Economic governance in the Chinese PV industry: Structural and individual factors influencing market development

Pacific Geographies

Gruss, Laura¹ 

[1] German Aerospace Center (DLR), European andInternational Cooperation, Heinrich-Konen-Str. 1 53227 Bonn, Germany;

关键词: China;    photovoltaic industry;    cluster;    rebalancing;    local competition;    wishful thinking;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Since the beginning of the new millennium, the global production of photovoltaic (PV) modules has been experiencing a rapid growth. In 2008, China already had 50 times more producers than in 2001 and three Chinese companies ranked amongst the top 10 PV producers worldwide. However, overcapacities and international trade disputes have challenged the success story of the Chinese PV industry. In order to try to tackle the mechanisms which have fostered the overall development of the Chinese PV industry since the 2000s, I have conducted a qualitative case study on Chinese PV modules producers. Following the logic of a qualitative research design, theories on cluster development have been used as an analytical device for structuring the causal narrative. In a circular research process design, structural factors, such as local growth fetishism and rebalancing, as well as individual factors, such as herd behaviour and wishful thinking, have been identified as drivers along the line of the life cycle of clusters. In this respect, this paper contests the still popular idea of the Chinese central government as the omnipotent and rational director of the Chinese economy and takes the consequences of past decentralization policies as well as bounded rationality into consideration. Since the political emphasis of regional development for global competitiveness had similar policy effects in different countries, the findings call for a context sensitive comparison between industries and countries.

【 授权许可】

Unknown