Global Industrial Chain Research Articles

The multiplex network structure of global cobalt industry chain

During the transition of energy system to clean energy, energy security challenges shift from crude oil to critical minerals such as cobalt. Understanding the global cobalt industry chain thus has become a new challenge in the coming era of clean energy. In this study, we construct a multiplex network model and analyze the multiplex structure features of the global cobalt industry chain, which are our main innovations. Results show that (1) trade complexity in upstream network is the lowest compared with middle-stream network and downstream network; (2) most economies only participate in one or two stages of cobalt industry chain, while a few economies participate in the whole chain and own the global influences; (3) Mainland of China, USA, Germany, United Kingdom, and Spain are the systemic importance nodes for the global cobalt industry chain. These results provide a knowledge base for future studies on the cascading failure of supply crisis in the multiplex network of the global cobalt industry chain.

Research on Supply Risk Transmission of Global Cobalt Industrial Chain Based on Multi-Layer Network

Research on Supply Risk Transmission of Global Cobalt Industrial Chain Based on Multi-Layer Network

Development Strategy of China's Coal Industry under the Reconstruction of Global Industrial Chain and Energy Supply Chain

Development Strategy of China's Coal Industry under the Reconstruction of Global Industrial Chain and Energy Supply Chain

Network Proximity Evolution of Open Innovation Diffusion: A Case of Artificial Intelligence for Healthcare

Open innovation diffusion is of great significance to industrial transformation and upgrading, forming an open innovation ecosystem based on the patent publication. However, patent applicants contribute much knowledge to the public domain, and the communication channel, which is network proximity, does not receive much attention. This study aimed to explore the key driving factors of open innovation diffusion by constructing a theoretical framework that includes four proximity dimensions in the context of a global industrial chain. By taking artificial intelligence for healthcare as an example, this study applied the quadratic assignment procedure model to conduct an empirical analysis with a sample containing 62 patent applicants. The empirical result verified that the key drivers are from the proximity dimensions and the interactions. Technological proximity plays the leading role in innovation diffusion, while organizational and temporal proximities play secondary roles. In addition, the significant moderating effects suggest that the proximity dimensions interact in innovation activities. Moreover, the proximity framework provides an overview of innovation management and policy implication.

Industry-University-Research Cooperation and the Solution to the Low-end Dilemma of GVC：From the Perspective of Export DVAR

In the 1990s, China quickly integrated into the global industrial chain and the global value chain (GVC) by virtue of its demographic dividend, and became the “workshop of the world”. In fact, due to the lack of core technologies, China is still at the low-end of GVC, with low manufacturing added value. At present, getting rid of the low-end dilemma and realizing GVC upgrading are of vital importance to the transformation and upgrading of China’s economy. As an important strategic way for enterprises to enhance their technological innovation capabilities, industry-university-research cooperation (IURC) may be an effective path for China to improve the value-added acquisition capacity of manufacturing industry.To this end, this paper analyzes the impact and mechanism of IURC on the domestic value-added ratio (DVAR) of Chinese manufacturing enterprises’ exports by using the matching data of China’s industrial enterprises, customs trade and patent application from 2000 to 2013, in which export DVAR is used to reflect the position of enterprises in GVC, and the level of IURC is measured by the joint patent applications.The research results show that IURC significantly improves export DVAR. The results of PSM analysis, instrument variable method and other robustness tests all back up the reliability of the empirical results. The mechanism analysis shows that the value-added efficiency of intermediate input and the proportion of processing trade both play an intermediary role in the process of IURC promoting export DVAR. From the perspective of regional division, IURC has a significant impact on export DVAR in eastern China. Based on different ownership, IURC can increase the DVAR of private enterprises, but its impact on the DVAR of state-owned enterprises and foreign enterprises is not obvious. From the angle of industry factor intensity, IURC has a positive impact on skill-intensive enterprises and labor-intensive enterprises. Also, the IURC of both invention patents and utility patents has a positive impact on export DVAR.The possible contribution of this paper may exist in the following aspects: Firstly, based on the analytical framework of Kee and Tang (2016), it introduces IURC into the theoretical model by constructing the incomplete substitution between intermediate inputs. Secondly, it provides new empirical evidence on the impact of IURC on enterprises’ GVC upgrading, and finds that IURC contributes to the increase of export DVAR. Thirdly, this paper suggests that attention should be paid to the impact of IURC on heterogeneous enterprises in the process of promoting the cooperation.

The impact of the rise of emerging economies on global industrial CO2 emissions: Evidence from emerging economies in Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

The rise of emerging economies has changed the production structure of the global industrial chain, which in turn has had a significant impact on global industrial CO2 emissions. As the most representative countries among the emerging economies, the developing countries in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have become the leading supplier for global industrial chain over the past decade. To study the impact of the rise of emerging countries in RCEP on global industrial CO2 emissions, we proposed a new structural decomposition analysis method using the global environmentally extended multi-regional input–output table. A quantitative analysis using a multi-regional input–output table shows that if the emission intensities remain unchanged in 2010, the increase in these countries’ proportion of supply of final demand and supply of intermediate input resulted in an increase of 2,068 and 87 million tons (Mt) in global CO2 emissions, respectively. The counterfactual analysis shows that China and the Association of Southeast Asia's (ASEAN) participation in the global value chains would increase global CO2 emissions in 2010–2015, but the emissions from Chinese energy and raw material production has gradually slowed or reversed. Simultaneously, the emissions embodied in global industrial chains from ASEAN have increased. Emerging economies should pursue a low-carbon way in consumption patterns and production technologies, and global mitigation efforts should prioritize support to the emerging emitters with green technology.

The Multiplex Network Structure of Global Cobalt Industry Chain

During the transition of energy system to clean energy, energy security challenges shift from crude oil to critical minerals such as cobalt. Understanding the global cobalt industry chain thus become a new challenge in the coming era of clean energy. In this study, we construct a multiplex network model and analyze the multiplex structure features of the global cobalt industry chain, which are our main innovations. Results show that (1) trade complexity in downstream network is higher than that in middle-stream network and downstream; (2) most economies only participate one or two stages of cobalt industry chain, while few economies participate the whole chain and own the global influences; (3) Mainland of China, Germany, USA, South Korea, and Poland are the active nodes in the whole cobalt industry chain. These results provide a knowledge base for future studies on the cascading failure of supply crisis in the multiplex network of global cobalt industry chain.

Prospects and Challenges Analysis of China’s Customs Tobacco Trade Security and Facilitation System Innovation

Objectives: At present, affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the global industrial chain and logistics chain have been hit, and the international trade security and facilitation order have encountered unprecedented challenges. As a supervisory authority for the entry and exit of a country, customs plays a pivotal role in global economic exchanges. The customs management system is also considered one of the core issues affecting international trade, and the customs clearance link is the crucial link in the ongoing international trade. Customs clearance efficiency, import and export procedures, import and export time, import and export costs, and transparency of border management and other issues related to trade time and trade costs are closely related to customs. In the WTO’s trade facilitation agreement, 90 per cent of the content is directly related to customs. At the same time, certain specific powers possessed by the customs as a government department also make it shoulder the obligations of the times entrusted by the sovereign state, this includes safeguarding normal international trade and combating the smuggling of tobacco and frozen products. Achieving adequate supervision and promoting trade facilitation are the main contradictions and challenges faced by customs in various countries under economic globalization. Facing the new international environmental changes, the customs of all countries need to spare no effort to overcome barriers and join together.

Network-Based Driving Force of National Economic Development: A Social Capital Perspective.

Network science has been widely applied in theoretical and empirical studies of global value chain (GVC), and many related articles have emerged, forming many more mature and complete analytical frameworks. Among them, the GVC accounting method based on complex network theory is different from the mainstream economics in both research angle and content. In this paper, we build up global industrial value chain network (GIVCN) models based on World Input–Output Database, introduce the theoretical framework of Social Capital, and define the network-based indicators with economic meanings. Second, we follow the econometric framework to analyze the hypothesis and test whether it is true. Finally, we study how the three types of capital constituted by these indicators interact with each other, and discuss their impact on the social capital (economic development level, i.e., GDP). The results prove that the structural capital (industrial status) has a positive impact on the social capital; the relational capital (industrial correlation) has a positive impact on both social capital and structural capital; the cognitive capital (industrial structure) has a small impact on the social capital, structural capital, and relational capital.

The global copper material trade network and risk evaluation: A industry chain perspective

With modern industry's increasing demand for products from all sectors of the copper industry chain, the trade relationships between countries for copper material are becoming increasingly closer. Additionally, different trade characteristics exist in different sectors of the industrial chain. Based on the data for the global copper trade in 2019and from the perspective of the copper industry chain, this paper analyzes the trade characteristics of the global copper industry chain and of important countries by constructing the trade networks for different links. In addition, we establish a two-dimensional evaluation index system to evaluate the comprehensive trade risks of the major importing countries for each link of the industrial chain, including their supply risks and vulnerability to supply constraints. The following conclusions are drawn. Copper processing is the link with the highest density in the global industrial chain supply chain network and the best connectivity and differentiation among trading countries. In the risk assessment of global copper import trade, Germany is a low risk country in the whole industrial chain. The United States and China are countries with relatively low risks in the whole industrial chain, and the trade risks are relatively high only in the selection link. Malaysia and Poland are high risk countries of the whole copper material industry chain, while Japan, the republic of Korea and Spain are the “critical” countries of trade risk, and it is necessary to focus on the control of trade supply risk.

Strategic focus study on the new development pattern of ‘dual circulation’ in China under the impact of COVID-19

Under the impact of COVID-19, the global economy has slowed down or has even shown negative growth, and the global industrial chain specialisation has shown three new trends：regionalisation, chain-clustering and back-up. Under this background, China has accelerated the construction of a new development pattern whereby domestic and international economic circulation boost each other, with the domestic circulation as the mainstay. As the Yangtze River Delta is expected to form the first industrial chain region in China, it is supposed to be the ‘window of China’ that supports the ‘dual circulation’ development pattern and leads the new round of globalisation, mainly through four upgrading paths ：constructing the ‘master’ of the industrial chain, creating the ‘brain’ of the industrial chain, laying out the ‘source place’ of the technology chain, and building a ‘safe haven’ for international investment and trade.

ASEAN’s Cognition of China–US Gaming and Its Role in Regional Cooperation

China–US relations will stagnate in a strategic game for some time to come and even for a long historical period. ASEAN will find itself confronted with a new problem and a new challenge as it has to navigate through this situation and cope with inter-state relations and international affairs under this context. As the largest neighbor of China and a main partner to the US in Asia, ASEAN insists on “not choosing any side” and sticks to the “balance of power”. The intensified China–US game has some potential impact on China-ASEAN relations. Securing the centrality of ASEAN in regional cooperation not only helps maintain lasting peace, stability and prosperity in Southeast Asia, but also is in line with the long-term strategic interests of China and the US in the region. China will continue to support the centrality of ASEAN in regional cooperation, promote deep integration of the “Belt and Road” initiative with different institutional arrangements that ASEAN makes for regional integration, and give positive considerations to building production bases in Southeast Asia to improve its global industrial chain.

Dual Circulations of Domestic and International Economy: Theoretical Framework and Chinese Practice

Facing the current anti-globalization trend of rising protectionism, sluggish international trade and investment, as well as the impact of the new pandemic on the global industrial chain and supply chain, the CPC Central Committee duly put forward the strategic plan of “accelerating the formation of a new development pattern featuring domestic circulation as the main body and mutually reinforcing the dual circulations of domestic and international economy”. What is the connotation of domestic circulation, and how to measure it? What is the development trend of the dual circulations of domestic and international economy? How do the dual circulations of domestic and international economy affect each other, and what are the problems? How should we further build a new development pattern? All these problems are worth considering.This paper clarifies the connotation and boundary of domestic circulation and international circulation from the theoretical level, constructs the measurement method of dual circulations by using the input-output model, and thus constructs the theoretical analysis framework of dual circulations. In this way, we can study the current situation, characteristics, interaction and mechanism of China’s dual circulations.It comes to the following conclusions: Firstly, based on domestic supporting capacity and domestic market space, China’s economic development has shown a significant feature of domestic circulation and the overall level is higher than that of most emerging economies. Secondly, the general trade export relying on the domestic supply system is the main mode for China to participate in international circulation, followed by the processing trade mode of “both ends outside” and the general trade import mode using foreign supporting facilities. Thirdly, the entry of foreign-owned enterprises, especially cost-oriented foreign-owned enterprises greatly hinders the construction of domestic market network. Fourthly, the enhancement of domestic circulation, especially domestic supporting capacity, has significantly promoted general trade exports with a higher value-added level, which is conducive to the transformation and upgrading of China’s open economy.The conclusions of this paper provide important enlightenment for China to accelerate the construction of a new development pattern.In short, this paper mainly expands the existing research from the following aspects: Firstly, the input-output method is used to construct the theoretical analysis framework of dual circulations, which provides a normative analysis method for the study of dual circulations. Secondly, using the data of national input-output to make a quantitative analysis of the development situation and characteristics of dual circulations of major countries, especially China, is helpful to deeply analyze the current situation and prominent problems of China’s dual circulations. Thirdly, the policy suggestions based on normative research and analysis conclusions have certain practical significance for accelerating the construction of new development pattern.

Mapping global fuel cell vehicle industry chain and assessing potential supply risks

Fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) have the potential to contribute significantly to improving air quality and addressing climate concerns in the future. However, due to the highly dynamic technology and manufacturing developments, there is a lack of understanding of the state-of-the-art global FCV industry chain and associated supply risks. This study fills such a research gap by mapping global FCV industry chain during the period 2017–2019, and assessing the supply risks of relevant key commodities. The results show that significant supply risks existed in global FCV industry chain, especially in upstream commodities like platinum and gas diffusion layer (GDL). The combined indicator of Herfindahl-Hirschman Index and Worldwide Governance-Indicator (HHI-WGI) is used to quantify the supply risks, showing that HHI-WGI of platinum is on the highest level. On the national level, supply risks are identified primarily in platinum for Japan, in vehicles for the United States, and along the entire industry chain for China. Network analysis is conducted to visualize and analyze how countries, companies and commodities are connected, showing that the highest supply risks were identified in GDLs. It is recommended that country-specific measures should be taken to mitigate supply risks, including building up national stocks of critical materials, investing overseas, enhancing the guidance over industry policies, and stepping up infrastructure construction.

Interdisciplinary education of fermentation engineering graduates

Fermentation engineering is an industrial process that uses the transformation of microorganisms or other cells to produce a specific product in a specific bioreactor. Fermentation engineering has developed from an ancient food fermentation relying solely on experience accumulation to an important production mode of food, agriculture, medicine, chemical industry and other means of production and life. It has become a key technology to support the sustainable development of human beings, and is inseparable from the continuous progress of interdisciplinary technology. The interdisciplinary integration and the continuous upward movement of China's global industrial chain will inevitably put forward higher requirements for the cultivation of fermentation engineering composite talents in the new situation. In order to constantly improve the interdisciplinary fermentation engineering compound talent training system, in recent years, the research lab has been refining and improving the concept of talent training, and actively deepening the reform of talent training system. Systematic research and practice have been carried out around the aspects of training program, enrollment system, teacher background, subject setting, scientific research practice, evaluation system, etc., which has promoted the technological progress of fermentation engineering and related supporting industries, and contributed an important force to the transformation of China from a big fermentation country to a powerful fermentation country.

Multiplex cross-shareholding relations in the global oil & gas industry chain based on multilayer network modeling

Abstract Capturing the interactive shareholding relations among agents of the oil & gas industry chain is an important topic for obtaining a better understanding of the ownership and structure of the global oil & gas market. This paper proposes a multilayer cross-shareholding network method to map the multiplex cross-shareholding relations in the global oil & gas industry chain from the reciprocated, trilateral and largest component perspectives. The results show the following: (1) The cross-shareholding behavior among the listed oil & gas companies is a more popular shareholding pattern for the energy giants (the top 17.49% of companies that make up approximately 60.43% of the total market value). (2) Few (only 9 pairs between different companies) are reciprocated, and most of them belong to Israel, Japan, India, etc. (3) The “co-shareholder type” is the most critical trilateral relation in the global oil & gas industry. (4) The companies from Israel, Japan, and the Marshall Islands formed powerful alliances in different single layers, and the companies from Japan and India formed powerful alliances with cross-layer cross-shareholding relations. This paper is useful for understanding the ownership and alliance structures and the interactions of the oil & gas industry chain, and it can also provide a new perspective to determine the systemic risk paths.

Influence of COVID-19 Epidemic on China and Global Supply Chain and Policy Suggestions

The global COVID-19 outbreak at the beginning of 2020 has had a great impact on many global industrial chains, and triggered a systematic risk of chain breakage. By studying the actual supply chain strategy and the change trend of supply chain strategy in representative countries and enterprises, this research predicts the short-term, medium-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 epidemic on global supply chain. Among them, the short-term and medium-term impacts include encouraging enterprises to improve the flexibility of supply chain by constructing supply chain digital platform, supply chain diversification system and supply chain early warning system; in the medium and long term, the global supply chain layout will change from globalization to regionalization, and some high-end manufacturing industries will have a backflow trend. Our government needs to establish an early warning system of industrial supply chain security as soon as possible in the short term, promote the industrial Internet platform in the short and medium term, continuously support the healthy and efficient development of the supply chain, and adjust the industrial layout in the medium and long term to cope with the global supply chain adjustment.

Trade activities and investments in the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Ways and means of protecting the rights and legitimate interests of enterprises

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the global system. It has especially increased uncertainty in overseas investment and foreign trade activity of enterprises. The pandemic continues to cause economic, political and legal risks (especially compliance risk and default risk) faced by enterprises entering foreign markets and carrying out investment activities. Therefore, enterprises need to enhance their legal awareness, strengthen compliance management of overseas investment by enterprises and create a risk management system, and carry out investment activities on the premise that they comply with international rules, the legal norms of the host country and the relevant domestic laws and regulations. On this basis, governments should strengthen the rule of law concerning foreign affairs, improve related government regulations for overseas investments. According to the “Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) for National Economic and Social Development and Vision 2035 of the People’s Republic of China”, China will improve its legislation on overseas investment, support enterprises to integrate into the global industrial and supply chain, improve the transnational operational capacity and level, and guide enterprises to strengthen compliance management so they can prevent and resolve overseas political, economic, and security risks. The Government of the People’s Republic of China enhances friendly cooperation in the legal field and establishes working mechanisms for consultation and coordination with other countries. Much attention is paid to conducting research in the field of strengthening risk assessment methods and risk management for enterprises engaging in outward investment.

Analysis on National Strategic Planning and System Construction Under the Global Great Change

If we want to say that human beings is in the global change, the author thinks the biggest variable in this big change is the technological revolution and some subsequent chain reactions, such as global industrial chain restructuring. At present, for a long time to come, although there will be many rich and rival multinational corporations to emerge in the world, the country is still an important actor in the world. Therefore, based on the country, it is very important to systematically analyze and explain the strategic direction of the national actors and its internal system construction. On the one hand, we should deal with the new industrial division of labor brought about by the technological reform, and on the other hand, we should properly solve the new problems emerging in the domestic society. In this context, this study hopes to provide some suggestions and suggestions for the strategic planning and institution-building of the most important actors in international relations today, namely the state. The author conducts research through historical document method and case analysis method, and sorts out some key cases in history and important laws in current international relations, thus forming important supporting materials for the conclusion of this study. The most important conclusions of this paper include two parts. The first part is that the complexity of national strategic planning is usually beyond a single dimension, which requires multiple considerations and a large amount of talent and energy. The second part is the national system construction, which can not be completely imported from outside, must be combined with their own national conditions and the actual continuous optimization and improvement, in order to maintain the matching of the system.

China's Economic Challenges Beyond Covid-19

Since 2020, the U.S.-China trade war, economic de-globalization, and global epidemic outbreak have exacerbated the instability of the external environment in China. In response, the Chinese government has put forward the dual circulation strategy, striving to activate and expand domestic markets, and combined with the new infrastructure strategy to strengthen independent technological innovation and continue to upgrade the industrial chain. Undoubtedly, the launch of the "dual circulation and new infrastructure" strategy in China means that its current economic development model will usher in a new wave of adjustments, and bring fundamental changes to the international industrial division of labor and the global economy. It is necessary to conduct an early response assessment to ensure that we can still maintain the supply chain in the process of global industrial supply chain reorganization.