Abstract

Government policy agendas in high-cost economies focus on manufacturing competitiveness promoting what they term High Value Manufacturing (HVM). HVM is seen as the solution to the problem of manufacturers in high-cost economies being outcompeted by those in low-cost economies. Despite the ubiquity of the term HVM, there is little academic engagement with it leaving HVM an under-theorized, emerging phenomenon lacking in academic legitimization. Our purpose is therefore to gain a ‘theoretical foothold’ to allow the phenomenon of HVM to be characterized. Policy documents from the UK and German governments and the European Commission are empirically analysed to determine the themes within their arguments. A literature consultation is conducted to reveal the underlying theoretical strands informing these arguments. A synthesis follows that relates the themes within the policy documents to the identified theoretical strands. We find that policy uses a plurality of multi-disciplinary, randomly drawn elements. However, despite this, some patterns can be identified with elements drawn from operations strategy, supply chain management and innovation. By defining these elements, this article makes sense of the policy rhetoric and builds a clearer understating of HVM so facilitating sharper and more structured research into its nature and its contribution to contemporary manufacturing competitiveness.

摘要

高成本经济体的政府政策议程侧重于制造业竞争力，以促进他们所谓的高价值制造 (HVM)。HVM 被视为解决高成本经济体制造商被低成本经济体制造商竞争的问题的解决方案。尽管 HVM 一词无处不在，但学术界很少对其进行研究，这使 HVM 成为一种理论化不足的新兴现象，缺乏学术合法性。因此，我们的目的是获得“理论立足点”，以便对 HVM 现象进行表征。英国和德国政府以及欧盟委员会的政策文件经过实证分析，以确定其论点中的主题。进行了文献咨询以揭示为这些论点提供信息的潜在理论思路。随后进行综合，将政策文件中的主题与已确定的理论链联系起来。我们发现政策使用多个多学科、随机抽取的元素。然而，尽管如此，一些模式可以通过从运营战略、供应链管理和创新中提取的元素来识别。通过定义这些要素，本文使政策言论变得有意义，并更清晰地理解 HVM，从而促进对其性质及其对当代制造业竞争力的贡献进行更清晰、更结构化的研究。供应链管理与创新。通过定义这些要素，本文使政策言论变得有意义，并更清晰地理解 HVM，从而促进对其性质及其对当代制造业竞争力的贡献进行更清晰、更结构化的研究。供应链管理与创新。通过定义这些要素，本文使政策言论变得有意义，并更清晰地理解 HVM，从而促进对其性质及其对当代制造业竞争力的贡献进行更清晰、更结构化的研究。