IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v39y2011i2p761-770.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovation and international technology transfer: The case of the Chinese photovoltaic industry

Author

Listed:
  • de la Tour, Arnaud
  • Glachant, Matthieu
  • Ménière, Yann

Abstract

China is the largest solar photovoltaic cell producer in the world, with more than one third of worldwide production in 2008, exporting more than 95 percent of what it produces. The purpose of this paper is to understand the drivers of this success and its limits, with a particular emphasis on the role of technology transfers and innovation. Our analysis combines a review of international patent data at a detailed technology level with field interviews of ten Chinese PV companies. We show that Chinese producers have acquired the technologies and skills necessary to produce PV products through two main channels: the purchasing of manufacturing equipment in a competitive international market and the recruitment of skilled executives from the Chinese diaspora who built pioneer PV firms. The success of these firms in their market is, however, not reflected in their performance in terms of innovation. Rather, patent data highlight a policy-driven effort to catch up in critical technological areas.

Suggested Citation

  • de la Tour, Arnaud & Glachant, Matthieu & Ménière, Yann, 2011. "Innovation and international technology transfer: The case of the Chinese photovoltaic industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 761-770, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:2:p:761-770
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(10)00801-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

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

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antoine Dechezleprêtre & Matthieu Glachant & Yann Ménière, 2013. "What Drives the International Transfer of Climate Change Mitigation Technologies? Empirical Evidence from Patent Data," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 54(2), pages 161-178, February.
    2. James R. Markusen, 1995. "The Boundaries of Multinational Enterprises and the Theory of International Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 169-189, Spring.
    3. Jacob Funk Kirkegaard & Thilo Hanemann & Lutz Weischer, 2009. "It Should Be a Breeze: Harnessing the Potential of Open Trade and Investment Flows in the Wind Energy Industry," Working Paper Series WP09-14, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    4. Wolfgang Keller, 2004. "International Technology Diffusion," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 752-782, September.
    5. Wesley M. Cohen & Richard R. Nelson & John P. Walsh, 2000. "Protecting Their Intellectual Assets: Appropriability Conditions and Why U.S. Manufacturing Firms Patent (or Not)," NBER Working Papers 7552, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Yang, Hong & Wang, He & Yu, Huacong & Xi, Jianping & Cui, Rongqiang & Chen, Guangde, 2003. "Status of photovoltaic industry in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 703-707, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Damien Dussaux & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & Matthieu Glachant, 2017. "Intellectual property rights protection and the international transfer of low-carbon technologies," Working Papers hal-01693539, HAL.
    2. Antoine Dechezleprêtre & Matthieu Glachant, 2014. "Does Foreign Environmental Policy Influence Domestic Innovation? Evidence from the Wind Industry," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 58(3), pages 391-413, July.
    3. Dechezlepretre, Antoine & Perkins, Richard & Neumayer, Eric, 2012. "Regulatory Distance and the Transfer of New Environmentally Sound Technologies: Evidence from the Automobile Sector," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 128199, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    4. Dachs, Bernhard, 2017. "Internationalisation of R&D: A Review of Drivers, Impacts, and new Lines of Research," MPRA Paper 83367, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Matthieu Glachant, 2013. "Greening Global Value Chains: Innovation and the International Diffusion of Technologies and Knowledge," OECD Green Growth Papers 2013/5, OECD Publishing.
    6. Dechezleprêtre, Antoine & Neumayer, Eric & Perkins, Richard, 2015. "Environmental regulation and the cross-border diffusion of new technology: Evidence from automobile patents," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 244-257.
    7. Mare Sarr & Joëlle Noailly, 2017. "Innovation, Diffusion, Growth and the Environment: Taking Stock and Charting New Directions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 66(3), pages 393-407, March.
    8. Greenaway, David & Görg, Holger, 2002. "Much Ado About Nothing? Do Domestic Firms Really Benefit from Foreign Investment?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3485, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Carlino, Gerald & Kerr, William R., 2015. "Agglomeration and Innovation," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 349-404, Elsevier.
    10. Elif Bascavusoglu & Maria Pluvia Zuniga, 2005. "The effects of intellectual property protection on international knowledge contracting," Cahiers de la Maison des Sciences Economiques bla05009, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1).
    11. Roy, Jayjit, 2017. "On the environmental consequences of intra-industry trade," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 50-67.
    12. Chiara Criscuolo & Ralf Martin, 2009. "Multinationals and U.S. Productivity Leadership: Evidence from Great Britain," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(2), pages 263-281, May.
    13. Fosfuri, Andrea, 2004. "Determinants of international activity: evidence from the chemical processing industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1599-1614, December.
    14. Kox, Henk L.M., 2022. "A micro-macro model of foreign direct investment: knowledge-based gravity forces, self-selection and third-country effects," MPRA Paper 115542, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Parrado, Ramiro & De Cian, Enrica, 2014. "Technology spillovers embodied in international trade: Intertemporal, regional and sectoral effects in a global CGE framework," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 76-89.
    16. Jingbo Cui & Zhenxuan Wang & Haishan Yu, 2022. "Can International Climate Cooperation Induce Knowledge Spillover to Developing Countries? Evidence from CDM," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(4), pages 923-951, August.
    17. Hongshik Lee, 2010. "Decision To Invest Abroad: The Case Of South Korean Multinationals," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 281-302, May.
    18. Anja, Breitwieser & Neil, Foster, 2012. "Intellectual property rights, innovation and technology transfer: a survey," MPRA Paper 36094, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Munirul Nabin & Xuan Nguyen & Pasquale Sgro, 2013. "On the Relationship Between Technology Transfer and Economic Growth in Asian Economies," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(7), pages 935-946, July.
    20. Benedict Probst & Simon Touboul & Matthieu Glachant & Antoine Dechezleprêtre, 2021. "Global trends in the invention and diffusion of climate change mitigation technologies," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 6(11), pages 1077-1086, November.

    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:eee:enepol:v:39:y:2011:i:2:p:761-770. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    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.