Search

Ausgehend von einer kurzen Darstellung zentraler Begriffe in dem von Jason Moore geprägten Weltökologie-Ansatz, bemüht sich der Artikel einige Missverständnisse in der deutschen Rezeptionsdebatte zu klären. Er zeigt, dass der Weltökologie-Ansatz nicht bloß eine (ökologische) Zusammenbruchs-Theorie ist, sondern wichtige Impulse für die Forschung zu Ressourcenpolitik und globalen Ungleichheiten liefern kann. Ein zentraler Fokus liegt herbei auf dem Begriff der 'commodity frontier' und der Aneignung natürlicher Ressourcen für die Kapitalakkumulation. Aufgrund der starken Strukturorientierung im Weltökologie-Ansatz, plädiert der Artikel für eine Weiterentwicklung um weitere Theorie-Stränge. Mit Hilfe der Forschung zu Warenketten bzw. Produktionsnetzwerken und der materialistischen Staatstheorie entwickelt er einen Forschungsrahmen, der es ermöglicht, gesellschaftliche Kräfteverhältnisse auf verschiedenen Ebenen in die Analyse von Rohstoffflüssen zu integrieren. Dies ebnet den Weg zu einer ergebnisoffenen Gegenwartsforschung und einer Operationalisierung abstrakter Kategorien wie 'cheap nature'. Based on a short introduction to central terms of the world-ecology approach, this article seeks to clarify several misunderstandings in the German reception of this new framework. It argues that the world-ecology approach is not just an (ecological) theory of capitalist breakdown, but offers important impulses for research on the politics of natural resources and global inequalities. A central focus is on the term "commodity frontier" and the appropriation of natural resources for capital accumulation. Acknowledging a strong structural orientation in the world-ecology approach, the article argues for a combination with other theoretical strands. With the help of materialist state theory and research on commodity chains or production networks, it develops a research frame that integrates the analysis of the balance of social forces on different scales into the analysis of raw material flows. This allows for open-ended contemporary research and an operationalisation of rather abstract categories, such as cheap nature.

New digital technologies based on the internet of things and artificial intelligence play centre stage in contemporary discussions about the prospects for economic development and the future of work. This article summarizes theoretical and empirical contributions on how these technologies affect global value chains (GVCs). We argue that the leading paradigms that analyse global production – the GVC framework and the related global production networks (GPNs) approach – are in need of some ‘technological uprading’ themselves. The GVC/GPN approaches acknowledge that technology is constitutive for the emergence of geographically fragmented production, but rarely address directly how technological change affects interfirm relations. The authors provide a framework that acknowledges the key role of technology while situating digital tools and systems in their social embeddedness, that is the role of human agency and institutions in shaping their development and impact. A research agenda is outlined focusing on three topics: the varieties of digitalization approaches in different world regions, the role of data as a specific form of intangible resource and the role of platform business models for industrial ecosystems. These topics are addressed in the special issue of Global Networks on ‘Digitalization and Value Chains’ introduced by this contribution.

This paper applies insights from global value chains (GVC)/global production networks (GPN) frameworks to explore the economic geographies brought into being by digital labour platforms. In particular, these perspectives facilitate analyses of power imbalances and value extraction across territories—an under-theorized aspect within platform studies. We theorize this dynamic by introducing the descriptor ‘digital value network’ (DVN): a digitally mediated nexus of platform operations that produce and distribute value between territories, on the basis of labour transactions. Empirically, we draw on a multi-year action research project, assessing the operations of platforms and the experiences of platform workers in 54 countries. Our analysis highlights that platforms as lead firms extend GVC/GPN logics of coordination and drivenness in DVN to (i) optimize production capabilities while externalizing ownership and costs, (ii) accumulate both monetary and non-monetary forms of value, and (iii) concentrate power at the global scale in both existing and new sectors.

This article questions retailers’ role as buyers driving production. Exploring a network involving Indian suppliers of UK retailers’ cotton garments, limitations preventing coercive buyer power from controlling production practices are identified. Overall, the dominant system of large-scale fragmented supplier networks connecting raw materials to final products accommodates commercially viable practices causing social or environmental challenges. While some pressures effectively span complex networks, buyers’ practice-related demands do not. Dissecting the ‘drivenness’ concept, this study shows multipolar governance within an industry often considered buyer-driven. Also, it furthers critiques of private governance’s effectiveness, indicating the need for alternative governance frameworks or network structures.

International audience; This article provides the first detailed analysis within economic geography of the GPN of lithium and of the Bolivian strategy of brine industrialization. Considering extractive and manufacturing chains of the lithium industry, it demonstrates how the production networks’ organizational structures and practices are shaped by interconnected relations of cooperation and competition. Specifically the article targets two key points in the GPN literature: i) how the multi-scalar competitive and/or cooperative strategies and practices of forward and backward integrations create and sustain the production networks and their evolution; ii) a combined analysis of the GPN approach with a placed-based interpretation of the political economy of the lithium industry focusing on the central role of states as inter-scalar mediators in strategic coupling relations for the insertion of national economic actors and assets to global markets. We then propose a new interpretation of the global reconfiguration of the extractive chain and its spatial forms.

This article examines hidden costs of three prominent mineral supply chain ‘solutions’ that respectively aim to create ‘conflict-free’ minerals, curtail corruption, and reduce mercury pollution. Our analysis underscores the heterogeneous ways in which global capitalism shapes regulatory injustices spanning multiple scales, illustrating how ‘clean’ mineral supply chain schemes can hide inequitable territorial and economic regimes of accumulation and labour exploitation resulting in social harms for artisanal and small-scale mining communities, negative environmental impacts, and the reproduction of extractive political economies dominated by large corporations. We argue for increased critical attention to how mineral supply chain schemes narrowly circumscribe spaces for pursuing counter-hegemonic ‘transformation’.

In a globalized world, the distribution of value-added across firms depends on a number of factors that vary across space. A key factor is related to the different types of competition on the multilayer structure of production, which are characterized by different types of (market) power. In this paper, we first argue that PageRank centrality is able to capture sectoral market power within the complex structure of global production. We then study the empirical properties of this market power measure and demonstrate a power-law relationship between sectoral PageRank centrality and relative sectoral profits. This power-law relationship has (international) political economy implications as it demonstrates the high incentives of sectors to become more central to increase their relative profits.

Manufacturing companies operating in global production networks face rising complexities and increasing susceptibilities to disruptions. For coping with disruptions, companies are in need of a holistic, comprehensive disruption management, involving all network actors to find optimal measures. However, today’s disruption management approaches are characterized by intuitive, experienced-based reactions, limiting themselves to solely the production or the logistics perspective and hence not permitting an overarching reaction. Therefore, this paper presents an integrated approach to disruption management, combining the production and logistics perspectives. It incorporates DoE and metamodelling methods in a simulation model to enable efficient, robust decision-making in highly complex environments.

The Global Value Chains/Global Production Networks (GVC/GPNs) literatures have become the predominant international political economy frameworks to understand the challenge of economic upgrading under 21st century globalization. However, until recently, this literature has overlooked the role of the state (outside its regulatory responsibilities) and the explanatory power of domestic political economy. Meanwhile, literature on developmental states, industrial policy and political settlements has generally taken a methodologically nationalist perspective to examine economic transformation in developing countries. This paper combines insights from the political settlements literature to contribute to the growing agenda within the GVC/GPNs literature to examine how the role of the state and domestic politics shape upgrading pathways in developing countries. Using the example of the Rwandan government’s attempts to increase specialty coffee exports over the last two decades, the paper shows how the public governance of the domestic value chain, combined with governance dynamics in the coffee GVC/GPN, has shaped upgrading pathways in Rwanda’s coffee sector. By developing a domestic political economy approach within the GVC/GPN tradition, this paper contributes to the growing attention within international political economy to focus on how multi-scalar pressures are shaping the outcomes of economic policy in developing countries.

© 2019 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/). In economic geography, scholars have discussed how endogenous regional sources of skills, networks and capital have led to new regional industrial growth. However, extra-regional dimensions and global production networks has mostly been left behind in the literature. In this paper, I develop a conceptual framework through the eanalysis of how exogenous sources are coupled to regional actors through the lenses of Global Production Networks and Global Value Chains in offshore oil. The author find that strategies in GPN lead firm vary between local integrative strategies and more complex global strategies. I demonstrate that GPN strategies have different impacts on local development processes, whereby strategies in the early phases of the value chain (i.e. drilling and seismic surveys) were path dependent and led to few local linkages due to lack of competence and infrastructure locally. The GPN strategies in late stages of the value chain (operations) were more context sensitive, as GPNs sought new solutions in procurement and oil spill preparedness, which together increased the local linkages. The implications for policy are to develop cautious regional development policies that are sensitive to specific GPN value stages and lead firms within GPNs.

In recent years, various academics, consultants, companies and NGOs have advocated a move towards more cooperative approaches to private sustainability standards to address the widely identified shortcomings of the compliance paradigm. However, is it possible to address these limitations by moving towards stakeholder inclusion and capacity building while at the same time catering to the demands of lead firms supplying the mainstream market? In this article, we analyse how the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) seeks to do just that, in the process identifying three key tensions and competing policy concerns with which standard‐setters have had to grapple – (a) stakeholder inclusion vs process‐control/efficiency; (b) stringency of the standard vs scale of production; and (c) capacity building vs auditing. Combining theoretical considerations about governance in global production networks (GPNs) with a convention theory perspective, we explore these inherent tensions and show that due to pre‐existing power relations in the cotton GPN, it is hard to develop more cooperative approaches because market and industrial values tend to win out despite efforts to follow current best practice on sustainability standard‐setting.

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.

This article aims to inform current debates in the field of transnational commodity studies through a Polanyian lens. Polanyi reminds us of the need to pay attention to the “double movements” in which fictitious commodities are disembedded from and re-embedded in society. We focus on two fictitious commodities, labour and land, which are conventionally treated as mere inputs for the production of genuine commodities. Through investigating the disembedding and re-embedding of labour in the garment industry, and of land in the agro-food sector since the 1970s, we gain insights regarding the commodification of fictitious commodities in the context of transnational commodity chains. The developments in both fields imply not just simple double movements, but complex entanglements of disembedding and re-embedding dynamics at the interface of state, business and civil society actors.

O artigo analisa os efeitos socioeconômicos de políticas governamentais de infraestrutura e de subsídios fiscais e financeiros (Programa Grande Carajás) que, a partir do final da década de 1970, ajudaram a implantar um polo industrial siderúrgico de produção de ferro-gusa voltado para a exportação, na Amazônia oriental maranhense. Um dos efeitos da criação desse polo siderúrgico foi o estabelecimento de um mercado de trabalho, que envolve trabalhadores metalúrgicos e florestais, em função da utilização de carvão vegetal como insumo da produção siderúrgica. Partindo da perspectiva das Redes de Produção Globais (RPGs), abordagem multicêntrica que enfatiza a ação de atores diversificados do mundo social na conformação de fenômenos econômicos, procuramos compreender o processo de configuração desse mercado de trabalho, destacando as transformações ocasionadas pela crise global de 2008 e o papel desempenhado por sindicatos, empresários e agentes estatais nesse processo.INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AND LABOUR MARKET: social contestation and recent transformations on siderurgical production in eastern AmazonThis paper analyses the socioeconomic effects of a group of governmental politics of infrastructure and financial/tax subsidies (Programa Grande Carajás) that from the late 1970’s had established a siderurgical zone for commodities production (pig iron) designed for exportation at the eastern Amazon area of Maranhão state. These governmental efforts trigged the emergence of a labour market around steel and forest workers, by the consequence of the use of charcoal as a input for siderurgical production. The analytic effort will be based on the theoretic paradigm of Global Production Networks, which stands as a multicentric approach that stresses the action of diversified social world actors to understand the process of configuration of that market, focusing the changes caused by the 2008’s economic crisis, highlighting the role performed by trade unions, corporates and state agents in this process. Key-words: Industrial development. Global production networks. Labour Market. Social criticismo. AmazonDEVELOPPEMENT INDUSTRIEL ET MARCHE DU TRAVAIL: protestation sociale et changements récents dans la production d’acier dans l’AmazonieL’article vise à analyser les effets socio-économiques des politiques publiques d’infrastructure et des subventions fiscales (Programme Grand Carajás) établies à partir des anées 1970, pour la mise en œuvre d’un pôle industriel d’acier dans la l’Amazonie oriental brésilienne. Le développement de ces politiques gouvernementales a donné lieu à un marché de travail résultant des activités d’acier et la production de charbon de bois pour la production de fonte, marqueé pour la precarité, mais qui, au fil des années, a connu des changements remarquables. En utilisant l’approche des des réseaux mondiaux de production, perspective qui met l’accent multicentriques l’action des divers acteurs du monde social dans la formation de phénomènes économiques, nous cherchons à comprendre le processus de configuration du marché du travail, mettant en lumière les changements apportés par la crise mondiale de 2008 et le rôle joué par les syndicats, les employeurs et les agents de l’État dans ce processus. Mots-clés: Développement industriel. Réseaux internatiounaux de production. Marché du travail. Critique social. Amazonie.

Leseprobe ----- Zusammenfassung Im Kontext geografisch verteilter Arbeit wird digital verlagerte Arbeit auf Onlineplattformen intensiv diskutiert. Diese virtuelle Arbeitsform fordert dabei die Interessenartikulation der Arbeitskrafte in mehrfacher Hinsicht heraus: die geografische Verteilung und die fehlende betriebliche Einbettung fuhren zum Verlust gemeinsamer Erfahrungs- und Gesprachszusammenhange. Der Beitrag beleuchtet das Verhaltnis zwischen virtuellen Kommunikationsraumen und Praktiken der Interessenartikulation in der Onlineplattformarbeit, unter Abgrenzung ortsbasierter Formen von Plattformarbeit. Zudem zeigt sich, dass die unterschiedliche Arbeitsorganisation in hochstandardisierter Onlineplattformarbeit (Microwork) bzw. bei komplexeren Tatigkeiten (Online-Freelancing) unterschiedliche Formen der Interessenartikulation bedarf. Es wird deutlich, dass virtuelle Kommunikationsraume einen wichtigen Ansatzpunkt fur die Interessenartikulation in der Onlineplattform bieten. Solche Praktiken des Miteinanders zwischen Arbeitskraften in der Onlineplattformarbeit sind schon jetzt mit Formen der Interessenartikulation verknupft. Schlagworter: Plattformokonomie, Interessenvertretung, Wertschopfungsnetzwerke, Onlinearbeit, Crowdwork ----- Virtual communication rooms as a launching area for the articulation of interests in remote platform-work Abstract Remote platform-work is an increasingly discussed issue with regard to spatial fragmentation and digitalisation. This manner of working virtually makes it difficult for workforces to articulate their interests: being geographically distributed and lacking operational embeddedness leads to a loss of shared experiences and conversational connectivity. This paper illustrates the relationship between virtual modes of communication and practices of interest articulation among remote workers on the one hand, and locally embedded employees and how they articulate their interests on the other. It becomes apparent that the different ways of organizing highly standardized online platform work (microwork) or even more complex activities (online freelancing) call for different modes of interest articulation. Keywords: Platforms, global production networks, collective voice, microwork, online-freelancing. JEL: J51, J83 ----- Bibliographie: Herr, Benjamin/Schorpf, Philip/Flecker, Jorg: Virtuelle Kommunikationsraume als Ausgangspunkt fur Interessenartikulation in der Onlineplattformarbeit, Industrielle Beziehungen. Zeitschrift fur Arbeit, Organisation und Management, 2-2021, S. 172-193. https://doi.org/10.3224/indbez.v28i2.04 ----- Open-Access-Lizenz: Dieser Beitrag ist ab dem 26.10.2023 im Open Access unter der Creative-Commons-Lizenz CC BY 4.0 (Namensnennung 4.0 International) verfugbar. Weitere Informationen zur Lizenz und den Nutzungsbedingungen finden Sie hier .

The participation of national V4 electronic industry in global value chains is a source of additional output, in addition to, a driver of technological development and employment. The aim of the study is to analyse whether the V4 region has the expertise capacity to upgrade its position in the electronics GVC integrated into the Samsung company. The analysis is built on the theory of GVC and the methodology of surveying the V4 labour market and education related to engineering. The quantitative results are supplemented with research interviews with Samsung managers and related municipal leaders. The analysis concludes on V4 upgrading opportunities in electronics GVCs determined by expertise.

International alliances have been studied in considerable depth, but almost entirely as host market entry options. And while much global value production is done through international alliances, the organizational forms used to control dispersed value chains are often reduced to “make or buy”—that is, captive operations vs. market-based outsourcing. We examine how strategic purpose (vertical or offshore production vs. horizontal or production for local market entry) affects the choice of cooperative governance form. We contend that an offshore production role, as opposed to a market entry strategy, makes an alliance more likely to be governed as a contractual alliance than as a joint venture. Data on 261 cross-border alliances in the major appliances industry largely support our hypotheses. Further, strategic purpose moderates the effects of alliance activities and of the institutional environment of the host country on the choice of governance form.

In this article we analyse the conditions for industrial upgrading in the Chinese LED industry, which proactive local state policies and expanding domestic markets have greatly facilitated. State initiatives provoked overinvestment, but eventually led to the emergence of competitive domestic enterprises. Simultaneously, firms benefited from a growing domestic market on which they outcompeted foreign companies in mid-price segments. The combination of these factors accounts for the peculiarly Chinese upgrading experience. Neither the resources provided by a new version of the ‘developmental state’ nor domestic market growth alone can explain the Chinese players' success. Based on these results, and given that the emerging economies have become the most important markets for certain consumer goods – a development that (local) industrial policies for industrial upgrading can influence – we provide further proof that it is necessary to rethink the export-led upgrading paradigm in theories of globally dispersed production.

Understanding the role of labour, underplayed in global production networks (GPN) theory, has guided this research on the mining engineering services sector. During the project, the global mining industry entered a downturn. Asking how mining and engineering firms responded to that downturn is a specific variant of wider questions about the place of labour in GPNs and whether labour can shape the GPNs of which it is part. Based on interviews with union officials, workers and management in Australia, the authors show that cost-cutting by global mining companies impacted heavily on the mining engineering sector, pressuring global and local firms. Labour – be it the work process or workers themselves – was central to how firms reacted. The agency of workers and their union was deeply constrained because of the power of companies in GPNs and the nature of the national state and local economies, areas in need of further theoretical development. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The increasing globalization forces manufacturing companies to organize their production in global networks, which include company internal sites as well as locations of external partners and suppliers. Each site in this network has an assigned strategic role according to the specific location factors, i.e. qualification level of employees or available process technology, and the defined specialization of each site, i.e. regarding served market, final product or realized processes. This role defines an individual target system that considers at least the dimensions cost, quality and time. Each site acts autonomously according to the target system. Since it is crucial for the success of the company to ensure the demanded quality of the final product with minimal cumulated quality costs and lead times, the quality control strategy for the production network has to be designed according to the target systems of the individual sites. The presented article describes an approach, which enables globally operating companies to efficiently plan their efforts for their quality control measures in their respective production network taking the specific site roles into account. In a first step, a value-stream-based methodology is presented, which visualizes quality characteristics as well as related quality inspections in the production process chain and which identifies potentials in the quality control strategy across locations. In a second step a simulation approach is used to evaluate the effects of different quality measures considering dynamic influencing factors and individual target systems, so that the optimal quality control strategy for the production network can be identified.

In this work, we examine bilateral trade data in two industries with different technological characteristics (textiles and apparel, and electronics) in order to detect the presence of international production networks in these sectors and to assess their structures and organization. Moving from the recent stream of literature that underlines the importance of assessing the participation and position of a country within an international production system, generally much more complex than a simple chain, we examine if these networks can be identified using traditional trade data and if they are still mainly regional. We start by applying a particular specification of bilateral trade intensity indices to the matrix of world trade in each sector (from the BACI – CEPII database), using the BEC classification to distinguish between intermediate and final goods, in order to highlight trade flows driven by international production networks. We compute indicators for the world trade matrix and its regional partitions, as defined by exogenous geographical criteria, or by the existence of regional integration agreements. The resulting pattern of revealed trade preferences conveys useful information about the actual geographic distribution of the underlying international value chains. The core of the paper is an application of network analysis to better understand the topology of global and regional value chains. In each industry, we identify endogenous geographical sub-networks based on preferential trade links, again distinguishing between trade flows in intermediate or final goods, and we examine the topological structure of the trading regions, to assess whether they are similar across industries and goods’ categories, and if they are built around a central core country. On the basis of both approaches, we conclude that trade regionalization is still high, especially in electronics, confirming that geographical proximity and other integration factors still play a role in facilitating international production and trade. However, regionalization has slightly declined in the recent past, and there are some relevant preferential linkages bridging different regions. In addition, the topology of trade networks can indeed shed some light on the structure of the underlying production linkages. In particular, a stronger preferentiality and selection of partners seem to occur for trade in intermediate goods, as suggested by the theory of international fragmentation of production.

This paper reviews the extent to which sustainability governance has been integrated into the literature on sustainable chains and networks. The analysis brings together four main approaches to chains and network studies – supply chain management (SCM), global commodity chains (GCC), global value chains (GVCs) and global production networks (GPNs) – to examine how and the extent to which sustainability and sustainability governance are conceptualised and incorporated into their analytical frameworks. The results point to a shift in this combined literature from conceptualising the formation of global chains and networks as sites of inequality under conditions of globalisation, towards a renewed vision on the potential of chains as a site for social and environmental reform. Overall, however, we conclude that the literature on global chains and networks has not adequately conceptualised distinct modes of sustainability governance. In response, we offer an amended typology for identifying how firm and non-firm actors govern sustainability in chains, of chains and through chains in globalised commodity production and consumption. The paper finishes with an exploration of the research frontiers, challenges and continuing potential of chain and network studies to understand the governance of sustainability and a call for further academic debate on the kinds of integrated governance arrangements necessary for future sustainability reform through hybridised public-private economic practice.

This article contributes to the theorization of the role of informal regulation (undertaken by leading firms) in the ongoing organization of global production networks. It does so through a qualitative case study of BHP Billiton's Ravensthorpe Nickel Operation (RNO) in the rural Shire of Ravensthorpe in Western Australia. This less tangible, and to date under-researched, dimension of global production networks is foregrounded through a focus on the corporate social responsibility strategy implemented by RNO in the service of achieving and/or demonstrating a broader ‘social licence to operate’. This ‘licence’ functions – beyond the corporation – as a legitimated and legitimating multi-scalar mechanism through which to gain and maintain access to mineral resources and thus to establish viable and ongoing global production networks. Further, this informal regulation is shown to shape social relations and qualities of place conducive to competitive global mineral extraction and to facilitate the positioning of local communities and places in mineral global production networks.

This paper proposes dialogue between postcolonial theory and the analytical frameworks of global value chains (GVCs) and global production networks (GPNs). It does so in order to open up more culturally sensitive accounts of global supply networks and exporting localities than those provided by prevailing political-economic approaches. Particular focus is placed on Zein-Elabdin’s postcolonial notion of economic hybridity to advance understanding of the institutional contexts shaping production networks. The value of applying this concept to GVC/GPN studies is illustrated in the case of a sustainable wildflower harvesting supply network in South Africa’s Western Cape, which supplies ethically promoted bouquets to domestic and European markets. Transnational cultural politics, including those associated with colonial encounters, are shown to shape the hybrid institutional context of this production network. It is suggested that such a perspective on institutional hybridity offers just one fruitful conversation between postcolonial approaches and GVC/GPN frameworks. Keywords: global production networks, global value chains, postcolonial theory, South Africa

Die Entwicklung von Arbeits- und Beschäftigungsbedingungen in der Automobilzulieferbranche wird in erheblichem Maße vom Standortwettbewerb zwischen Hochlohn- und Niedriglohnstand-orten geprägt. Die deutschen Standorte stehen dabei insbesondere im Wettbewerbe mit Werken in Mittelosteuropa. Auf Basis von Fallstudien von sechs deutschen Automobilzulieferern und einer Befragung betrieblicher Arbeitnehmervertreter erörtert dieses Discussion Paper die Mög-lichkeiten und Strategien von Gewerkschaften und betrieblichen Arbeitnehmervertretern, mit-hilfe von Globalen Rahmenvereinbarungen (GRV) Mindeststandards im Bereich von Arbeits- und Beschäftigungsbedingungen zu schaffen. Dabei werden drei Fragen verfolgt: Welche Ziele und Motive verbinden die Akteure mit dem Abschluss einer GRV? Welche Auswirkungen können im europäischen Raum beobachtet werden? Und welche Faktoren beeinflussen diese Auswirkungen? Die hier diskutierten Daten und Befunde stammen aus dem von der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung geför-derten Forschungsprojekt "Standortperspektiven in der Automobilzulieferindustrie", das von Martin Krzywdzinski (WZB) und Axel Schröder (WZB) gemeinsam mit Martin Schwarz-Kocher und Heinz Pfäfflin (IMU Institut) sowie Inger Korflür und Ralf Löckener (Sustain Consult) durchgeführt wurde. In die vorliegende Ausarbeitung sind viele Anregungen aus gemeinsamen Diskussionen im Projektteam eingeflossen, für die wir allen Kolleginnen und Kollegen herzlich danken. The development of working and employment conditions in the automotive supplier industry is strongly influenced by the competition between high and low wage countries. In the case of Ger-man plants, the most important competitors are locations in the Central Eastern European coun-tries. Based on case studies of six German auto suppliers and a survey among employee repre-sentatives in Germany and Central Eastern Europe, this Discussion Paper examines the opportu-nities and strategies of trade unions and employee representatives to develop minimum working and employment standards by means of Global Framework Agreements (GFA). It focuses on three questions: Which goals and motives drive the actors when negotiating a GFA? Which impacts can be observed in Europe? And which factors determine these impacts? The data and research results discussed in this paper were collected and developed in the project "Perspectives of the Automotive Supplier Industry" which was funded by the Hans Böckler Foun-dation. The project was conducted by Martin Krzywdzinski and Axel Schröder (WZB), Martin Schwarz-Kocher and Heinz Pfäfflin (IMU Institut) and Inger Korflür and Ralf Löckener (Sustain Consult). We thank all colleagues participating in the project for the discussions and suggestions which contributed to the writing of this paper.

This article contributes to debate on the evolving expressions of business responsibility in emerging market economies and developing economies by exploring and theorizing the ways in which the Fairtrade standard for supply chains is being re-worked and implemented in South Africa. To understand the changing ways in which the global Fairtrade standard is embedded in South Africa, the article argues for attention not only to recent strategic re-articulations of the standard through national-level initiatives, but also to the localized experiences of producer groups, including those in peripheral regions. This argument is supported by interview-based research revealing the challenges faced by a particular Fairtrade producer community — Eksteenskuil Agricultural Cooperative (EAC) in the Northern Cape. A relational approach developed from economic geography shows how challenges concerning market access, land tenure and community empowerment for this producer emerge from a combination of global Fairtrade conventions, South Africa's dynamic national-institutional context and local politics of place.

Contemporary debates on economic globalization have emphasized the development opportunities for the Global South through local firms becoming integrated into the global commodity chains (GCCs), value chains (GVCs) and production networks (GPNs) governed by leading multinational corporations. With increasing attention to the negative sides of integration, an emergent issue is the role of disengagement from, and operation outside of, the GPNs of lead firms. Through the case of the Indian pharmaceutical industry, where a selective and short-term strategic decoupling and subsequent recoupling has played a crucial role in the development of what is now the largest such industry in the Global South, this article explores how decoupling from GPNs may lead to positive development outcomes. The experience of India and the pharmaceutical industry shows that a sequence of decoupling and recoupling can be an alternative to strategic coupling as a route to economic development.

This article examines the circumstances under which corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives facilitate and/or constrain labour agency in global production networks (GPNs). Using a case study of Nike’s CSR approach in the football manufacturing industry of Pakistan, we explore the extent to which the measures advocated in a new, emerging policy paradigm on CSR in GPNs enabled labour agency at Nike’s main football supplier factory in Pakistan. We argue that while such CSR policies can create enhanced space for labour agency, that potential agency is also shaped (i) by wider economic forces within the global economy and (ii) relationships with local/national actors and regulatory frameworks. Understanding the intersection of these dimensionsbecomes vital to interpreting the potential for, and activation of, labour agency within CSR-influenced GPNs., This article examines the circumstances under which corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives facilitate and/or constrain labour agency in global production networks (GPNs). Using a case study of Nike’s CSR approach in the football manufacturing industry of Pakistan, we explore the extent to which the measures advocated in a new, emerging policy paradigm on CSR in GPNs enabled labour agency at Nike’s main football supplier factory in Pakistan. We argue that while such CSR policies can create enhanced space for labour agency, that potential agency is also shaped (i) by wider economic forces within the global economy and (ii) relationships with local/national actors and regulatory frameworks. Understanding the intersection of these dimensions becomes vital to interpreting the potential for, and activation of, labour agency within CSR-influenced GPNs.

Spurred by the classic work of Dunning, MNE location has become the focus of a growing body of research in the field. In this paper we argue that international business (IB) research examining the spatial dimension has serious weaknesses, stemming from its traditional assumption of the country as the location unit of analysis. While border-crossing remains the key research context of IB, placing it within a general spatial framework that recognizes both international and subnational spatial heterogeneity opens up vast new vistas for research. Analyzing MNEs as border-crossing multi-location enterprises allows the researcher to distinguish between (discrete) border effects and (continuous) distance effects and undertake a more fine-grained analysis of location. Within such analysis national borders may appear as qualitative discontinuities in space, that is, points at which spatial heterogeneity changes abruptly. However, subnational spatial heterogeneity is often the characteristic that drives firm strategy as MNEs decide to locate in particular agglomerations and not at random locations within a country. The complex firms that IB scholars study typically include multiple units within the same country, so that a complete analysis requires considering both subnational distance effects as well as international border effects.

This article presents an analysis of slave labour (as it is known in Brazil) among sugar cane workers within a globalising production network. It employs the Global Production Network (GPN) framework to argue that the dynamics of production networks are fundamental to the reproduction of unfree and degrading labour in this case. First, the power exercised by buyers is a key aspect of processes resulting in slave labour. Conversely, efforts to combat slave labour have been strengthened by acknowledging and working through this power. Second, the state exercises governance within the production network rather than only providing its institutional context. Beyond these dynamics, however, wider processes are involved in making labour available on particular terms and conditions. Third, then, processes of racialisation facilitate the imposition of restrictions on workers’ mobility, degrading conditions and intensification of work. Labour is, in other words, devalued. This implies that the ways in which competing judgments over value are resolved merit as much attention in GPN analysis as is currently given to the creation, enhancement and capture of value.

The globalization of markets and the increased outsourcing of production have given rise to global production networks (GPNs) linking internationally branded companies in the West to vast networks of suppliers, contractors and workers in developing countries and countries in transition. However, the literature on GPNs has only recently begun to pay more detailed attention to conceptualizing the role that labor plays in such networks. This article makes a contribution to the emerging literature on labor agency in GPNs by arguing that labor agency in export-oriented industries in developing countries may be highly gendered and tends to be more constrained than facilitated by both vertical forces (the governance of GPNs) and horizontal forces (local socio-economic and labor market contexts). This is done through a case study of labor agency in the football manufacturing industry of Sialkot, Pakistan.

Strategic decision making in Global Production Networks (GPNs) is quite challenging, especially due to the unavailability of precise quantitative knowledge, variety of relevant risk factors that needs to be considered and the interdependencies that can exist between multiple partners across the globe. In this paper, a risk evaluation method for GPNs based on a novel Fuzzy Dynamic Inoperability Input Output Model (Fuzzy DIIM) is proposed. A fuzzy multi-criteria approach is developed to determine interdependencies between nodes in a GPN using experts’ knowledge. An efficient and accurate method based on fuzzy interval calculus in the Fuzzy DIIM is proposed. The risk evaluation method takes into account various risk scenarios relevant to the GPN and likelihoods of their occurrences. A case of beverage production from the food industry is used to showcase the application of the proposed risk evaluation method. It is demonstrated how it can be used for GPN strategic decision making. The impact of risk on inoperability of alternative GPN configurations considering different risk scenarios is analysed.

Commodity chains that are global in extent have increasingly come to be seen as the defining element of the contemporary globalized world economy. Since the 1990s a body of theory — evolving from global commodity chain analysis to global value chain analysis to global production network analysis — has focused upon understanding how such commodity chains function. However, despite providing many important insights, these bodies of literature have generally suffered from a major deficiency in that they have failed to consider labour as an active agent capable of shaping such chains' structure and geographical organization. Here, then, we present a case for locating more centrally labour, in production network analysis. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Purpose: This paper has two interconnected objectives. The first is to provide a reconceptualisation of social value creation as social constraint alleviation. The second is to respond to the call put forward by Giuliani and Macchi (2014) to produce synergies between bodies of literature exploring the development impact of businesses. The paper focuses on ideas from the global value chain/global production networks (GVC/GPN), business and human rights, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international business (IB) and (social) entrepreneurship literatures. Design/methodology/approach: The paper offers a reconceptualisation of social value creation by building on the synergies, complementarities, and limitations of existing concepts identified through the literature review. Findings: The reconceptualisation of social value creation put forward in this paper contributes to the literature in the following way. It offers a useful and clear definition of the term 'social' (cf. Devinney, 2009), and it attends to the limitations of the constraint concept as put forward by Ted London and his collaborators (eg. London, 2011). Furthermore, it sketches out the basic ideas of a two-system approach to allow for the differentiation between symptom treatment and root cause alleviation. Finally, it offers a refinement of Wettstein's (2012) proposed capability-based remedial action concept. The paper furthermore proposes that there are three distinct ways in which businesses generally respond to social constraints. Originality/value: The paper illustrates how the redefined concept of social value creation can connect different bodies of literature and help make sense of existing empirical results, without engaging in definitional debates.

In this paper, we examine the evolution of international exchanges of auto parts over the 2000-2012 period. The first part of our study proposes an analysis of the organisation of automotive supply chains based on the global production networks framework. We give details about this approach by stating the nature of trade flows that occur in these networks, and by highlighting the importance of intra-firms flows. The second part poses the question of reasons for an eventual increase of intercontinental flows at the expense of intra-continental flows. In the third part, we evaluate the assumptions made in this context. On the basis of Chelem data about auto parts exchanges, we examine in a comparative way the evolution of intra-continental and intercontinental flows for nine zones of regional integration that cover the world’s entire set of countries. Our results highlight the heterogeneity of situations and of trajectories in the different zones. We explain this state of affairs by the history and the trajectory of the industrial actors, by institutional opportunities/constraints, and by the balance of power between the industries engaged in the setting up of automotive production networks.

This article advances debate on retailers’ supply networks and ethical trade using the case of sustainably harvested wildflower bouquets supplied from South Africa to domestic and UK retailers. It illustrates three developments concerning: an evolving relationship between retailers’ brands and ethical trading strategies; a growing role for institutions in the global South in shaping ethical standards and acknowledgement of the challenges facing producers when retailers’ buying practices clash with ethical requirements. These trends concern strategizing, embedding and practising ethicality, respectively, with the term ethicality capturing not only the ethical standards themselves but also the changing practices shaping what counts as ethical.

The dominant political-economic approaches to global trade flows known as global value chains and global production networks offer powerful insights into the coordination and location of globally stretched supply chains, in particular from global South to North. By way of both conceptual and empirical challenge, this paper highlights flows of end-of-life goods from the global North towards the global South. This involves the disassembly and destruction of goods to recover secondary resources for further rounds of commodity production. Global recycling networks take things of rubbish value (often spent or ‘end-of-life’ goods) and turn them back into resources in other places and production networks. They operate not through adding value, but by connecting different regimes of value. The paper does not set out a new conceptual framework, but asks what challenges the rekindling of value in used goods creates for global commodity chain analysis and what insights those approaches bring to looking at ‘waste’ flows. The examples of used clothing and end-of-life merchant ships are mobilised to illustrate the dynamics of global recycling networks and to challenge prevailing commodity chain approaches in three key areas – supply logics and crosscutting networks, value and materiality, and inter-firm governance. We argue that resource recovery engenders highly complex and brokered forms of governance that relate to practices of valuing heterogeneous materials and which contrast markedly with the modes of co-ordination dominated by ‘big capital typical of global production networks for consumer goods.

Ruptures like the recent global financial crisis are inherent elements of our global ?securitised? financial system. Re-regulations and the maturing of the financial industry have led to re-organisation processes within the industry with far-reaching implications on international financial centres (IFCs). Surprisingly, little is known about the IFCs? localised organisational nature, social, and structural power relations. Despite the controversy about ?tax heavens?, empirical evidence suggests that IFCs without an economic hinterland have developed strong local competencies and competitive advantages besides regulation aspects. Although dependent on foreign national economies, their specialisation capacitates them to offer finance-related services to a favourable cost-benefit ratio. The IFC Luxembourg seems to exemplify such a case. It has specialised in administrating a particular type of securities: (cross-border) investment funds. The paper does not only employ the GPN approach on finance but also innovatively links it with social network approaches, suggesting a new perspective to analysing locally anchored practices and dynamics in order to better understand ?the global? of today?s financial system.

There is an ongoing debate in the literature about the quality content of Chinese exports and to what extent China imposes a threat to the market positions of advanced economies. While China’s export structure is very similar to that of the advanced world, its export unit values are well below the level of developed economies. Building on the assumption that unit values reflect quality the prevailing view of the literature is that China exports low quality varieties of the same products than its advanced competitors. This paper challenges this view by relaxing the assumption that unit values reflect quality. We derive the quality of Chinese exports to the European Union by estimating disaggregated demand functions from a discrete choice model. The paper has three major findings. First, China’s share on the European Union market is larger than would be justified only by its low average prices, implying that the quality of Chinese exports is high compared to many competitors. Second, China has gained quality relative to other competitors since 1995, indicating that China is climbing up the quality ladder. Finally, our analysis on the supply side determinants reveals that the relatively high quality of Chinese exports is related to processing trade and the increasing role of global production networks in China.

Football is recognised as the most popular global sport. Football manufacturing is a billion dollar industry heavily dominated by major global brands. Over the past fifteen years there have been significant changes in the geographies of production with China consolidating its position as the number one football producer taking market share from Pakistan, the second largest producer. On the end market side, newly emerging markets have increased in importance but the EU and the US have remained dominant. Over the past fifteen years global football manufacturing has faced concerns on labour standards compliance and experienced distinct patterns of product and process upgrading. Using the analytical frameworks of global value chains and technological capabilities and learning, this study considers the challenges arising from technological upgrading and labour standards compliance within the global football industry and its implications for local producers.

The growth of East Asia’s intra-regional trade is driven largely by increased component trade within global electronics production networks. Data on both electronics trade and production elucidate a pattern of specialization in which upper- and middle-income countries produce sophisticated components and lower-income countries assemble lower- value-added final goods. There is evidence of increasing sophistication within the electronics sector by the Newly Industrialized Economies and to a lesser extent by ASEAN countries. Despite the marked increase in intra-regional trade, developing East Asian countries remain heavily dependent on developed-country markets. When Western export demand rapidly contracted during the 2008-2009 economic crisis, these specialization patterns led the rapid diffusion of the business cycle shock throughout the East Asian region.

In this article, I explore some of the implications of pursuing a cultural political economy (CPE) approach to the analysis of global production networks (GPNs). This raises three sets of issues: the current state of knowledge about GPNs; the current state of knowledge about CPE and the current state of relationships between analyses of GPNs and CPE. GPNs can be seen as encompassing the entirety of the circuit of production and to be constituted via a variety of flows (of capital in various forms such as commodities and money, knowledge and people) between a variety of nodes, sites and spaces (of production, exchange and consumption), with varying governance arrangements, both multi-scalar (supra-national, national, regional and urban) and non-scalar networked forms of governance. As these are Global Production Networks these nodes and the flows linking them are, by definition, distributed around the globe, albeit unevenly. CPE seeks to conjoin a more thorough treatment of the semiotic to more established concepts of political economy and there has been some considerable success in this regard [for example see Jessop and Sum (2006 Beyond the Regulation Approach. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar)]. As yet, however, there has been little serious engagement with the materiality of the economy and so with the relations between the material, semiotic and political economic within CPE. A similar criticism can be made of work on GPNs. Integrating considerations of the materiality of the economy more systematically enriches a CPE perspective, while exploring common ground between CPE and GPN approaches enables these advantages to be translated into the latter and further enhance its conceptual reach.

Recent studies highlight the emergence of standards, including multi-stakeholder initiatives developed and applied within the global South where supplier firms are usually based. This trend has created a complex ethical terrain whereby transnational standards flow through global production networks and intersect with domestic initiatives at places of production. The paper complements global production network analysis with the concepts of ‘space of flows’ and ‘space of places’ and insights from relational economic geography, to examine how some multi-stakeholder initiatives in the global South can shape the broader governance of labour standards in global production networks. The following questions are addressed: How is the governance of labour standards in global production networks shaped by dynamic spatial interactions between actors? What role have diverse Southern multi-stakeholder initiatives played in influencing the governance of South African fruit and wine? We draw on research conducted over seven years into two standards in South Africa, the Wine and Agriculture Ethical Trade Association and Sustainability Initiative of South Africa. Our analysis shows that these two Southern-based multi-stakeholder initiatives contributed to shaping the broader governance of labour standards through dynamic non-linear waves of interaction over time, involving both collaborative and contested exchanges between actors across space of flows and places. We further argue that despite the development of multi-stakeholder initiatives by Southern actors, commercial power asymmetries in global production networks limit their ability to promote significant improvements for producers and workers.

The eco-technological fix to the climate crisis renders certain resources, such as lithium, as "critical". We argue that criticality is actively produced in socio-technological processes, involving three interrelated levels - demand, supply and price perceptions, policies linked to green extractivism, and underlying narratives around the role of commodities in development. Criticality is interrelated with firm strategies in global production networks (GPNs) as well as financial actors' strategies, legitimizing extractivism for sustainability transformations. We highlight the role of financial actors and interests in enabling lithium expansion and assess two channels through which financial actors shape producer strategies and GPNs - financing and price-determination. Driven by criticality, financial actors mobilize "green" investment stories along the sustainability-finance nexus. This enables the shifting of extractive frontiers through funding new projects and creates variable price-setting regimes linked to derivative markets. Financial interests introduce an additional speculative momentum to lithium extraction, contributing to accelerating boom-bust patterns and short-termism. Methodologically, the paper draws on sector data, industry and company reports, as well as semi-structured interviews with lithium sector and financial actors in London, Switzerland, Chile and Zimbabwe.

The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, we review the mechanisms and determinants of vertical specialization (VS), as this has gradually become the dominant characteristic of international trade. Second, we underline that there is a rich literature regarding VS in EU trade, at aggregate and individual levels and research is advancing together with the instruments used to measure trade in value added. Third, our investigation brings to the forefront a classification of EU countries according to their GVC participation index, taking into consideration both upstream and downstream links. As a conclusion, the VS analyses help us better understand the interconnectedness among countries and industries by means of foreign direct investment, trade, labour migration and technology transfer.

In the present paper we aim to emphasize several aspects of the economic integration realized through the channel of trade, from a double perspective. The first point of view is given by the formal framework, de jure, composed by the multitude of preferential trade agreements, while the second one, de facto, market-driven, is concretized by the global production networks. The first stance is exemplified through the agreements negotiated or concluded by the traditional trade powers, EU, US and Japan. Although, economically, EU is more present in Asia-Pacific than the US, the latter are politically more active and seem to gain ground. The second stance is underlined by means of the Asian integration specificity. East and South-East Asia represents the core of „Factory Asia” and is governed by the activity of the transnational corporations, their investment and cross-border networks, which makes the production process more fragmented and the regional economies more mutually dependent.