A phenomenological research in the relation between shipbuilding industry and national economy development :a major investigation of China

Abstract

This thesis is based on research which traces the development of shipbuilding industries around the world over the last three hundred years up until the present day. Except for the American shipbuilding, there have been another four challengers for industrial supremacy: the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, and Korea. To gain a deeper understanding requires the consideration of their history of the development. There is no detailed explanation of the development of the shipbuilding industry within these five world regions. In fact, it is difficult to make comparisons because countries were operating in different circumstances in terms of the world market and other socio-political contextual factors. Many studies have been made on the marketing aspect (demand and supply) of shipbuilding, but did not address questions as why shipbuilding industry was rising and falling in terms of economic performance. The shipbuilding industry is worthy of further investigation. Some general ‟principles‟ exist that generate a tendency towards either prosperity or atrophy. With the exception of certain distinctive elements in some countries, there are many very similar driving forces that promoted development. They encounter similar problems, the consequences of these drivers being an initial flourishing followed by depression of shipbuilding. The current research aims to establish the general ‟principles‟ of shipbuilding development. In a diagrammatic representation of all the „principles‟, the shipbuilding industry can be seen to have had a developmental trend. The economic background, technology development and government intervention have been found to be the three greatest influences on this trend. This are generated through exploration analysis of the history and concrete evidence from Chinese shipbuilding in 21st century