Research On The Growth Mechanism Of China's New Energy Vehicle Industry Based On Strategic Niche Management Theory

Under the current challenges of the energy crisis and environmental issues,new energy vehicle technology has been highly valued by governments as an important countermeasure.Countries have invested heavily in cultivating their new energy vehicle industry to seize the commanding heights of technological competition.In the field of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles,there is an insurmountable gap between China and developed countries such as Japan,the United States and Germany.Cultivating the new energy vehicle industry is an excellent opportunity for China.However,in the growth process of the new energy vehicle industry,it not only faces challenges such as overcoming technical bottlenecks,improving product performance and constructing charging pile,but also faces competitive pressures caused by the conventional vehicle.Therefore,exploring the growth mechanism of China's new energy vehicle industry and achieving scientific and effective cultivation has become a major issue that needs to be solved urgently.In this context,based on the theory of Strategic Niche Management(SNM),this paper draws on research results in the fields of innovation policy,technology innovation network and organizational learning,and adopts the methods of literature research,content analysis,patent analysis,social network analysis and case study to analyze the growth mechanism of China's new energy vehicle industry,to reveal the role of the government-dimensional policy-protected space,the industry-dimensional technology innovation network and the organization-dimensional learning mechanism on industry growth.This study provides beneficial support for China to cultivate the new energy vehicle industry.The main research contents and results are as follows:(1)Based on the SNM theory,this paper constructs an analysis framework for the growth mechanism of the emerging industry,and expounds the suitability of applying SNM theory to the growth mechanism of China's new energy vehicle industry.The study summarizes the core ideas of using SNM theory to cultivate the emerging industry into three levels: The macro level of SNM,that is,the government dimension,to build the policy-protected space;The medium level of SNM,that is,the industrial dimension,to form the technology innovation network;The micro level of SNM,that is,the organizational dimension,to establish the learning mechanism.Through these three levels and the operation among them,it helps to promote the continuous growth of the emerging industry.(2)At the macro level of SNM,this paper constructs a two-dimensional analysis model of the policy-protected space to analyze the construction and evolution of the policy-protected space for the growth of China's new energy vehicle industry.And based on patent data,production and sales data and charging pile data,an analysis framework is constructed to expound the relationship between the performance of China's new energy vehicle industry and the policy-protected space from three aspects: scientific and technological innovation,product market occupation and infrastructure layout.The study found that the policy tools of expectation establishment,network construction and learning process showed a trend of simultaneous growth,especially in the process of transition to the market niche,the use of policy tools has increased significantly.In the technology niche stage,the government mainly focused on expectation establishment,and used more “macro stage” and “standard and norm”policy tools.In the market niche stage,the government began to focus on network effects to promote the growth of new energy vehicle industry,using many “financial support” policy tools,and at the same time began to strengthen the use of “demonstration pilot”,“cooperation and platform construction” and “financial support” policy tools.With the niche transition,the structure of the policy-protected space for the growth of China's new energy vehicle industry was gradually improving and optimizing,and the use of policy tools tended to be balanced.The three important indicators of patent data,production and sales data,and charging pile data were all in line with government policies,which fully demonstrated that with the enhancement of the policy-protected space,the new energy vehicle industry has shown a trend of rapid development in these three dimensions.The driving role of the policy-protected space can be effectively brought into play.Especially after entering the market niche stage,the protection effect was remarkable.(3)At the medium level of SNM,the social network analysis method is introduced into the research of network construction in SNM.Using joint patent date to construct China's new energy vehicle technology innovation network,this paper analyzes the structural characteristics of the network at different stages,and explores the evolutionary characteristics of the network with the niche transition and its relationship with the policy-protected space.The study found that with the niche transition,the overall structure of the network has become increasingly complex,especially starting from the transition to the market niche.During the entire niche transition,the technical fields of cooperation have increased significantly,and the hotspots of cooperation have always been centered on power battery related fields.After entering the market niche stage,Beijing has taken its absolute leading advantage to firmly occupy the center position of the network space layout with,and most of the R&D organizations in the core position of the network were power-related companies and research institutes,especially the State Grid Corporation of China.The evolutionary characteristics of the network with the niche transition were more compatible with nation/local policies,which reflected the positive role of the policy-protected space in the development of China's new energy vehicle technology innovation network.(4)At the micro level of SNM,the learning process in SNM is first expounded,and on this basis,the characteristics and learning points of new energy vehicle knowledge are analyzed.The introduction and analysis of the typical case can explore and summarize good practices.This paper takes U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center Clean Vehicle Consortium(CERC-CVC)as a case.Combining the SECI theoretical model with the practical experience of establishing the CERC-CVC learning mechanism,good practices are explored.The study found that the establishment of a scientific and effective learning mechanism should pay attention to the construction of four core sub-modules: cooperation mode,intellectual property management framework,knowledge sharing mode and knowledge sharing platform.Based on the above research,the optimization path to promote the growth of China's new energy vehicle industry is proposed: dynamic adjustment of the policy-protected space,continuous optimization of the technology innovation network,and improvement of the learning mechanism.Further,specific strategies and suggestions are given respectively.