Research on the Construction of Manufacturing Industry Chain Ecosystem—A Case Study of Tianjin Manufacturing Industry
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
A very interesting and I believe, useful paper. The findings seem logical and not too surprising. I have some specific line-by-line suggestions below, but wanted to suggest that in section 5 (the discussion section) you provide some concrete examples on how the low-to-medium tech industries can achieve greater GVC, as I assume that is a desirable goal. Maybe greater outreach to both foreign sources and customers? You should also explain better why there is a drop in 2015. What happened that year that may have caused the temporary drop, or could it be due to the measurement methods used by the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Statistics? This is just to confirm that the input data are comparable between 2010, 2012, 2015, and 2017.
My line-by-line recommendations or suggestions are as follows:
The Abstract should be grammatically perfect, so I suggest (corrections are bold):
Line 9: "draws a structure"
Line 12: "both the global and domestic value chains"
Line 13: "elements of the manufacturing"
Line 18: "factors, and while low-"
Line 21: "to help the Tianjin"
1. Introduction:
Line 32: I suggest you define what "smile curve" is, either in a footnote or parenthetical
3. Construction of, etc.
Line 156: Replace country with region (Tianjin is not a country)
In Figure 1, Key Tasks section: This is a confusing sentence: "Chain reinforcing chain strong chain engineering"
Line 201: Typically in supply chain management, we look at suppliers as upstream (or backwards) and customers as downstream (forward), which is the opposite of your usage
4. Tianjin Manufacturing, etc.:
Line 272: "Only" is probably too strong, so I would replace that with "Ideally"
Line 322: "Leontief", not "Leontierf"
Line 335: A bit confused about the term "Exit" in that formula
Line 377: Very confusing numbers there. Could you double check them?
Table 1: I assume that the data you used is the entire population of companies, so that you just did not apply a sample (in which case confidence intervals should be introduced to establish proper significance)
Line 433: Should be a line break after this, as line 434 is a headline
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
I found this paper quite fascinating but mostly from a policy perspective. I mean that the paper provides lots of things the Chinese government has done to increase and improve manufacturing. To improve the paper technically, and make it easier to read, I suggest that the authors put in many figures to explain the text. Also, there are several documents and several terms, mostly related to the various types of chains, that are not completely defined. Again, I suggest you define them in addition to providing references.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Lines 8-23: The abstract needs to be restructured. We need a sentence introducing the topic under study, followed by methods, results and conclusion. Also, referring to the four dimensions of the industrial chain and the four elements of the ecological system without further explanation is confusing for the reader. Please proceed to appropriately rephrase and reaarange the text.
Lines 26-38: The Introduction needs to be improved. First, the topic needs to be presented and a background of the existing previous research should be given. Then, the approach of the present study should be positioned and the research problem stated. Last, an overview of the paper's structure should also be provided.
Line 47: Please elaborate.
Lines 95-96, 288-290, 426-429, 511-513: Please rephrase.
Line 284: "Firstly" should not be capitalized.
Line 514: ?
Lines 550-563: The conclusion should provide a summary of the paper's results as well as research limitations and implications. Please proceed to make the appropriate changes.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
The points raised in the first review report were adequately addressed. Some final corrections should be made in:
Lines 15-30 & 639-651: Please avoid numbering and rephrase these passages as free flow text.
Line 24: low and medium low-tech manufacturing industries still have ample space
Lines 39-41: The text inside the parentheses should be a separate sentence.
Line 578: Use the abbreviation for "global value chain" there and anywhere else it is mentioned after the abbreviation is introduced.
Lines 642-644: This sentence needs rephrasing.
Author Response
请参阅附件。
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
