Special issue on Supply chain innovation in the offshore wind energy sector

Citation

(2014), "Special issue on Supply chain innovation in the offshore wind energy sector", International Journal of Energy Sector Management, Vol. 8 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJESM-06-2014-010

Special issue on Supply chain innovation in the offshore wind energy sector

Article Type: 2013 Awards for Excellence From: International Journal of Energy Sector Management, Volume 8, Issue 2

Submission deadline: January 15, 2015

Wind turbine generators, commonly known as "wind mills", are devices used to convert the kinetic energy of the wind into electrical power. Most of the wind turbine generators are installed on land (onshore wind power), but there is an increasing share of them being built at sea, called offshore wind power. Although these wind farms are more expensive and difficult to construct, they provide a higher yield of energy due to stronger and more constant wind flow at sea.

The offshore wind industry experienced an explosive growth within the course of a decade. It passed from installing 4 MW of new capacity in year 2000 to 1,029 MW in year 2010. Because of this rapid expansion, the industry has not had the opportunity to integrate well and become more efficient. Today, the offshore wind industry can be characterized as being immature in terms of less integration, transparency and collaboration in the value chain compared to other mature energy industries. Accordingly, there is a great economical potential for cost improvements in researching as we implement supply chain innovations that can improve the business models within the offshorewind energy sector.

The offshore wind energy sector faces structural changes in the upcoming five to ten years in order to remain competitive with fossil fuel based energy. Reducing the cost of energy in wind power systems is one of the major top priorities that will require a widened supply chain management (SCM) perspective that transcends single companies within the offshore supply chain. This calls for a new perspective to occur at the interface of technical as well as social science disciplines, leading to integrated business and technology solutions. As is the case in other industry evolutions, this industry has also been primarily focused on product innovation to date. But there seems to be a significant shift to strengthen their focus on process innovation. Against this backdrop, this call for papers is concerned with supply chain innovation spanning the offshore wind supply chain processes.

When compared to other energy sectors that had the chance to mature during the course of many decades, the offshore wind industry was born in an already competitive energy market where it faces well integrated and mature industries. More importantly, the expiration of governmental subsidies means that the offshore wind industry has a specific deadline to become a competitive source of energy or to risk being swallowed by the energy market. Potential sources for the reduction of cost of energy can be found in the balanced redesigns of the supply chain as well as in new configurations of collaboration and integration among existing and new supply actors within this industry (e.g. energy companies, wind turbine generator manufacturers, foundation suppliers, subsea cable suppliers, installation suppliers). Additionally, the offshore wind turbine industry, like other industries, will also need to concurrently exploit as well as explore their business (also termed ambidexterity).

This call for papers invites contributions that are theoretically, conceptually and empirically founded. Research based on both quantitative and qualitative methodologies are appreciated. Potential topics for the study of offshore wind supply chains include, but are not limited to:

• Business model innovation in offshore wind supply chain

• Approaches for reducing cost of energy

• Standardization as a means to industrialize the offshore wind supply chains

• Relevant industries for benchmarking against the offshore wind industry

• Benchmark studies of supply chain issues with other mature industries

• Operation and maintenance issues of offshore wind farms

• Industry matureness models

• Supply chain integration models

• Forms of supply chain innovation

• Role of SMEs in the offshore wind supply chain

• Advantages and disadvantages of integration among offshore wind supply chain partners

• Management issues in the industrialization process of the offshore wind supply chains

• Ambidexterity issues in the maturing process of the offshore wind supply chains

• Re-configuration issues of the offshore wind supply chains

In preparing manuscripts, authors are asked to carefully follow the IJESM Author Guidelines as posted on the journal web site: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/ journals.htm?id=ijesm

All submissions should be made to the journal’s online submission platform ScholarOne. Please follow this link:http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijesm – instructions on how to register can be found on the journal’s web site mentioned above. When prompted select the special issue "Supply chain innovation in the offshore wind energy sector".

All articles should be submitted in English. We strongly suggest that non-native English speakers have their manuscripts proofread prior to submission.

To promote IJESM’s global reach, the Editorial and Structured Abstracts for this prestigious special issue will be published in several languages. The due date for papers is January 15, 2015. We very much hope that you will be able to contribute your best research to what is intended to be a showcase for outstanding research on supply chain innovation in offshore wind supply chains.

All inquiries about the special issue should be directed to the Guest Editors:

Jan Stentoft Arlbjørn, Professor in Supply Chain Management, University of Southern Denmark
E-mail: mailto:jar@sam.sdu.dk

Antony Paulraj, Globalization Professor in Supply Chain Management, University of Southern Denmark
E-mail: mailto:ap@sam.sdu.dk