the productivity puzzle while increasing collaborative innovation in the manufacturing ecosystem (Paton et al, 2021;MacBryde et al, 2013;Raymond and St-Pierre, 2010;Lawson and Samson, 2001). Extant literature has highlighted the salience of leaders and managers as being important determinants for the adoption of innovation (Bag et al, 2022;Mohammed, 2019).…”