Reinventing Mass Production: China's Specialization in Innovative Manufacturing

Abstract

Based on more than one hundred firm-level interviews conducted between 2010 and 2012, this paper examines the political economy of China’s emergence as a global manufacturing powerhouse. Our argument is that China’s industrial growth trajectory cannot be fully explained by either factor the cost advantages associated with markets or the policy interventions associated with the developmental state. Instead, we argue that China’s rise stems from the development of unique capabilities in innovative manufacturing. We provide a typology for understanding the phenomenon of innovative manufacturing, and show how it has led to a complex distribution of risks and rewards, as well as multidirectional learning, across a variety of national contexts. Thus, through our analysis of Chinese industrial upgrading, we generate new frameworks for understanding national competitiveness and industrial catch-up in the contemporary global economy.