The decomposition of innovation in Europe and China’s catch-up in wind power technology: the role of KIBS

Effects of technology complexity on the emergence and evolution of wind industry manufacturing locations along global value chains

“…40 In contrast, as domestic firms develop know-how and can meet standard manufacturing requirements (see Supplementary Table 1), even with the help of international firms, they can eventually get access to international markets, for example observed in blade manufacturing in China. 53 Figure 6: The highest complexity of wind turbine components in a country in a given year. The Figure is based on data on a country's suppliers and the available data on any international subsidiaries.…”

China’s pragmatic experimentalism towards sustainable transition: Wind power and Sino-Danish collaboration

“…Soon the industry was suffering from an overheated wind power sector, with abundant overcapacity, increased competitive tension between Chinese and foreign industry actors, as well as difficulties in achieving international certification and fulfilling / 106 incentives for turbine quality (e.g. through energy pricing and financial support schemes) (Kirkegaard and Caliskan 2018;García 2013;Zhao et al 2012:228); centralisation of control and planning (Korsnes 2014; Lewis 2013:74; Kirkegaard 2019); and upgrading of core technologies, such as control system software and simulation tools for design and certification (Kirkegaard 2019;Haakonsson et al 2020). Indigenous innovation in core technologies has also been critical for success in instigating a 'turn to quality', and for getting the industry back on track (12th Five-Year Plan for the Scientific and Technological Development of Wind Power, MOST 2012).…”

“…countries' (Mathews and Tan 2015:148), while moving beyond its current stage as the 'world's factory'. China's rapid upgrading has also seen the strategic use of KIBS, which have adopted a business model focused on licensing out technologies (Haakonsson et al 2020), a trend that reached China along with the more generic organizational decomposition of innovation processes (ODIP) (Strambach 2008). For many years, however, both Sino-Danish and Sino-Foreign supply chain relations were marked by a one-way technology transfer, backed by China's renowned and notorious strategy of 'trade market access for technology strategy'.…”

Catching up through green windows of opportunity

“…This was possible as many of the European component suppliers were developing spin-offs of their specialised components by designing plug-in solutions that would function as modules for highly specialised parts, such as control systems and blades. Simultaneously, international standards and certification agencies were evolving (Haakonsson et al 2020).…”