In second section of my article, I had given brief information about Enercon GmbH ( http://www.windonline.org/2010/07/path-dependency-and-wind-energy.html ) in terms of path dependency and factors directly effecting it.
Here in third part, you will be able to find evaluation of Siemens Wind Power A/S in terms of path dependency and factors directly effecting it.
Siemens Wind Power A/S
Siemens was established on 12 October 1847 in Germany. Inventor of telegraph, Werner von Siemens named his company as Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske.
As it can be seen in Table 1.1, Siemens' managerial intentionality to expand in global arena resulted in acquisiton of many companies or mergers, especially beginning from 2000.
Until 1970, although there was not any merger or acquisition, Siemens expanded its business in many different areas by using its financial power as an extension of resource advantage theory. During World War II, Siemens had good relationship with the regime in Germany and benefited from this situation economically (Url-1).
Just after the war, Siemens diversified its business by feeding from its economic power which was relatively constructed by the help of the regime in Germany. So, actor-network theory shaped Siemens’ decision in a path creating way. Not only its economic power, but also demand from the market shaped its decision.
Table 1.1: Siemens’ Acquisition and Merger
The main subject that is going to be discussed is Siemens Wind Power A/S. Siemens acquired Bonus Energy in 2004 to enter wind energy business. For it is totally new business area for Siemens, this decision can be considered as a path creating one. Siemens entered market by acquiring Bonus Energy to derive benefit from its resource, knowledge and experience advantage. Bonus Energy was the first manufacturer who built offshore wind turbines in 1990s. So, Siemens focused their developments on offshore wind turbines and became market leader in terms of installed capacity. It seems that Siemens is going to continue to focus on offshore wind turbine development and try to keep its leadership as a result of actor-network theory and managerial intentionality. Siemens Wind Power A/S’s vision is to be best at wind industry. Here below, you can find Energy Farming International’s World Market Forecast of Wind Industry in terms of MW installed per annum. According to this estimation Siemens is going to increase its position in offshore wind market which can be achieved by path dependent decisions sourcing from know-how and experience gained in industry and which are free-from behavioural and technological lock-in. On the other hand, another information that can be clearly seen from this table is that wind energy industry will continue to grow.
Table 1.2: Energy Farming International’s World Market Forecast of the Offshore Wind Industry December 2008
Summary of historical development of Siemens Wind Power A/S can be found below in Table 1.3.
Table 1.3: Siemens and Factors Effecting Path Dependency
To sum up, there are a lot of path creating decisions realized within Siemens Wind Power A/S in micro scale. In macro scale, it can be considered that Siemens Wind Power A/S contiuned that the tradition inherited from Bonus Energy on a path dependent way. If we look at the picture from Siemens Group’s perspective, it can be surely stated that a path creating actions are adopted for company branched into many different business areas in macro scale.
Abbreviations
ANT : Actor Network Theory
BL : Bootlegging
LI : Lock-in
MI : Managerial Intentionality
MIS : Micro Scale
MAS : Macro Scale
OL : Organizational Learning
PD : Path Dependent
PC : Path Creating
RAT : Resource Advantage Theory
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A.Yigit NEPHAN
07.07.2010
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