Browsing by Author "Fernandez-Stark, Karina"

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    Active Local Governments and New Chinese Firms in Emerging Industries in Kunshan and Dongguan
    (2022-09-17) Gereffi, Gary; Zhang, Xun; Wang, Cassandra C
    Active Local Governments and New Chinese Firms in Emerging Industries in Kunshan and Dongguan
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    China’s Evolving Role in Global Value Chains: Upgrading Strategies in an Era of Disruptions and Resilience
    (2022-09-17) Gereffi, Gary; Bamber, Penny; Fernandez-Stark, Karina
    China’s role in global value chains (GVCs) has changed fundamentally in recent decades. The country has moved from being the world factory for a diverse range of low-tech, mid-tech, and high-tech consumer goods to the goal of becoming a technological leader in sectors linked to advanced manufacturing, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, and new e-commerce and internet-related production networks while lessening its dependence on the United States and other traditional export markets by focusing on its domestic market and emerging regional markets. China has achieved this transformation in its development trajectory by combining two drivers of change: upgrading from above and upgrading from below. While upgrading from above refers to the relatively familiar set of programs introduced by China’s central government that chart strategic shifts and new goals for the economy as a whole, upgrading from below is equally important but less well understood. It refers to the diverse set of local policies and firm-level activities at the provincial, regional, and city government levels that are required to implement and institutionalize China’s national programs and policy directives. The chapters of this book illustrate how upgrading from below works in practice in China and they suggest new research insights on how to analyze GVCs in China and other developing economies.
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    China’s New Development Strategies Upgrading from Above and from Below in Global Value Chains
    (2022-11-07) Gereffi, G; Bamber, P; Fernandez-Stark, K
    This book examines China’s new development policies, which seek to reposition China from export platform for a diverse array of low-cost consumer goods to technological leader in sectors linked to advanced manufacturing, artificial ...
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    The Offshore Services Value Chain: Developing Countries and the Crisis
    (Global Value Chains in a Postcrisis World: A Development Perspective, 2010) Gereffi, G; Fernandez-Stark, Karina
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    The offshore services value chain: Upgrading trajectories in developing countries
    (International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, 2011-08-01) Fernandez-Stark, Karina; Bamber, Penny; Gereffi, Gary
    This article analyses the offshore services industry using the global value chain approach. This industry has grown at a rapid pace over the last decade, driven principally by the search of businesses to reduce costs by unbundling and offshoring corporate services. This paper explores how developing nations have seized these growth opportunities. While developed countries consume the vast majority of global services, demand from developing economies and new end markets is beginning to grow. Supply is dominated by India, which in 2009 had 45% of the global market share for offshore services. Indian firms occupy most value chain segments and they have expanded in the South to serve both domestic and export markets. Although the quality and quantity of human capital remains the key factor in the location of offshore services, formal education is being supplemented by demand-driven training and compliance with required international professional certifications and performance standards. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
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    Upgrading of Chinese Domestic Firms in Advanced Manufacturing: Evidence from Industrial Robots and High-Tech Medical Devices
    (2022-09-17) Zhao, Jing; Gereffi, Gary
    Utilizing diverse qualitative and quantitative evidence from two advanced manufacturing sectors, industrial robots and high-tech medical devices, this chapter identifies the upgrading trends of Chinese domestic firms from a global value chain (GVC) perspective, discusses the driving forces behind these trends, and provides a detailed look at national and local policies supporting these upgrading efforts. We find that Chinese firms are relatively weak in the global markets of the two sectors but have built competitiveness in the domestic market. Key determinants for the upgrading of local firms include both internal factors such as a very large domestic market, national guidance by the central government, policy support by local governments, innovation on key components and innovative products, as well as external factors such as global markets, foreign direct investment, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the global policy environment. These factors are likely to continue pushing upgrading in the coming years. The commonalities and differences related to upgrading in the industrial robot and high-tech medical device sectors are discussed. We highlight implications of our analysis for China’s future upgrading in advanced manufacturing GVCs.