Wind energy-related employment has been surging recently in Germany: it rose from 9,200 in 1997 to 90,000 in 2007 and is estimated to be 112,000 in 2020. The industry particularly emerged in coastal, northern Germany. Recently big hopes are particularly set on the offshore wind energy industry....

Much literature often discusses localized production networks as possible engines of prosperous regional development. In this literature, vertical disintegration and corresponding further specialization of individual firms within a commodity chain is seen as an essential factor in the success of...