How Does Co-innovation Drive the High-end Transfor-mation in Traditional Manufacturing Companies?A Longitudinal Case Study from the Perspective of Value Chain Reconstruction
Manufacturing serves as the cornerstone of national strength and prosperity.At present,traditional manufacturing in-dustries face persistent challenges,characterized as being"large but not strong"and"comprehensive but lacking refinement".Address-ing these issues—revitalizing and upgrading traditional industries while advancing the high-end,intelligent,and green transformation of manufacturing is essential to building a modernized industrial system.This transformation is also crucial for accelerating the for-mation of new quality productive forces and achieving high-quality development.Co-innovation is a vital pathway for reconstructing the value chain and fostering new development models.By leading co-innovation,enterprises establish networks with multiple entities,innovatively allocate diverse resources,and drive substantial restructuring in the way value-creating links are formed.However,existing research has yet to"unlock the black box"between co-innovation and high-end transformation in enterprises.The mechanisms through which enterprises leverage co-innovation to achieve high-end transforma-tion remain insufficiently explored.High-end transformation is,at its core,a process of upgrading and reshaping modes of value creation.The theory of value chain recon-struction offers a scientific lens for investigating how enterprises can achieve high-end transformation through co-innovation.The crux of value chain reconstruction lies in the coupling and interac-tion of value-creating entities and the optimization of value links.Through co-innovation,enterprises can establish network connec-tions with diverse entities and incorporate heterogeneous resources,effectively enabling substantial restructuring of value linkages to enhance resource utilization.However,current literature provides limited insights into the dynamic evolution of value-creating enti-ties and links within the process of value chain reconstruction.From the perspective of value chain reconstruction theory,this paper examines the pathways and mechanisms by which co-inno-vation drives the high-end transformation of traditional manufac-turing enterprises,using HBIS Group's transformation practices as a case study.The research reveals that developmental bottlenecks encountered at different stages spurred the company to initiate co-innovation activities.Through collaboration with multiple enti-ties and the integration of diverse elements,HBIS's value chain was reconfigured and evolved.This transformation included changes in interactive connections with diverse value-creating entities and shifts in the linkages of value-creating activities,ultimately leading to an upgrade in value creation approaches.First,resource co-innovation focused on HBIS's core steel business,which provided a resource foundation for growth and overcame the developmental bottleneck of uncontrolled expansion that had previ-ously hindered economies of scale.During this initial phase,co-in-novation efforts concentrated on internal industry collaboration,channeling various resources towards the steel business to achieve scale efficiency.Through mechanisms of value activation and opti-mization,individual steel firms were linked as active entities within the company's value chain,strengthening HBIS's control over each production stage.This reorganization reduced costs and enhanced production scale,centralizing the company's value chain around steel,thereby significantly elevating steel production capabilities.Secondly,channel co-innovation supported by downstream in-tegration addressed developmental bottlenecks due to structural mismatches along the supply chain,providing HBIS with essential capabilities for transformation.In this phase,Co-innovation ex-panded towards downstream steel industries,resolving long-stand-ing issues of supply and demand mismatches.Mechanisms of value expansion and value link renewal embedded HBIS's value chain into downstream sectors,facilitating a transition from resource re-liance to capability building.This drives a comprehensive upgrade of the product portfolio toward greater precision and completeness,achieving lean-focused development.Finally,knowledge co-innovation,driven by cross-industry think-ing,ignited the engine for high-end transformation.This third phase involved cross-sector and cross-value chain knowledge co-innova-tion to bridge cognitive gaps between industries,which previously impeded transformation.Through mechanisms of symbiosis with value entities and cross-chain value link coordination,HBIS's value chain was deeply embedded in a broader value system,co-evolving with external,multi-level value chains.Knowledge transfer from di-verse industry domains enabled HBIS to lead in steel process tech-nology by combining traditional manufacturing techniques with clean energy and digital technologies.This transition transformed HBIS from a"follower"in traditional steel materials to a"leader"in emerging industries,with more innovative and sustainable modes of value creation,culminating in a high-end transformation.Horizontally,the process of scaling,lean-focused development,and high-end upgrading for traditional manufacturing enterprises can be deconstructed into a transitional sequence across three stages:core integration,embedded extension,and iterative reconstruction of the value chain.In the first stage,resource co-innovation activates initially independent steel firms within the case company's value chain as dynamic value-creating entities.Mechanisms of value entity activation and efficiency optimization in value linkages lead to a core integration around the primary steel business,resulting in a focus on production scale expansion.The second stage,channel co-innovation,utilizes mechanisms of value entity expansion and value link renewal to engage a more diverse and global set of value entities.This stage also triggers forward and backward shifts along the value chain,embedding HBIS's value chain more deeply into downstream steel-consuming industries.The outcome is a compre-hensive upgrade of the product portfolio,leading to lean-focused development around product precision and completeness.In the third stage,knowledge co-innovation leverages mechanisms of symbiosis among value entities and cross-chain coordination in value linkages.This creates a state of value symbiosis between the case company and value entities across various industries and busi-ness formats,with knowledge as the central medium.The symbiotic relationships among value entities foster cross-sector integration of critical value chain links,embedding HBIS's value chain into a broader"value galaxy"and enabling iterative reconstruction.This transformation drives HBIS toward high-end diversification,span-ning emerging industries such as new materials,smart manufactur-ing,intelligent urban solutions,and environmental services.This progression through the first two stages lays the foundational re-sources and capabilities needed for high-end upgrading in the third stage.HBIS's value chain thus evolves from core integration within the primary business to vertical extension along the industry chain,and ultimately to cross-industry,networked,and multi-dimensional embedding.These transformations forge increasingly intertwined and co-evolving relationships with external value chains,enabling HBIS to transition from a traditional steel manufacturer to a pro-vider of comprehensive steel materials solutions and services at the high end of the market.Our contributions are three-fold.First,by integrating the specific practices and real-world context of co-innovation within the case company,this study advances research on co-innovation from ab-stract concepts and theoretical exploration to substantive analysis,contributing to the refinement of co-innovation theory,including its typical models and evolutionary paradigms.Second,this paper an-alyzes and delineates the coupling state and interactive mechanisms among diverse value-creating entities in the process of corporate value chain reconstruction,as well as the optimization pathways for value linkages.This enriches research on value chain management within the VUCA(volatility,uncertainty,complexity,and ambi-guity)era.Third,this study offers a comprehensive view of key breakthroughs in high-end transformation across different stages of enterprise development and the evolution of value creation modes.It provides a valuable supplement to current dynamic research on manufacturing enterprise transformation and offers theoretical insights for achieving innovative transformation in an increasingly networked and diversified landscape of inter-organizational rela-tionships.
Co-innovationHigh-end TransformationValue Chain ReconfigurationCase Study
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