Industrial revitalization via industry 4.0 – A comparative policy analysis among China, Germany and the USA

In the second decade of the 21st century, rapid proliferation of technology and intensified global competition have created a sense of urgency for governments of developed and developing nations alike to engage in major industrial revitalization, leading to global emergence of something generically known of as Industry 4.0, with a core of industrial transformation, revitalization and development. These critical government programs are expected to drastically change the global structures of major industrial sectors. This paper aims at developing a comparative analysis of innovation policy amid the industrial revitalization of Industry 4.0 among China, Germany and the USA, with a focus on differentiation of specific policy instruments announced by these governments for their preferential developments. This research provides a theoretical analysis of innovation policy but adopts a rather pragmatic approach, with the policy framework of Rothwell and Zegveld [3] adopted as a basis for the anatomy of innovation policies. Results suggest that the policy orientation of the USA tends to favor demand-side policy, public services, political and education and training policies, whereas policy preferences in Germany tends to favor demand-side policy, public services, scientific and technical development and political ones; while it is environmental-side policy, political, legal and regulatory, and public service policies for China. Due to all policy tools are given equal weight in this cross-national analysis, the findings of this study may not easily be generalized to all industrial sectors and may be subject to other interpretations.