Network-RBV for Critical Minerals: How Standards, Permits, and Licensing Shape Midstream Bottlenecks
Kegenbekov Z. Alipova A. Jackson I.
January 2026Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
Sustainability (Switzerland)
2026#18Issue 2
Critical mineral supply chains underpin electric mobility, power electronics, clean hydrogen, and advanced manufacturing. Drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), the relational view, and dynamic capabilities, we conceptualize advantage not as ownership of ore bodies but as orchestration of multi-tier resource systems: upstream access, midstream processing know-how, standards and permits, and durable inter-organizational ties. In a world of high concentration at key stages (refining, separation, engineered materials), full “decoupling” is economically costly and technologically constraining. We argue for structured cooperation among the United States, European Union, China, and other producers and consumers, combined with selective domestic capability building for bona fide security needs. Methodologically, we conduct a structured conceptual synthesis integrating RBV, relational view, dynamic capabilities, and network-of-network research, combined with a structured comparative policy analysis of U.S./EU/Chinese instruments anchored in official documents. We operationalize the argument via technology–material dependency maps that identify midstream bottlenecks and the policy/standard levers most likely to expand qualified, compliant capacity.
critical minerals , network of networks , RBV , resource-based view , supply chain
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Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, Kazakh-German University, Pushkin 111, Almaty, 050010, Kazakhstan
Center for Transportation & Logistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, 02142, MA, United States
Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
Center for Transportation & Logistics
10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель
Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026