Upgrading of Symbolic and Synthetic Knowledge Bases: Analysis of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry and the Automotive Industry in China

The degree and the way of upgrading differ widely per industry. This article tries to give some new insights in these differences by linking the concept of upgrading to that of the knowledge base. Moreover, we try to identify barriers to upgrading as well as the appropriate spatial scale on which upgrading takes place, again for different knowledge bases. We support our argument by analysing the process of upgrading in two industries in China: the AEC industry (in Beijing and Shanghai) and the automotive industry (in Shanghai). Within these industries we focus on upgrading on two levels: within firms and within projects. Our findings for both industries suggest that the principal ways of upgrading of the symbolic knowledge base are joint brainstorming in internal and external project teams and labour mobility. Major factors that hinder the upgrading of symbolic knowledge include the development stage of China, the Chinese educational system and tensions about duplication of western designs. Upgrading of the synthetic knowledge base takes mainly place via inter-company training programmes of foreign firms, technology transfer and labour mobility on the long run. A possible barrier for upgrading of synthetic knowledge, especially in the automotive industry, is that foreign firms tend to keep certain engineering activities in their home base because of the risk of knowledge leakage. However, this is changing quickly as many foreign carmakers and their suppliers invest in engineering centres in China due to an increasing demand for cars, to governmental regulations and to intensifying competition.Urban development, upgrading, automotive industry, AEC industry, knowledge economy, China.

Designing the Dragon or does the Dragon Design? An Analysis of the Impact of the Creative Industry on the Process of Urban Development of Beijing, China

After reading Richard Florida’s work (e.g. Florida, 2003) on the creative industry and on the importance of the creative class for urban development in post-industrial economies, many cities in Europe and the USA have started to invest in creativity in general and in design in particular. Much less is known about the role of creativity in industrial economies. This paper analyses the role of design in the economic and social development of China’s political and cultural capital Beijing. We will try to identify the main success factors and barriers for the design business and show how design can be further used for social and economic development of the city. Backed up by conspicuous state investments and by fast decision making, industrial areas have been transformed and neighbourhoods have been revitalised, infrastructure has been upgraded, and some modern iconic landmarks are added to the collection of old monuments. Moreover, priority has changed from “Made in China” to “Create in China”, allowing economic activities to move upwards in the value chain. Nevertheless, and despite the presence of key research and art institutes, further developments of the design sector and the use of design in other (manufacturing) sectors will still be a huge challenge.Creative Industry, Design, Urban Development, Industrial Economy, Beijing, China

Events as spaces for upgrading

This study contributes to the literature dealing with upgrading of the Chinese automotive industry by analysing the role of events in the upgrading process. By combining literature on temporary clusters with that of knowledge sourcing and upgrading, we investigate how firms use events for upgrading. To do so, we systematically analyse a number of upgrading mechanisms. Moreover we analyse how event organisers can influence these mechanisms, and identify a number of barriers that may hinder the process of upgrading during events. Our empirical study of two automotive events in Shanghai reveals that firms use events particularly for monitoring, to access global buzz, and for the development of new global pipelines. Mobility turned to be less relevant. Event organisers act as ‘temporary cluster managers’, and influence upgrading via three types of policies: content policy, matchmaking policy and access policy. Identified barriers include defensive strategies of exhibitors, a focus on trade, and the large size of the show.. These barriers hinder monitoring and access to global buzz and pipelines in particular

Upgrading across Organisational and Geographical Configurations

__Abstract__ This thesis deals with upgrading: a process of learning and knowledge sourcing in order to generate value added. We analyse how upgrading takes place across various organisational configurations: formal collaboration, clusters, projects, and events. Moreover, we investigate the process of upgrading within, as well as between, different spatial scales, and analyse the role of different actors, upgrading mechanisms, and the symbolic and synthetic knowledge bases. We study the upgrading process in a number of empirical case studies of the Chinese automotive industry. We find that in addition to upgrading in formal collaboration – through joint-ventures in particular – upgrading also takes place in other organisational configurations. We unveil that clusters and events are of particular importance for upgrading via ‘monitoring’ and ‘buzz’. Hereby, we stress the critical role of event organisers as ‘temporary cluster managers’, acting as a bridge between the global and Chinese automotive industry. We also show the importance of the project configuration which crosses over other organisational configurations, and upgrading in projects takes place via nearly all upgrading mechanisms. In addition, we provide new empirical evidence for the importance of physical co-presence of different specialists in the automotive industry on the (temporary) local scale to enable non-verbal communication, while on the other hand, we demonstrate that upgrading of the synthetic and symbolic knowledge bases has a global dimension as well

Opportunities and Challenges of Urban Agriculture for Sustainable City Development

Urban Agriculture (UA) has gained popularity in cities all over the world. In this paper, we explore the concept of UA and discuss it along various locational and strategic dimensions. The article aims to provide insights into the chances and challenges of UA for sustainable city development. By making use of case examples from cities worldwide we show that UA can contribute to the social, environmental, and economics pillars of sustainable city development. However, there are limitations which should be taken into account for cities that want to invest in urban agriculture

Upgrading of Symbolic and Synthetic Knowledge Bases: Evidence from the Chinese Automotive and Construction Industries

This paper deals with the question of how upgrading of the symbolic and synthetic knowledge bases takes place and, by doing so, we contribute to the upgrading literature by linking upgrading with the concept of the differentiated knowledge bases. We discern a number of upgrading mechanisms, and based on empirical evidence from the construction industry and the automotive industry in China, we show that the main upgrading mechanisms for symbolic knowledge include learning-by-interacting in project teams and monitoring, while upgrading of synthetic knowledge takes place via technology transfer and learning-by-doing and-using. Mobility and on-the-job training and learning in Transnational Corporations are the main upgrading mechanisms contributing to the development of both knowledge bases

Annual City Festivals as Tools for Sustainable Competitiveness: The World Port Days Rotterdam

Many cities organize annual local festivals for the positive effects on urban development, although success is far from straightforward. This article reviews a case study of the World Port Days in Rotterdam in order to demonstrate how annual city festivals can contribute to sustainable competitiveness, despite limitations as well. We show how this maritime event—that is jointly organized by the business community, the Port Authority and the City Government—offers benefits for citizens as well as for firms. Our empirical results unveil that the business value of the event includes generation of societal support, image improvement, labor market development and networking, while the value for society refers to education, leisure and to a certain degree to social inclusion. The direct value of the event for business in terms of sales and recruitment is limited, while the long-term effects of educational function deserve further attention. Finally, we provide policy lessons that, when properly contextualized, other cities may help to use annual local festivals as tools for sustainable competitiveness

Uber-production. From global networks to digital platforms

Uber and Airbnb have advanced into emblematic cases in debates in which the new digital capitalism is framed in terms of the so-called sharing economy. While this strand of inquiry has produced a wealth of insights into the workings and impacts of peer-to-peer platforms, the digital transformation of business-to-business interactions has so far attracted less attention. The present Exchange confronts this challenge by juxtaposing platform conceptions with a pre-eminent framework to conceptualize business-to-business relations: global production networks (GPN). Specifically, this Exchange addresses challenges posed by the platform approach for the GPN framework in the four dimensions: value (from owning assets to granting access), governance (from make-or-buy to employ-or-enable), management (from back-end to front-end) and labour (from jobs to gigs)