Global Value Chains in Shipbuilding: Governance and Knowledge Exchange

Over the last decades, the Norwegian shipbuilding industry has become increasingly globalized, with offshoring of production of to low cost locations. Globally dispersed production of complex and customized ships has proven to be challenging with respect to coordination of activities and exchange of knowledge. The paper investigates how different governance alternatives affect knowledge exchange in the global value chains of two shipbuilding groups. The findings indicate that vertical integration facilitates coordination and knowledge transfer to foreign shipyards. However, reverse knowledge transfer through these linkages seems to be limited. This may have implications for the future innovativeness of this industry.