scholarly journals Local supplier firms in Madagascar’s apparel export industry: Upgrading paths, transnational social relations and regional production networks

2020 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2096110
Author(s):  
Lindsay Whitfield ◽  
Cornelia Staritz
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Technological Capabilities ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Local Firms

This article asks whether and how local firms in low-income countries can participate, upgrade and capture value in apparel global value chains in the context of increased entry barriers and asymmetric power relations. It focuses on Madagascar, which is the top apparel exporter in Sub-Saharan Africa and one where there is a significant number of local firms. The article examines the capability-building processes of local firms, which are the basis for upgrading paths and broader sector development. We do this by combining conceptual insights from the Technological Capabilities literature with the conjunctural approach to Global Value Chains and Global Production Networks. Based on extensive fieldwork in Madagascar’s apparel export sector, the article explains how the relational, local and regional assets that local firms can leverage in building technological capabilities influence their choices with regards to export strategies and their upgrading paths. In turn, these assets are linked to different types of local ownership, and they emerge through historical legacies and the national socio-economic context, which give rise to specific transnational social relations, as well as through regional economic formations and global value chain dynamics.

scholarly journals The evolution of power in the global coffee value chain and production network

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 803-828 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janina Grabs ◽  
Stefano Ponte
Keyword(s):  
Value Creation ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Production Network ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Value Creation And Capture

Abstract The configurations of global value chains and production networks are constantly changing, leading to new trajectories and geographical distributions of value creation and capture. In this article, we offer a 40-year evolutionary perspective on power and governance in the global coffee value chain and production network. We identify three distinct phases that are characterised by different power dynamics, governance setups and distributional configurations. We find that the kinds of power exercised along the coffee chain have changed, but also that the underlying power inequities between Northern buyers and Southern producers have remained fundamentally unaltered.

scholarly journals Integration of Small Farmers Into Global Value Chains: Challenges and opportunities inside the current global demand. Integración de pequeños agricultores en cadenas globales de valor: Desafíos y oportunidades dentro de la demanda global actual.

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Joselyne Nájera
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Low Income ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Small Farmers ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Impact

<p><strong>Resumen</strong></p><p>Las cadenas de valor global a menudo representan una opción, para las empresas y proveedores locales en los países en desarrollo, para obtener acceso a mercados de alto valor y nuevas tecnologías. Considerando que los beneficios potenciales de las cadenas de valor globales para los países en desarrollo están bien documentados, los estudios que se ocupan del impacto en los países en vías de desarrollo son escasos. El objetivo principal del artículo es analizar los principales retos y oportunidades que se derivan de la inserción de los pequeños agricultores en las cadenas de valor globales. El artículo sugiere que los pequeños agricultores se enfrentan a desafíos y oportunidades para el desarrollo dentro del mercado globalizado actual. Asimismo, se propone un modelo para la inserción sostenible y competitiva que pueda ser puesto en práctica, dado que aspectos como la educación, el acceso a la tecnología, el acceso a las finanzas, el apoyo a las políticas y la innovación pueden contener la clave para convertir una crisis en una oportunidad.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>Global value chains often represent an option for local firms and suppliers in developing countries to get access to high-value markets and new technologies. Whereas the potential benefits from global value chains for medium-income developing countries are well documented, the studies dealing with the impact on low-income countries are scarce. The  objective of the article is to analyze the main challenges and opportunities derived from the insertion of small farmers in global value chains.The article suggests that small farmers are intertwined between both challenges and opportunities for development in this globalized market, nonetheless a model for sustainable and competitive insertion can be placed under consideration since aspects like education, access to technology, access to finance, policy support, and innovation can hold the key for turning a crisis into an opportunity.</p>

scholarly journals Transnational sustainability laws and the regulation of global value chains: comparison and a framework for analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 602-627
Author(s):  
Jaakko Salminen ◽  
Mikko Rajavuori
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Global Value Chain ◽  
Corporate Disclosure ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
The Social ◽  
Lead Firm

Several corporate disclosure and due diligence laws related to the social and environmental impacts of globalized production have been enacted across the world over the last decade. While the emergence, operation and impact of such ‘transnational sustainability laws’ have already been extensively analysed, their legal operability remains poorly understood. This a significant omission because transnational sustainability laws form a novel and increasingly important attempt to conceptualize and govern the new logic of global production networks—global value chains—and their regulatory infrastructure. Against this backdrop, this article deploys a comparison of eleven recent transnational sustainability laws and develops an analytical framework to probe legally-operative conceptualizations of global value chains. By analysing how transnational sustainability laws conceptualize the value chain, the lead firm and adequate value chain governance, we argue, these instruments emerge as proxies for a legally-operative framework that better delineates the emerging law of global value chains. Thus, our analysis contributes to growing literature on the potential and limits of transnational sustainability laws as well as to the development of nascent ‘global value chain law’.

scholarly journals Participating to Compete: Do Small Firms in Developing Countries Benefit from Global Value Chains?

Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Mauro Boffa ◽  
Marion Jansen ◽  
Olga Solleder
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks ◽  
Reverse Causality ◽  
Trade Theory

Standard trade theory suggests that the profile of exporting firms is characterized by large firms which dominate domestic productivity distribution. Large manufacturing multinationals have increased their productivity by participating, creating and shaping global production networks. In recent decades, trade flows have become increasingly dominated by trade-in-tasks within global production networks. Given the importance of pro-competitive effects in establishing the gains from trade following trade liberalizations, it is important to look at the link between participation in global value chains and a firm’s competitiveness. The paper does so by using the International Trade Centre’s competitiveness index, for small, medium-sized and large firms, coupled with global value chain participation measures extracted from multi-regional input-output tables, and together forming a panel dataset at country and firm category level. The main finding establishes that the gains from integration into value chains are greater for small firms than for large firms. In particular, at the sample median, an increase of participation by 2.5% reduces the competitiveness gap between small and large firms by 1.25%. In addition, the analysis suggests that it is the use of foreign inputs that drives the result. In contrast, the domestic value in intermediate goods matters only in cases where value chains respond to domestic demand needs. The identification strategy relies on a fractional probit model allowing for unobserved effects, and a causal framework using the depth of trade agreements as instrument, in order to mitigate potential reverse causality.

Impact of Multinational Corporations’ Firm-Based Environmental Standards on Subsidiaries and their Suppliers: Evidence from Motorola-Penang

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T. Rock ◽  
David P. Angel
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Developing Economies ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Production Networks ◽  
Global Production Networks

How successful are multinational corporations (MNCs) in extending their firm-based environmental standards to their wholly owned subsidiaries and local suppliers, particularly the small and medium sized firm suppliers in developing economies who operate as part of the global production networks of MNCs? Three developments suggest this is not an idle question. To begin with, the economic influence of MNCs is simply staggering. As Dowell et al. (1999: 4) state, the intra-firm transactions of the more than 40,000 MNCs with approximately 250,000 affiliates worldwide account for about 40% of world trade; foreign direct investment is roughly five times official development assistance, and the sales of the ten largest MNCs are larger than the GNP of the 100 poorest countries. This suggests that MNCs along with their affiliates and their suppliers have the potential for exerting substantial influences on local, national, regional, and global environments. Because most of the value added and employment in industry in most developing countries, including the developing economies of East Asia, is accounted for by small and medium sized firms that lie beyond the reach of most governments’ environmental regulatory agencies and because we suspect that the most viable path to technological upgrading and environmental improvement in the low income economies lies in finding ways to increase the participation of indigenous small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the global value chains of multinationals, it is important to ask whether an upgrading strategy based on linking indigenous SMEs to the global value chains of MNCs can also be used to affect the environmental performance of SMEs. While not all the SMEs in any one developing economy are ever likely to be reached through the supply chains of MNCs, there is substantial evidence that governments working in concert with MNCs in vendor development programs linking SMEs to MNCs in some places such as Taiwan Province of China, Malaysia, and Singapore have affected the technological upgrading activities of indigenous small and medium sized firms. To date, there is little rigorous evidence to suggest that these vendor development programs have affected the environmental behavior of small and medium sized firms in the East Asian newly industrializing economies.

Local Firms Within Global Value Chains

2018 ◽  
pp. 590-608
Author(s):  
Shameen Prashantham ◽  
George S. Yip
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Markets ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Global Value Chains ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Future Research ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Level Of Economic Development ◽  
Technology Level ◽  
Management Capabilities ◽  
Local Firms

The focus of this chapter is on local firms in emerging markets as participants in global value chains (GVCs), and how some of them make the transition from local assembler to value chain. The purpose of this chapter is not to provide a comprehensive literature review; rather, the authors discuss key GVC concepts that are relevant to their focus. The chapter begins with an overview of the GVC notion highlighting the issues of governance and upgrading. Next, it briefly reviews the following key drivers of GVCs in emerging markets: level of economic development, maturity of institutions, science and technology level, and company management capabilities. The authors then highlight the rise of EM firms within GVCs in three phases: (1) local assemblers, (2) component manufacturers, and (3) value-adding innovators and partners. The chapter closes with a discussion on the implications for international theory and future research, noting the rise of anti-globalization sentiments and the imperative for innovation within GVCs.

Monetary Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Monetary Policy ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Policy Regimes ◽  
Export Prices ◽  
Policy Work ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Policy Guidance

Having broadly stabilized inflation over the past two decades, many policymakers in sub-Saharan Africa are now asking more of their monetary policy frameworks. They are looking to avoid policy misalignments and respond appropriately to both domestic and external shocks, including swings in fiscal policy and spikes in food and export prices. In many cases they are finding current regimes—often characterized as ‘money targeting’—lacking, with opaque and sometimes inconsistent objectives, inadequate transmission of policy to the economy, and difficulties in responding to supply shocks. At the same time, little existing research on monetary policy is targeted to low-income countries. What do we know about the empirics of monetary transmission in low-income countries? (How) Does monetary policy work in countries characterized by a huge share of food in consumption, underdeveloped financial markets, and opaque policy regimes? (How) Can we use methods largely derived in advanced countries to answer these questions? And (how) can we use the results to guide policymakers? This book draws on years of research and practice at the IMF and in central banks from the region to shed empirical and theoretical light on these questions and to provide practical tools and policy guidance. A key feature of the book is the application of dynamic general equilibrium models, suitably adapted to reflect key features of low-income countries, for the analysis of monetary policy in sub-Saharan African countries.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document