Browsing by Subject "global value chains"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Open Access
An integrative typology of global strategy and global value chains: The management and organization of cross-border activities
(Global Strategy Journal, 2020-08-01) Pananond, P; Gereffi, G; Pedersen, T
© 2020 Strategic Management Society Research summary: We contend that a synthesis between the literatures on global strategy and global value chains (GVCs) is mutually beneficial. A typology of four themes—managed cross-border activities, network optimization, bottom-up upgrading, and strategic coevolution—illustrates the underlying concepts and mechanisms that these two approaches share in common. Our integrative typology provides an analytical framework to understand the interplay between the statics of GVC governance and the dynamics of firm strategy. Firm-level actions are a key factor in effective GVC-level policy making, and our framework provides a roadmap to analyze how major disruptions, such as digitalization and pandemics, affect the symbiotic relationships between GVCs and firm strategy. Managerial summary: While the global strategy literature has underplayed the interdependence among firms and other actors in global value chains (GVCs) and highlighted the scope for firm agency, the GVC literature limits the attention to firm strategies per se but puts more emphasis on the governance structure of global industries. In their strategic decision making, managers must take into consideration how firms are positioned along the value chain in terms of four themes: managed cross-border activities; network optimization; bottom-up upgrading; and strategic coevolution. Integrating the GVC view adds a further impetus to global strategy beyond the analysis of intra-firm determinants. Conversely, integrating global strategy into GVC analysis entails a more dynamic view on behaviors of different actors in the value chain. Understanding these interactions enable managers and policy makers to better incorporate how changes and disruptions affect firm strategies within the governance of GVCs.
Open Access
Fostering global value chains through international agreements: Evidence from Vietnam
(Economics and Politics, 2021-11-01) Malesky, EJ; Milner, HV
Which is more reassuring to foreign investors—domestic laws or international agreements? A substantial literature argues that foreign investment may be underprovided, because governments cannot offer credible guarantees that judicial institutions are impartial and that investors will be able to fairly resolve disputes with business partners and enforce contracts. This time inconsistency problem deters profitable business partnerships between foreign investors and domestic firms in the host country. Consequently, for emerging market leaders seeking to deepen their countries’ integration into global value chains (GVCs), enhancing the confidence of investors in contracting institutions is critical. In this paper, we study the emerging market of Vietnam to examine which type of reassurance mechanism is most successful. Using a survey of 1,583 foreign firms, we inform investors about either a domestic law or international treaty designed to strengthen commercial arbitration procedures. We find that priming foreign firms about the international investment agreement has a larger positive impact on their views about the future profitability of their projects and the likelihood of contracting with other firms in GVCs than simply learning about the commitments in domestic law.
Open Access
Globalisation of the automotive industry: main features and trends
(International Journal of Technological Learning, Innovation and Development, 2009-01) Sturgeon, TJ; Memedovic, O; Biesebroeck, JV; Gereffi, G
This paper lays out the main features of the global automotive industry and identifies several important trends. A boom in developing country sales and production has not yet overshadowed the importance of existing markets in developed regions. Regional integration is very strong at an operational level, yet the industry has recently developed a set of global-scale value chain linkages, and retains national and local elements as well. The paper highlights how global, regional, national and local value chains are nested to create a pattern of global integration that is distinctive to the industry. We use global value chain analysis to help explain the limits of build-to-order in the industry, the role of regional and global suppliers, the shifting geography of production and how the characteristics of value chain linkages in the industry favour tight integration and regional production. We describe how industry concentration focuses power in the hands of a few large lead firms and discuss the implications of this for value chain governance and the geography of production.
Open Access
Introduction: Disruptions in global value chains – Continuity or change for labour governance?
(International Labour Review, 2021-12-01) Gereffi, G; Posthuma, AC; Rossi, A
Global production and trade organized in global value chains (GVCs) have structured labour governance and the conditions of work for multiple decades. Since the early 2000s, a series of new economic, technological and political disruptions, along with the current COVID-19 global health pandemic, have accentuated critical concerns about the role of labour governance and the future of work in the global economy. The articles in this Special Issue address these themes through original industry and country case studies, using both longitudinal and comparative research designs and mixed methods to offer insights into a labour governance framework that will fit future GVCs.
Open Access
Reshoring by small firms: dual sourcing strategies and local subcontracting in value chains
(Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 2022-06-18) Canello, J; Buciuni, G; Gereffi, G
Abstract This article assesses how the reshoring of manufacturing activities by micro and small enterprises (MSEs) affects the performances of co-located subcontracting networks and the reconfiguration of global value chains (GVCs). We utilize quantitative microdata of Italian MSEs operating in the clothing and footwear industries during the 2008–2015 period. Empirically MSE reshoring does not have a significant impact on domestic subcontractors’ birth rates and survival chances, whereas it is positively associated with their productivity growth. Most MSEs in our sample adopt a dual sourcing strategy, expanding their global production networks while preserving their local supply base. Local and global production networks are not two alternative paradigms of industrial organization; they can be complementary and mutually reinforce each other.
Open Access
Value chains, networks and clusters: Reframing the global automotive industry
(Journal of Economic Geography, 2008-05-01) Sturgeon, T; Biesebroeck, JV; Gereffi, G
In this article, we apply global value chain (GVC) analysis to recent trends in the global automotive industry, with special attention paid to the case of North America. We use the three main elements of the GVC framework-firm-level chain governance, power and institutions-to highlight some of the defining characteristics of this important industry. First, national political institutions create pressure for local content, which drives production close to end markets, where it tends to be organized nationally or regionally. Second, in terms of GVC governance, rising product complexity combined with low codifiability and a paucity of industry-level standards has driven buyer-supplier linkages toward the relational form, a governance mode that is more compatible with Japanese than American supplier relations. The outsourcing boom of the 1990s exacerbated this situation. As work shifted to the supply base, lead firms and suppliers were forced to develop relational linkages to support the exchange of complex uncodified information and tacit knowledge. Finally, the small number of hugely powerful lead firms that drive the automotive industry helps to explain why it has been so difficult to develop and set the industry-level standards that could underpin a more loosely articulated spatial architecture. This case study underlines the need for an open, scalable approach to the study of global industries. © The Author (2008). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.