The market challenge of wind turbine industry-renewable energy in PR China and Germany

•We provide an overview and factors for the wind turbine industry development.•We identify legal policies as a crucial factor in PR China and Germany.•We present a detailed secondary data analysis of the country-specific systems.•We analyze the patents and companies to understand the factors and global patterns.•We demonstrate our theoretical and managerial contributions. This paper presents the role of global Industry 4.0 technology management in the growth of the wind turbine industry. The article begins with a brief overview of the Industry 4.0 wind turbine industry development, focusing on factors shaping this development. The legal policies are identified as one of the significant factors, especially in PR China and Germany. A detailed secondary data analysis of the country-specific systems is presented, followed by the analysis of patents and companies in both countries to understand better how the development, management and transfer of technology affected the different factors and the global patterns. An effective approach of acquiring technology for local enterprises as well as market development entry mode for the foreign technology holding companies are both identified. Accessing technology through licensing, entering joint ventures, or acquiring knowledge-intensive companies can be identified as common and often successful industry approaches. To develop, obtain, or maintain competitive advantages in the wind turbine industry, we suggest that the governments issue relevant legislation and regulations to support the upgrading of the industry, and the enterprises can access and manage the technology through the approaches mentioned above.