Global solar photovoltaic industry network dynamics 2007–2023. Inter-organizational relationships as a source of competitive advantage?

Aiming a cleaner production in course of fighting the ongoing global warming, solar photovoltaic (PV) together with wind and hydro energy, indicate the most important industry segments in the transformation from fossils to renewable energy sources. During the last two decades, the solar PV industry experienced decisive changes of its global business network configurations where Chinese firms comparatively have gained competitive advantages. According to the business network theory, inter-organizational relationships indicate important vehicles for exchanging valuable resources such as advanced technology and privileged market knowledge aiming to gain leading industry positions. Based on a sample of globally leading solar PV manufacturers originated in Canada, China, Germany, South Korea, and the United States of America we conduct a detailed analysis and provide insights into solar PV industry upstream and downstream network dynamics examined for the period 2007–2023. We found that Chinese firms have focused more on upstream industry network relationships compared to their Western counterparts. Thus, we emphasize on the importance of building competitive regional solar PV industry networks instead of relying only on government subsidies which often come along with rather short-term effects. • Inter-organizational relationships along the value chain are of vital importance to gain competitive advantage in the solar photovoltaic industry. • During the last two decades, the solar PV industry experienced decisive changes of its global business network configurations where Chinese firms comparatively have gained competitive advantages. • Chinese inter-organizational business network patterns differ from their competitors originated in the United States of America and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]