On the Road to Global Value Chains: How Industry Dynamics Reshaped Global Value Chains

Abstract

This chapter provides a 􀁿rst-person account of four decades of theoretical and empirical work on linking the study of global industries to development theories. The Mexican pharmaceutical industry was the setting for examining the power of multinational corporations (MNCs) to shape national industry outcomes in ways that reinforced Mexico’s strategic dependence on MNCs. In the case of import-substituting and export-oriented development strategies in Latin America and East Asia, an industry perspective showed that countries and regions alternated in strategically useful ways between inward-oriented and outward-oriented approaches. A framework for analyzing global industries per se did not emerge until the introduction of the global commodity chain (GCC) and global value chain (GVC) approaches in the 1990s and 2000s, respectively. A focus on global industry dynamics remains relevant to the cutting-edge themes of our times, ranging from the rise of trade protectionism and economic nationalism to the COVID-19 global pandemic.