SBE-RCUK: Co-location of manufacturing and innovation: drivers and impacts of technological innovation along the wind energy global value chain

许多高科技产业，包括清洁技术产业，在过去二十年中经历了重大的地理转移，公司将其零部件供应链的制造扩展或转移到新的国家。这些制造业转移引发了对政策、经济竞争力和研究都很重要的问题。具体来说，企业改变或重新关注其地理战略和物理位置的原因是什么，以及这样做是否会改变这些企业所进行的创新的性质和方向。本项目通过全球风能技术行业的案例来研究这些问题，风力涡轮机的需求和制造已经从美国和欧洲转移到包括中国在内的新兴经济体。制造业从技术前沿国家向新兴市场的转移，可能会影响风电行业的研发战略、技术创新和竞争优势。考虑到新兴国家和发展中国家风电部署的政策目标，预计不同风力涡轮机部件的制造将进一步扩大到新的国家，这意味着了解与制造转移相关的可能权衡是很重要的。这项研究为在全球分布的现代制造业中刺激当地制造业、经济竞争力和技术发展的政策设计提供了信息。它还强调了制造业转移如何影响技术创新能力，以长期应对气候和环境挑战，从而支持国家和国际政策的设计。该项目分析了已经发生地理转移的制造业类型，最重要的是，这些制造业的国际转移是否以及如何影响风电行业的创新方向。这项研究的重点是零部件制造商，这些制造商通常是向原始设备制造商（oem）供货的中小型企业（或SMEs），即全球10-15家组装风力涡轮机的制造商。中小企业对一个国家的经济尤为重要，因为在美国，它们占雇主企业的90%以上。制造业中小企业必须创新，以越来越低的成本生产产品和/或发展新的能力，以保持竞争力。该项目依赖于企业层面风电供应链的新数据和综合混合方法，包括对oem供应商关系、公共政策、组件技术、半结构化访谈和专利等全球数据的分析。在理解包括中小企业和大型原始设备制造商在内的全球风能价值链中的创新时，该项目的结果有助于理解驱动不同类型公司在本国或国际上制造的决定的因素，以及制造地点是否影响创新的技术重点和特定行业进行的研发活动的时间范围。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Many high-technology industries, including clean technology industries, have seen major geographical shifts over the past two decades in which companies expand or move manufacturing of their component supply chain to new countries. These manufacturing shifts raise questions that are important for policy, economic competitiveness, and research. Specifically, what are the reasons for firms to alter or refocus their geographic strategies and physical locations, and whether doing so changes the nature and direction of innovation that such firms undertake. This project examines these questions through the case of the global wind technology industry, where both the demand for and manufacturing of wind turbines have shifted from the United States and Europe to emerging economies, including China. The shifts in the location of manufacturing from countries at the frontier of technology to newer markets can potentially shape R&D strategies, technological innovation, and competitive advantage in the wind sector. Given policy targets for wind deployment in emerging and developing countries, additional expansion of the manufacturing of different wind turbine components to new countries is expected, which means it is important to understand the possible tradeoffs associated with the manufacturing shifts. This research informs the design of policies that spur local manufacturing, economic competitiveness, and technology development in globally-distributed, modern manufacturing industries. It also highlights the ways in which manufacturing shifts affect the ability of technological innovation to meet climate and environmental challenges in the long term, thus supporting design of national and international policies. This project analyzes the types of manufacturing that have shifted geographically and, most crucially, whether and how these international shifts in manufacturing impact the direction of innovation in the wind industry. The research focuses on component manufacturers who are often small and medium enterprises (or SMEs) that supply to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), i.e., the 10-15 manufacturers that assemble wind turbines worldwide. SMEs are particularly relevant for a country's economy as they comprise, for example in the United States, over ninety percent of employer firms. Manufacturing SMEs must innovate to produce goods at increasingly lower costs and/or to develop new capabilities to stay competitive. The project relies on novel data of the wind supply chain at the firm level and a comprehensive mixed-methods approach, including the analysis of global data on OEM-supplier relationships, public policies, component technologies, semi-structured interviews, and patents. In understanding innovation in the global value chain for wind energy that includes both SMEs and larger OEMs, the results of the project contribute to the understanding of what drives decisions by different types of firms to manufacture in their home country or internationally, and whether the location of manufacturing influences the technological focus of innovation and the time-horizon of R&D activities undertaken in a particular industry.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.