scholarly journals Supplier strategy in global value chains: shaping governance and profiting from upgrading

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mari Sako ◽  
Ezequiel Zylberberg

Abstract The growth of emerging market firms with a global presence highlights the need to better understand how supplier strategy influences global value chains (GVCs). We respond to this need by applying corporate strategy and technology strategy to improve the predictive and prescriptive power of GVC theory. Under what circumstances can suppliers in GVCs shape governance and profit from upgrading? Using corporate strategy, we argue that supplier strategy concerning make-or-buy decisions and buyer diversification can effect a change in governance mode. Using technology strategy, we identify appropriability regimes and complementary assets as essential preconditions for suppliers to capture value from upgrading. Our central contribution is in developing an integrative theoretical framework for analyzing how suppliers alter governance over time, and how they capture the value they create by upgrading, resulting in shifts in value chain polarity. This framework has significant implications for economic development.

Author(s):  
Johan Swinnen ◽  
Rob Kuijpers

Understanding the development implications of agri-food standards and global value chains is crucial, as they are a fundamental component of developing countries’ growth potential and could increase rural incomes and reduce poverty, but at the same time they present serious challenges and could lead to further marginalization of the poor. This chapter reviews some of the implications of the spread of stringent standards associated with global value chains for developing countries and global poverty reduction. The chapter focuses on five aspects: the interaction between standards and value chain governance; the effects on agricultural productivity and smallholder welfare; farm-level and institutional spillovers; labor market and gender effects; and the interaction between liberalization policies and value chains.


Author(s):  
K. Muradov

Traditional trade statistics that originate in customs records is inadequate to measure the complex interdependencies in today’s globalized economy, or what is known as the global value chains. The article focuses on Russia–ASEAN trade. The author applies innovative methods of measuring trade in value added terms in order to capture the unobserved bilateral linkages behind the officially recorded trade flows. First, customs and balance of payments sources of bilateral trade data are briefly reviewed. For user, there are at least two inherent problems in those data: the inconsistencies in “mirror” trade flows and the attribution of the origin of a traded product wholly to the exporting country. This results in large discrepancies between Russian and ASEAN “mirror” trade data and, arguably, their low importance as each other’s trade partners. Next, the author explores new data from inter-country input-output tables that necessarily reconcile bilateral differences and offer greater detail about the national and sectoral origin or destination of traded goods and services. Relevant data are derived from the OECD-WTO TiVA database and are rearranged to obtain various estimates of Russia–ASEAN trade in value added in 2009. The main finding is that sizable amount of the value added of Russian origin is embodied in third countries’ exports to ASEAN members and ASEAN members’ exports to third countries. As a result, the cumulative flow of Russia’s value added to ASEAN members is estimated to be 62% larger than the direct gross exports, whereas for China and South Korea it is, respectively, 21% and 23% smaller. The indirect, unobserved value added flows can be largely explained by the use of Russian energy resources, chemicals and metals as imported inputs in third countries (China, South Korea) and ASEAN members’ own production. The contribution of these inputs is then accumulated along the value chain. Finally, the most important sectoral value chains are visualized for readers’ convenience. So far, it’s apparent that Russia is linked to ASEAN countries through intricate production networks and indirectly contributes to their trade with third countries.


2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Reps ◽  
Boris Braun

Going green - environmental upgrading and value chain coordination in the Indian automotive industry. Previous debates have linked environmental upgrading processes in global value chains above all to the influence of powerful lead firms from developed countries. In this paper, we argue that the Indian automobile sector, too, shows a growing tendency for more environmental protection. However, the decisive impetus is often not given by international lead firms.Applying the concept of global value chains, this paper aims to identify both the dominating coordination mechanisms in the Indian automobile chain, and the strategies of different actors for environmental upgrading. The empirical section draws on findings from 130 qualitative interviews with eight vehicle manufactures, 54 component suppliers and several industry experts held between 2009 and 2011. Our results indicate that Indian vehicle manufacturers are presently more pivotal to driving “green” supply chains than international players. Our findings suggest that especially the strong technical and organizational support provided by Indian lead firms is the crucial factor to push component suppliers to improve their environmental performance. On this account, the recent debate on greening of supply chains seems to be led too much from a western perspective. Rather, it appears that many environmental upgrading processes in automobile supply chains occur independently of western lead firms. In fact, they are mostly initiated and implemented by local lead firms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 607-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZHEN ZHU ◽  
GREG MORRISON ◽  
MICHELANGELO PULIGA ◽  
ALESSANDRO CHESSA ◽  
MASSIMO RICCABONI

AbstractInternational trade has been increasingly organized in the form of global value chains (GVCs). In this paper, we provide a new method for comparing GVCs across countries and over time. First, we use the World Input–Output Database (WIOD) to construct both the upstream and the downstream global value networks. Second, we introduce a network-based measure of node similarity to compare the GVCs between any pair of countries for each sector and each year available in the WIOD. Our network-based similarity is a better measure for node comparison than the existing ones because it takes into account all the direct and indirect relationships between the country–sector pairs, is applicable to both directed and weighted networks with self-loops, and takes into account externally defined node attributes. As a result, our measure of similarity reveals the most intensive interactions among the GVCs across countries and over time. From 1995 to 2011, the average similarity between sectors and countries have clear increasing trends, which are temporarily interrupted by the recent economic crisis. This measure of the similarity of GVCs provides quantitative answers to important questions about dependency, sustainability, risk, and competition in the global production system.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-250
Author(s):  
Ketan Reddy ◽  
Subash Sasidharan

This article provides an overview of India’s participation in global value chains (GVCs). Using multiple databases at the aggregate and industry levels, this article documents the trends in GVC participation of India during the last three decades. Authors further differentiate between India’s backward and forward integration at the country level before evaluating the industry-specific dynamics of GVCs in India. In this study, authors also shed light upon the rising servicification of Indian manufacturing, and highlight the importance of services’ value addition in promoting GVC integration of India. JEL Codes: F1, F15, D57


2022 ◽  
pp. 095968012110537
Author(s):  
Sabina Szymczak ◽  
Aleksandra Parteka ◽  
Joanna Wolszczak-Derlacz

This paper examines the relationship between the relative position of industries in Global Value Chains (GVC) and wages in 10 Central and Eastern European countries. We combine GVC measures of global import intensity of production, upstreamness and the length of the value chain with micro-data on workers. We find that the wages of Central and Eastern European countries workers are higher when their industry is at the beginning of the chain or at the end than in the middle. Secondly, wage changes depend on the interplay between upstreamness and GVC intensity. In sectors close to final demand, greater production fragmentation is associated with lower wages.


2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 214-236
Author(s):  
Christina Teipen ◽  
Fabian Mehl

Abstract The article compares social upgrading trends in four global value chains (apparel, automobiles, electronics and it services) and six developing and emerging economies (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Vietnam). It applies a framework, which combines analyses of industry-specific governance modes with recent theoretical approaches from the field of industrial relations. The empirical results show that prospects for social upgrading within similar segments of a particular value chain considerably depend on the national context. The article thus highlights the importance of integrating the role of national institutions into global value chain analysis in order to better explain variegated upgrading dynamics across different countries and industries.


Author(s):  
Robert Grosse ◽  
Klaus E. Meyer

This chapter raised two issues as a basis for structuring our thinking about international business in emerging markets. First, the question is raised regarding whether new theory is needed to study IB in emerging markets, or if existing theories can be extended to cover these geographic and institutional environments adequately. Second, the chapter presents the perspective of emerging markets fitting into global value chains, demonstrating how they fit into both supply chains and demand patterns. So, thinking about strategies for operating a foreign MNE in an emerging market and fitting an EM firm into an international network are both enhanced by looking at the firm(s) in the context of global value chains.


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