IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ids/ijtlid/v4y2011i1-2-3p148-180.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Going mobile in China: shifting value chains and upgrading in the mobile telecom sector

Author

Listed:
  • Loren Brandt
  • Eric Thun

Abstract

This paper examines the question of how a shift in the end point of a global value chain alters the prospects for industrial upgrading in a developing economy through an analysis of the mobile telecom sector in China. Over the last decade, China has become the world's largest market for mobile phones, and domestic Chinese firms have been able to take advantage of both increasing modularity (to outsource components that they lacked the technology to produce) and their superior knowledge of low-end market segments to expand sales vis-a-vis foreign firms. But these advantages are temporary: high levels of modularity lead to intense competition and low-profits among domestic firms and foreign firms rapidly improve their market knowledge. The key to long-term success for domestic firms is investment in design capabilities, and a shift away from purely modular relationships, but the rapid rate of technical change in the industry complicates this process.

Suggested Citation

  • Loren Brandt & Eric Thun, 2011. "Going mobile in China: shifting value chains and upgrading in the mobile telecom sector," International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 4(1/2/3), pages 148-180.
  • Handle: RePEc:ids:ijtlid:v:4:y:2011:i:1/2/3:p:148-180
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=41903
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ding, Ke & Hioki, Shiro, 2018. "The role of a technological platform in facilitating innovation in the global value chain : a case study of China's mobile phone industry," IDE Discussion Papers 692, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    2. Wen Chen, 2023. "The impact of digital economy development on innovation in renewable energy technologies," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(6), pages 4285-4308, December.
    3. Yue Lin, 2018. "Post-crisis China impact on trade integration and manufacturing competitiveness between Argentina and Brazil," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 147-170, April.
    4. Pan, Wenrong & Xie, Tao & Wang, Zhuwang & Ma, Lisha, 2022. "Digital economy: An innovation driver for total factor productivity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 303-311.
    5. Lechowski, Grzegorz, 2019. "Beyond "dependent development" in a high-tech industry? The interplay between domestic institutions and transnational sectoral governance in the trajectories of emerging Polish IT firms [," Discussion Papers, Research Group Globalization, Work, and Production SP III 2018-302r, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, revised 2019.
    6. De Marchi, Valentina & Giuliani, Elisa & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2015. "Local innovation and global value chains in developing countries," MERIT Working Papers 2015-022, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    7. Prud'homme, Dan & von Zedtwitz, Max, 2019. "Managing “forced” technology transfer in emerging markets: The case of China," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 1-1.
    8. Sun, Yutao & Grimes, Seamus, 2016. "China’s increasing participation in ICT’s global value chain: A firm level analysis," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 210-224.
    9. Lechowski, Grzegorz, 2018. "Beyond "dependent development" in a high-tech industry? The interplay between domestic institutions and transnational sectoral governance in the trajectories of emerging Polish IT firms," Discussion Papers, Research Group Globalization, Work, and Production SP III 2018-302, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    10. Lechowski, Grzegorz & Krzywdzinski, Martin, 2022. "Emerging positions of German firms in the industrial internet of things: A global technological ecosystem perspective," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 22(4), pages 666-683.
    11. Joonkoo Lee & Gary Gereffi, 2013. "The co-evolution of concentration in mobile phone global value chains and its impact on social upgrading in developing countries," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series ctg-2013-25, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    12. Brandt, Loren & Thun, Eric, 2016. "Constructing a Ladder for Growth: Policy, Markets, and Industrial Upgrading in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 78-95.
    13. Thun,Eric & Taglioni,Daria & Sturgeon,Timothy J. & Dallas,Mark Peter, 2022. "Massive Modularity : Understanding Industry Organization in the Digital Age — TheCase of Mobile Phone Handsets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10164, The World Bank.
    14. John Humphrey & Ke Ding & Mai Fujita & Shiro Hioki & Koichiro Kimura, 2018. "Platforms, Innovation and Capability Development in the Chinese Domestic Market," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(3), pages 408-423, July.
    15. Valentina De Marchi & Elisa Giuliani & Roberta Rabellotti, 2018. "Do Global Value Chains Offer Developing Countries Learning and Innovation Opportunities?," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(3), pages 389-407, July.
    16. Chun Yang & David Yuen‐Tung Chan, 2021. "Market Expansion of Domestic Gaming Firms in Shenzhen, China: Dilemma of Globalisation and Regionalisation," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 112(3), pages 256-273, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ids:ijtlid:v:4:y:2011:i:1/2/3:p:148-180. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sarah Parker (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.inderscience.com/browse/index.php?journalID=240 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.