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The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of global value chain participation (GVCP) on the gains from trade and trade costs of the timber industry and reveal the underlying influence mechanism. The GVCP Index, Novy (2011) method, and WWZ Value Added Decomposition method have been used to measure the degree of GVCP, trade costs, and gains from trade of the timber industry, respectively. The results show that the export gains from trade of the timber industry featured inter-annual sustainability. Further, GVCP has an insignificant impact, suggesting that the industry's degree of GVCP is limited. While the current trade cost and policy barriers to forest product trade harm it. And the cost of export trade has a strong lag effect on gains from trade. The increase of current trade costs reduces the short-term benefits; however, in the long run, the trade costs and benefits show a synchronous growth trend. To maintain and enhance its competitiveness, therefore, the industry will have to change the GVCP degree and mode of the timber industry, reduce short-term trade costs, and improve the quality and legitimacy certification level of timber products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The semiconductor industry is a pivotal hub in the global information sector, in which superpowers compete for technological dominance. As a strategic, leading, and foundational sector, it is vital for advancing China's manufacturing ambitions through new waves of transformation and upgrades. Therefore, of particular concern is the crisis surrounding China's semiconductor supply chain insecurity and the intensifying U.S. sanctions on China's high-tech companies. As such, in this study, we utilize data from China's semiconductor enterprises, investments, and related statistics from 2002 to 2020; industrial agglomeration indicators; and a social network analysis to examine the spatiotemporal pattern, industrial agglomeration, and investment networks of six key value chain segments: wafer materials, packaging materials, semiconductor equipment, integrated circuit (IC) design, manufacturing, and testing/packaging. The research focuses on how these sectors can contribute to sustainable growth and economic responsibility within China's semiconductor industry. Accordingly, the core questions explored were as follows: what are the provincial-level spatial production dynamics and evolutionary characteristics within China's semiconductor industry, and how do the inter-provincial investment patterns manifest? The findings reveal the following: (1) The findings reveal a strong concentration of firms in the Eastern Coastal region, particularly in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Guangdong. Additionally, IC design exhibits the highest clustering, and other segments such as wafer materials, manufacturing, and packaging/testing are relatively concentrated, whereas equipment distribution is more dispersed. (2) The industry expanded steadily from 2002 to 2013, with a rapid expansion from 2014 to 2020, particularly in Guangdong. (3) Investment patterns are characterized by local and regional focus, strongly influenced by geographical proximity. This study aims to reveal the geographic concentration patterns of China's semiconductor industry and to explore its investment networks. The findings are intended to provide theoretical support for optimizing sustainable industrial layouts, promoting sustainable industrial practices, and guiding policy formulation. Furthermore, in the broader context of de-globalization, this study offers insights and recommendations for strengthening industrial autonomy and sustainability in response to external challenges, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of a more robust domestic semiconductor supply chain. These insights are particularly significant in safeguarding China's technological independence and future economic stability amid global tensions. Furthermore, by integrating sustainability into its semiconductor industry, China can create a more resilient, self-sufficient, and environmentally responsible industrial sector, capable of meeting both domestic and global demands. As China continues to expand its semiconductor industry, incorporating sustainable development principles will be essential for long-term success. The sustainable practices not only ensures compliance with environmental regulations but also enhances industrial competitiveness, promotes green techniques and contributes to broader societal goals. This aligns with China's broader ambitions for sustainable development and positions the country as a key player in the global green technology revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place-centred branding is increasingly perceived as a mode of product differentiation and a rural development strategy that emphasizes the singularities of production regions and methods to meet global market demands for quality and authenticity. We use a global value chain (GVC) analysis to compare the trajectories of Peruvian and Chilean pisco – a distilled spirit like brandy – finding that each country's efforts to claim its authenticity are grounded in different cultural–economic imperatives as well as vexed historical bilateral relations. Our analysis suggests that antagonism can compromise the authenticity premium. A GVC lens offers important analytic leverage for locating pisco producers' market strategies as nested within the larger GVC for alcoholic spirits, and we suggest this perspective would benefit from more robust considerations of local–global trade-offs therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In international business (IB), the discussion of COVID-19-related global value chain (GVC) models driving resilience has taken momentum since May 2020. The purpose of this study is to uncover insights that the pandemic provided as a unique research opportunity, holistically, revealing the significant role of non-lead firms in GVC outcomes and resilience. This allows to extend theory as the authors critically identify impact criteria and assess interdependence and valence, thus progressing the traditional (pre-pandemic) IB view of GVC governance and orchestration. Design/methodology/approach: This study opts for an integrative review to help create a much-needed extension of IB theory by means of a critical perspective on GVC theory. The authors examine the extant body of IB literature as the relevant stock of collective IB knowledge prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, uncovering contributions – with a focus on the role of non-lead firms in orchestration and resilience – that allows to clarify what was not evident pre-pandemic. With this, the authors move the theory from its efficiency focus to a better recognition of the interdependencies of power and profit outcomes stemming from asymmetries of interrelationships. By design, the authors focus on the unique research period of the pandemic and orchestration complexities along the development of configurational arguments beyond simple correlations (Fiss, 2011), revealing key dependencies as key themes. The authors highlight further research avenues following Snyder (2019) that are called upon to strengthen that understanding and that helps extend theory. Findings: This research provides a critical perspective on the application of the traditional IB views for GVC governance (designed for efficiency, cost and proximity to markets with pre-dominance for just in time), which has shifted during the pandemic to accommodate for adaptation and adjustment to resilience and just in case considerations. The holistic review reveals not only the key country- and multinational enterprise (MNE)-dependencies with residual impact determining the balance between just-in-time and just-in-case. Also, the authors advance the understanding of the (un)balance of the traditional GVC – focused on just-in-case rather than just-in-time through a lead and non-lead GVC participation and power lens yet rarely observed. The authors find that governance should not be construed as "management" such that it resolves into decisions undertaken in lead firms for execution in subordinate GVC participants. Autonomy allows to subsidiary units by MNE lead firms and/or exercised by (mainly, innovative) non-subsidiary GVC participant firms, is uncovered as a key driver in this. Greater delegation capacity appears to help provide resilience to loss in profit, with a recognition that there may be a dynamic trade-off between power and profit. In addition, the authors are able to identify correlations with innovation, demand elasticity, digital uptake, investment and other, that the authors trust will set the scene for additional research deepening and extending the findings. Research limitations/implications: Integrative literature reviews include a problem formulation (i.e. that is limited to published topics around an emerging theme) and are hence very focused in nature and approach. This applies to this paper. Data analysis in this method is not typically using statistical methods in contrast to meta-analyses. Also, the authors limit the sample to a relatively short time period with 33 publications analysed, purposefully focusing on the most prompt and "acute" insights into GVCs during the pandemic. Practical implications: The traditional GVC governance model is designed for efficiency, cost and proximity to markets with pre-dominance for just in time. The authors reveal dependencies that are instrumental to better understand lead and non-lead interaction and relative autonomy, with a focus on residual impact determining the balance between just-in-time and just-in-case that, if in the sought equilibrium and agile, can allow alignment with context and this resilience. This paper specifically provides practical insights and visualization that highlights stages/"ripple" effects and their impact and the questions to ask as stakeholders look for GVC resilience. This includes, int.al., firms and their role as strategic agents, prompting participants through the learnings from exogenous shock to realign their strategies, redistributed manufacturing of production across subsidiary and non-subsidiary non-lead firms, greater competition and hence power for suppliers leveraging resilience and innovation, greater understanding of localization and regionalization of production of essential supplies, interaction with governments, and of investment impacts abroad especially to secure GVC participation. Social implications: The insights provided through this extension of theory with its literature review reveal the importance of aligning IB research into GVCs to factors that became visible through alternative or unusual settings, as they have the power to reveal the limitations of traditional views. In this case, a mainly efficiency-led, just-in-time focused GVC governance model is reviewed through the literature that emanated during the pandemic, with a critical perspective, which helped uncover and underline the complexities and evolution of GVC governance, providing fundamental support to solutioning the continuing global supply chain challenges that started as a result of the pandemic and are yet again accelerated by the Ukraine and Middle Eastern wars and its impact with, int.al., concerns over possible severe global food, labour/migration and resources crises. IB holds a social responsibility to help identify critical challenges from the disciplinary perspective and help advance resilience for social benefit. Originality/value: This paper supports the original IB theory development by extending GVC theory into the lead – non-lead dynamics that may, under certain conditions, provide a "Resilience wall" for GVCs. The value created through insights stemming from a unique period of time for GVC is significant. It allows us thus also to pave the way to an emerging and critical research adaption looking into equilibrium, nuancing demand elasticity, better understanding trade and investment impacts along GVCs and more. By examining views on the sources of pandemic risks in a possibly unique setting, the authors offer added value from extant IB research insights by combining them, revealing the importance for GVCs to investigate not only key dependencies between the exogenous shock, i.e. context, and the impacts assessed through this literature but to further use their inherent value to create a framework for further conceptualization and extension of the traditional IB view on GVC governance. This work illustrates the urgency and importance for IB to take a timely and possibly more critical approach to the investigation of governance models that have, to date, shown some significant limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims at investigating the intensity of environmental regulation on firm's share of domestic value-added in gross exports in China. An unbalanced firm-level panel data from 2000 to 2014 is adopted to estimate 10 two-way fixed effects models suggested by Hausman test for the entire sample of 648,801 and subsamples of three trade patterns, three types of ownership and three regions. The primary finding of this study is that for the entire sample and subsamples of general trade, mixed trade, non-state-owned and foreign-owned enterprises and enterprises in the eastern region, the intensity of environmental regulation has a "U-shaped" influence on firm's share of domestic value-added in gross exports in China, meaning that this influence is negative first and then turns to positive after the intensity of environmental regulation reaches a certain level. This conclusion is reasonable and consistent with our expectation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ambitious per capita GDP target has been envisioned by the Chinese government since 2020 to project its sustainable economic growth rate by 2035. Can China fully achieve its goal? This is a question worth investigating. By inserting relevant TABLO modules of the final goods trade, the intermediate goods trade, and factor-strengthening technology spillovers, along with technology absorption thresholds effects of the global value chain, this study builds a global recursive dynamic computational general equilibrium (CGE) model on the basis of GTAP-RD. This approach enables us to consider total factor productivity (TFP) development through the "dual circulation" system, which was pointed out by the Chinese government as the only way for further growth. We simulate China's technological progress under eight scenarios and use the latest GTAP Version 11 production and trade data (released in April 2023) for 141 countries and regions. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) If China maintains its trade opening policy, the 2035 vision goal can be achieved, with external circulation being more important than internal circulation. (2) The economic growth impacts of external and internal circulation function relatively independently. FDI offers a somewhat stronger synergistic effect on intermediate goods trade compared to final goods trade and consumption. (3) We find that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is the most important strategic partner for China. (4) FDI is not an effective way to lift the productive services sector's TFP, and it is more realistic for China to open up the productive services market more widely. (5) China–US decoupling has an enormous global impact, and the United States is always the country that loses the most, with Europe being the group of countries that benefits when there is a large increase in TFP in the US. This study is entirely original in terms of its model structure, simulations, scenarios, and shocks. It aims to fill the gap of extending the application of the CGE model to specific issues, thereby making contributions and supplements to the three theories discussed in the article too. The limitation of this paper lies in the CGE linear description feature, which is concise and elegant and has the characteristics of extrapolation and long-term absorption of disturbances. However, it tends to overlook the randomness, non-convergence, and significant structural disturbances that may occur in future reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development corridors have become a key tool of economic policy in the Global South. Yet, it appears that many of these mega-projects already fail at the stage of implementation. The article deals with three problems that corridors face. Corresponding ideas are drawn from existing literature, and confirmed and expanded against the backdrop of a case study on the Bioceanic Corridor, which connects the central west of Brazil via Paraguay and Argentina to the north of Chile. First, there is a tendency to focus on opportunities and neglect challenges. Corridors often reflect unrealistic grand visions for the future. Second, these initiatives depend on territorial rescaling to sub- and supranational levels, but national governments bundle too much power. Third, being a means to facilitate integration into global value chains, corridors provoke disputes over gains. Each country – and even subnational entities – strives to maximise its benefits at the expense of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid acceleration of global industrial transfer, the complexity of world exports of high-tech products has increased significantly. This study aims to investigate the evolution of the network structure in international high-tech product trade and its impact on global value chain (GVC) indices. By analyzing the trade network and GVC indices, we explore the small-world characteristic of the international high-tech product trade (IHT) network and the significant spatial heterogeneity in its geographical pattern. While emerging industrialized countries are gradually gaining importance in the core–periphery structure, we observe that developed economies still maintain control over GVCs, as indicated by analyzing GVC indices. Furthermore, our empirical analysis reveals that network centrality has a positive effect on GVC participation and position indices, but linkage strength and power position in the network show a negative effect on GVC position index. These findings suggest that although the surge in high-tech product exports from latecomer countries is primarily driven by their focus on lower value-added functions, it does not result in higher positions for these countries within the GVCs. This discovery also provides further evidence for the dialectical debate on a spike in high-tech exports from developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia, particularly China, Japan, and South Korea has experienced rapid economic growth in recent decades, partly through active participation in global value chains (GVCs). Foreign direct investment (FDI) has played a crucial role in this process, enabling the transfer of technology and skills and access to international markets. This paper aims to empirically analyse the effects of FDI on GVCs in East Asian countries over the last two decades. The paper covers six East Asian countries from 2000 to 2022 and explores the relationship between FDI and GVCs using the Driscoll and Kraay (1998) estimator. The estimation techniques are ordinary least squares (OLS) and feasible generalized least squares (FGLS). The results reveal that FDI inflows into East Asia positively and significantly affect the countries participation in GVCs, both upstream and downstream. These results suggest the need to support FDI in Asian countries to improve their participation in GVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic globalization in the 21st century has been characterized by the rise and spread of global value chains (GVCs). It faces significant challenges due to increasing domestic and international policy uncertainty in the context of emerging mega risks like geopolitical tensions and climate change. This paper begins by constructing a theoretical model for an open economy to study how risk‐averse firms make decisions regarding the sourcing of intermediate inputs in an uncertain environment. Our model solution proposes that firms will source fewer intermediate inputs from countries with more economic uncertainty. An increase in domestic and foreign uncertainty will have opposite impacts on a country's position in GVCs. In this sense, we argue that a country tends to move downstream along GVCs if its own economic policies become more uncertain, and it tends to move upstream with an increase in the uncertainty of its trading partner countries. Our regression analyses, based on data including the World Input–Output Database, World Development Indicators, the UN Comtrade database, and the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index, provide empirical support for this model‐based conclusion. Our findings highlight that a nation must consider foreign economic policy uncertainty and maintain domestic policy stability to participate in GVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Republic of Korea has achieved economic growth and development thanks to the benefits of trade liberalization within the framework of a multilateral trading system. However, it faced a new international trading environment with the emergence of neoprotectionism. Initially, neoprotectionism was promoted by developed countries, but now it is becoming a common phenomenon in the international trading environment. In particular, the political and economic conflicts between the United States and China are forcing a radical change in the foreign trade policy of the Republic of Korea. The prolonged confrontation between the two largest markets for the South Korean economy has reinforced the need to review the foreign economic policy of the Government of the Republic of Korea. In response to changes in the international trading environment, the Government of the Republic of Korea was forced to develop and promote new directions of foreign economic policy for the development of the multilateral trading system.

The patents regime in healthcare sector and its tussle with right to public health is a long controversial saga. The crux of matter which is debated focuses upon providing patent rights that reduces the accessibility of cost-effective healthcare services, particularly in developing country. The counter point to this has remained that providing patent allows nurturing of research and development in the health- care sector, which promotes the healthcare industry to take initiatives to tackle various health related problems and provide better treatment. According to the rival opinions presented in the aforesaid, the centre of the issue is health, therefore it is necessary to discuss the corresponding rights of citizens and duties of the government to make healthcare industry favourable.

This article contributes to the growing literature on technological upgrading along global value chains, by focusing on the adoption of automation and digital technologies at different functional stages of the automotive value chain. It explores the constant tension that firms in emerging economies face between linking up to international trade and ensuring the upgrading of indigenous firms, which depends on the relationship between lead international firms' operations and capabilities at the local level. Drawing on extensive qualitative research in South Africa, including 39 interviews and observations at the shopfloor level, this paper examines the determinants for automation and digital technologies adoption. The finding extends existing knowledge of technological upgrading along global value chains, by examining both final assemblers and lower-tier suppliers. Four production specific drivers are identified: volume, quality, material-led adoption, and ergonomics. This paper suggests policymakers should consider sector heterogeneity and specific sector-technology combinations when designing policies to sustain digitalization and production upgrade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the well‐established tradeoff between economic development and environmental protection, research on the economic costs of alleviating pollution, especially from the perspective of global value chain upgradation, is scarce. In 2006, in its Eleventh Five‐Year Plan, the Chinese government implemented strict environmental regulations against air pollution. We examine the causal effect of these environmental regulations – which were stricter for higher pollution emission provinces compared with lower pollution emission provinces – on Chinese firms' span of production stages after the policy shock. A difference‐in‐difference‐in‐differences estimation reveals that, first, environmental regulations have a significantly negative effect on firms' span of production stages that robustness checks corroborate; second, the negative effects of environmental regulations on firms' span of production stages are realised through the simultaneous decline in import upstreamness and increase in export upstreamness. Heterogeneity tests indicate that the effects are more significant for firms in eastern China, and foreign‐owned firms; finally, the negative effects are manifested through the emission‐related input and output, productivity, and innovation mechanisms. Meanwhile, there are significant emission reduction effects. These results have implications on environmental policies in developing countries in terms of reiterating the need to achieve the dual objectives of environmental protection and global value chain upgradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses panel data with 6,743 country-year observations to investigate the effects of participation in the global value chain (GVC) on export survival rate for the period 2005–2014. GVC participation is measured as the value addition embedded in exports, looking both backward and forward from a reference country. The empirical results show that both backward and forward linkages have positive effects on the chance of export survival; these effects are persistent and increasing over time, and they become more pronounced when taking the endogeneity issue into account. On the policy front, the preceding findings suggest that governments should implement policies to upgrade a country to GVC integration in order to enhance the sustainability of exports. JEL Codes: F10, F14, C41 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation and integration in Global Value Chains (GVCs) is critical for industrial development, especially for developing economies in key sectors such as agri-food businesses (AFB). However, doing so optimally is difficult due to inherent power imbalances between GVC actors. Innovation intermediaries may support the upgrading and opportunities of less powerful actors by working between processes and institutions while exercising a mix of bargaining, demonstrative, institutional, and constitutive powers. By doing so, they can theoretically reconfigure chain governance structures. However, little research has been done on how precisely innovation intermediaries exercise these powers and to what ends. This study conducts case studies on two AFB non-government organisations (NGOs) in the Philippines, employing focus group surveys, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis to examine how they exercise different types of power to better their partners' GVC position. We find that both NGOs employ these powers in diverse ways and to varying degrees over time. Our results reveal the critical importance of active value chain participation by non-firm actors in influencing the balance of power within GVCs and in shaping government response. These results have implications for theoretical and policy debates concerning GVCs and innovation intermediaries, both generally and in developing economy contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographical scholarship has advocated the importance of endogenous and place-sensitive development to levelling up left-behind places, by means of reactivating untapped potentials and recuperating a sense of belonging. Drawing on the approaches of global value chain (GVC), and to a lesser extent, global production network (GPN), this paper rethinks how GVC/GPN participation articulates with endogenous assets and enhances local actors' capacities to achieve economic and social upgrading. We present a case study of the coffee economy in Lujiang Township, Yunnan Province, China. We find that local villagers are able to tap into opportunities of learning and upgrading, but these processes are mediated by institutions and moral economies. Ultimately, economic empowerment translates into the revival of a sense of belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The aim of the article is to interrogate comparative advantage of agrarian and food processing sectors in the context of the agri-food global value chains in particular countries in the Central and Eastern Europe using gross trade and value-added trade data from TiVA database. The Normalized revealed comparative advantage index (NRCA) was applied to analyze comparative (dis)advantage of agrarian and food processing sectors from 1995 to 2020. The article contributes twofold: First, NRCA pairs of indices calculated using gross trade and value-added trade data are mostly consistent. The analysis identifies for what areas and countries there is a discrepancy; second, it reveals comparative advantage of agrarian and food processing sectors in each country separately. It indicates different trajectories of development among countries in the Central and Eastern Europe. These results are complementary to the results of studies that evaluated comparative advantages on the product basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been a strong push for binding human rights due diligence (HRDD) legislation, both at the national and European levels. As empirical evidence of such legislation's impact gradually emerges, it is time to take stock. In this article, we conduct a systematic literature review to assess available empirical evidence on (1) how HRDD legislation affects the policies and practices through which companies engage with human rights; (2) how these policies and practices, in turn, affect different actors in companies' value chains. While it is too early to make conclusive judgements, existing evidence allows us to identify several worrying trends: most companies opt for managerialist and compliance-oriented approaches to HRDD; revert primarily to earlier (and flawed) private governance mechanisms; and try to cascade responsibilities and costs in their supply chain. This risks perpetuating or reinforcing marginalisation and exclusion dynamics. Based on these findings, we formulate some lessons for policy-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Present the employment effects of global value chain (GVC) sticky relationships. • Distinguish link-structure and circle-structure relationship between enterprises. • Make a distinction between domestic GVC employment and cross-border GVC employment. • GVC linkages are more stickier than interactions between domestic-owned enterprises. • Provide a Chinese story of whether GVC sticky relationships help stabilize employment. Global production beyond borders is becoming an invisible force for stabilizing employment, and the behaviour of firms featuring transnational corporations has become critical to the development of production. In this paper, we construct a systematic quantitative analytical framework of measuring global value chain (GVC) sticky relationships and analyze the steady growth of employment from the perspective of inter-firm interactions firstly, furthermore, provide the latest evidence from China. Our findings show that: multiple interactions between firms for that participate GVC contribute to the development of the GVC sticky relationships and promotion of employment growth, the GVC sticky relationship accounts for approximately 17.32 % of the total employment in China, and domestic GVC sticky relationship activities have become an important force in stabilizing and promoting employment growth in China, it surpasses cross-border GVC employment since 2008. Furthermore, we characterize the shape of GVC sticky relationships and find that the circle-structure relationship effect has greater potential to stabilize employment in China, particularly in the sectors of ICT, wholesale and retailor. Therefore, mitigating the transaction costs of participating in GVC by reducing institutional barriers in the process of firms' interactions is significant for maintaining the employment stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An in-depth investigation into the effect of embedment in global value chain (GVC) on energy conservation and emissions reduction is of great significance for scientifically assessing the environmental impact of GVC participation, and promoting high-quality development in China. This paper incorporates GVC embedment, energy consumption and carbon emissions into the same analysis framework for the first time. Based on the WIOD database, this paper theoretically and empirically examines the impact and mechanism of global value chain embeddedness on carbon emission reduction from two dimensions: energy consumption intensity and energy consumption structure. The study found that GVC embedment significantly reduced the industry's carbon emission intensity; developing economies' embedment in GVC helped reduce their carbon emission intensity, while the effect was not obvious in developed economies. GVC embedment had a significant inhibitory effect on the carbon emissions in both upstream and downstream industries, but not conducive to carbon reduction of low-tech manufacturing. The mechanism test shows that the GVC embedment not only exhibits the dual effects of energy conservation and emissions reduction, but also has a significant impact on carbon emissions by reducing the energy consumption intensity and improving the energy consumption structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the digitalisation of the global value chain (GVC) in the apparel and video game industries and its effects on firm behaviour and performance. It elaborates on several modes of digitalisation, namely, thin digitalisation, platform digitalisation and full-range digitalisation. Digitalisation contributes to the expansion of the volume of sales and profits while reducing labour costs. However, its impacts on profitability remain uncertain, with the benefits and costs offsetting each other. GVC digitalisation benefits startups by lowering entry costs and facilitating upgrading, whereas it may be detrimental to incumbent companies since it can enable platform providers to transform into competitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Fatec Zona Sul (REFAS) is the property of Revista Fatec Zona Sul (REFAS) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Global value chains (GVCs) promote the diffusion of knowledge and technology. This paper develops an empirical production model that combines spillovers and productivity growth heterogeneity at the industry‐level. We exploit the GVCs linkages from inter‐country input–output tables to describe the interdependencies of technology within the input–output space and combine that with the Asian‐Pacific and US KLEMS database to estimate productivity growth. The spillover effects from capital deepening, intermediate deepening, and technical change are identified and decomposed into domestic and international effects. Our empirical results find that ignoring the industrial interactions leads to an overestimation of China's productivity growth, and underestimation for the US and Japan. The spillovers of capital and intermediate are found to be significantly positive. The spillovers of technical change received account for 32 to 40 percent of total productivity growth. These findings provide a better understanding of how technical changes are distributed and diffused within GVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to develop a conceptual framework and propositions to establish and test the causal relationships between Industry 5.0 readiness (I5.0R), global value chain (GVC) participation, business competitiveness (BC), and sustainable business growth (SBG) of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This study focuses on Industry 5.0 readiness, evaluated through human-centricity, fairtrade practices, lean management, sustainability practices, and business competitiveness, measured by marketing, resources, production, and finance. Both constructs were developed and tested as higher-order constructs, while GVC participation and sustainable business growth were assessed as lower-order constructs. Data were collected from marine food processing SMEs in Thailand using a purposive sampling technique. This study tested and confirmed the content validity, construct validity, and reliability of both lower and higher-order models. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with bootstrapping (n = 1000), the results indicated significant positive impacts of Industry 5.0 readiness on GVC participation, Industry 5.0 readiness on business competitiveness, GVC participation on business competitiveness, and business competitiveness on the sustainable business growth of SMEs. Additionally, business competitiveness was found to mediate the relationship between Industry 5.0 readiness and sustainable business growth. These findings contribute to the literature on Industry 5.0, GVCs, and SME business competitiveness, offering practical insights for SMEs and policymakers aiming to enhance sustainable growth through strategic readiness and competitiveness in Industry 5.0 practices. The implications and directions for further research in Industry 5.0 readiness of SMEs are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – In this paper, we evaluated the impact of the US “Chip Act” on the participation of the Chinese electronics industry in the global value chain based on the dynamic CGE model. This is a meaningful attempt to use the GTAP-VA model to analyze the electronics industry in China. Design/methodology/approach – We employ a Dynamic GTAP-VA Model to quantitatively evaluate the economic repercussions of the “Chip Act” on the Chinese electronic industries' GVC participation from 2023 to 2040. Findings – The findings depict a discernible contraction in China’s electronic sector by 2040, marked by a −2.95% change in output, a −3.50% alteration in exports and a 0.45% increment in imports. Concurrently, the U.S., EU and certain Asian economies exhibit expansions within the electronic sector, indicating a GVC realignment. The “Chip Act” implementation precipitates a significant divergence in GVC participation across different countries and industries, notably impacting the electronics sector. Research limitations/implications – Through a meticulous temporal analysis, this manuscript unveils the nuanced economic shifts within the GVC, substantially bridging the empirical void in existing literature. This narrative accentuates the profound implications of policy regulations on global trade dynamics, contributing to the discourse on international economic policy and industry evolution. Practical implications – We evaluated the impact of the US “Chip Act” on the participation of the Chinese electronics industry in the global value chain based on the dynamic CGE model. This is a meaningful attempt to use the GTAP-VA model to analyze the electronics industry in China. Social implications – The interaction between policy regulations and global value chain (GVC) dynamics is pivotal in understanding the contemporary global trade framework, especially within technology-driven sectors. The US “Chips Act” represents a significant regulatory milestone with potential ramifications on the Chinese electronic industries' engagement in the GVC. Originality/value – The significance of this paper is that it quantifies for the first time the impact of the US Chip Act on the GVC participation index of East Asian countries in the context of US-China decoupling. With careful consideration of strategic aspects, this paper substantially fills the empirical gap in the existing literature by presenting subtle economic changes within GVCs, highlighting the profound implications of policy regulation on global trade dynamics.

In the context of economic globalization, while multinational enterprises from developed countries occupy a high-end position in the global value chain, enterprises from developing countries are often marginalized in the world market. In China, resource-based state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are tasked with the mission of safeguarding resource security, and their internationalization development ideas and strategic deployment are significantly and fundamentally different from those of other non-state-owned enterprises and large multinational corporations. This study provides ideas for the globalization policies of enterprises in developing countries. We consider J Group in western China as a case and discuss its productive investment and global production network development from 2010 to 2019. We found that J Group was ‘partly’ globalized, and there are multiple core nodes with the characteristics of centralized and decentralized coexistence in the production network; in addition, the overall layout centre shifted to Southeast Asia and China; however, its global production was restricted by the enterprise’s investment security considerations, support and restrictions of the home country, political security risk of the host country, and sanctions from the West. These findings provide insights for future research: under the wave of anti-globalization and ‘internal circulation as the main body’, resource SOEs should consider the potential risk of investment, especially keeping the middle and downstream industrial chain in China as much as possible.

We investigate the effect of servicification on global value chain (GVC) upgrading within the context of China's manufacturing industry. Utilising comprehensive data on manufacturing value-added, we present new evidence for the influence of servicification on the GVC position of the manufacturing industry in China. We find that although domestic and aggregate servicification enhances GVC, foreign servicification curtails the GVCs of manufacturing firms. Our results show that foreign direct investment, capital intensity and institutions are GVC enhancing. At the same time, the increased global market share of the Chinese manufacturing industry has reduced the GVC of manufacturing firms in China. From a policy perspective, the results highlight the need to take cognisance of the heterogeneity of manufacturing firms and the impact of domestic and foreign servicification on the GVC of manufacturing firms in China. Total servicification and domestic servicification enhanced the GVC position of Chinese manufacturing industry. Foreign servicification worsened the GVC position of Chinese manufacturing industry. Foreign direct investment, capital intensity and institutions are GVC-enhancing, while increased global market share is GVC-impeding. The GFC exacerbated the adverse impact of foreign servicification on the GVC position of Chinese manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a comprehensive framework for assessing the influence of input variation during the period of stagnant expansion of the global value chain (GVC) by incorporating input elasticity. Each import sector is treated as a complete input demand system with a stochastic preference for input in the framework of Ghosh Inverse, and the input elasticity is employed to quantify the input variation based on the Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) model. New empirical evidence covering three major regional value chains (RVCs) and the time span from 2010 to 2020 reveals that increasing input elasticity leads to additional output for most countries, except those within the North American RVC. Additionally, this article also discusses how external determinants have diverse extents influence to input elasticity, while the substitution effect among homogenous input in the specific input demand system may decide their input's competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationships between value chain actors in the shea sector in Northern Ghana, the governance mechanism that prevails, and the upgrading opportunities for upstream actors. The value chain analysis (VCA) framework was the main analytical tool employed for this assessment. Participating actors in the shea global value chain were shea kernel producers, shea butter processors, aggregators, and industrial processors and exporters of shea products. The results showed that, although women shea upstream actors (especially shea kernel producers) interface directly with aggregators, the relationship is weak and restricted to spot buying, and arms-length market governance relationship. Although the upstream actors are enthusiastic to upgrade their products, they are constrained by inadequate access to requisite assets, resources, capabilities, and skills. The shea upstream actors were confined to low value-adding segments and activities of the shea-GVC. Industrial processors and exporters appear reluctant to directly support upstream women processors to upgrade through offering credits, technology transfer and skills enhancement. Lowering barriers to upgrading opportunities in the value chain calls for intervention of the government, and support from international development organizations (NGOs), and midstream and downstream actors. Government must create an enabling policy environment that incentivize downstream actors to build capacities of upstream actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As latecomers to the industrialization process, developing countries may face barriers to upgrading from the production of mass-produced goods to higher-value technologies. Scholars have suggested that 'windows of opportunity' can temporarily lower entry barriers and provide an opportunity for latecomers to catch up to or even leapfrog incumbents. In this paper, we use the literature on product architecture to build on the concept of windows of opportunity. Specifically, we explore how changes in a technology's use environment can create opportunities for indigenous innovation and upgrading in specific sub-systems or components of complex technologies. Using a comparative qualitative case study focusing on three renewable energy technologies, we develop a typology of catching-up opportunities in green energy industries. Our findings suggest that policymakers should target certain technologies in their industrial strategies based on certain technology characteristics, and should seek opportunities to capitalize on a local niche that creates a need for innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nation-states take steps to prevent the theft of domestic entities' trade secrets and other intellectual property ("IP"). The United States has issued complaints, passed laws, and implemented initiatives and sanctions targeting China's unfair and illegal economic practices, which include trade-secret theft. Although China has responded by amending its civil, criminal, and administrative trade-secret regime, foreign companies still routinely struggle with thefts connected to China. The semiconductor industry-essential to daily-life, commercial, and military needs-is one of the most brutal battlegrounds of today's IP and tech wars. A leader in the industry is the Taiwanese semiconductor sector, which, along with the Taiwanese government and like-minded democracies, must confront a particularly complex set of economic, security, and geopolitical challenges from China. Currently, poor grasp of cross-border trade secret thefts has greatly weakened sincere efforts to deal with the grave threat posed by China. In this Article, I cross-analyze empirical quantitative and qualitative data regarding U.S. and Taiwanese semiconductor trade-secret litigation to better understand the dynamics of Chinese trade-secret theft. I propose that individuals, companies, governments, and international organizations should respond to trade-secret threats by restoring trust within a geopolitical economic framework, rather than by pursuing purely legalistic IP approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Built a new employment accounting framework considering multinational enterprises. • The employment created by different value chain routes is classified and measured. • Define "employment embodied in foreign direct investment-related GVC activities". • The structure and characteristics of FDI-related GVC employment are analyzed. With rapid globalization, employment in global value chains (GVCs) has attracted increasing attention. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are the major participants in GVC activities, whose employment creation through cross-border direct investment in GVCs has not been systematically characterized, leading to an underestimation of GVCs and their employment impacts. To fill this gap, this study measures the employment embodied in GVCs based on an inter-country input-output model with MNEs. The major findings are as follows: (1) the contribution of MNEs to GVC employment is significant (accounting for 7.4–8.0 %), especially in high-income economies (13.8 %) and high-tech manufacturing industries (22.6 %); (2) the major route by which foreign direct investment (FDI) drives employment is through D -F type production-sharing activities that satisfy local demand; and (3) the sectoral structure of FDI-related GVC employment not only varies between economies but also among the three types of production-sharing activities (D-F type, F-D type, and F-F type). These findings provide valuable insights for understanding how MNEs affect employment in GVCs and can help accurately assess the potential impacts of GVCs on the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the decomposition of trade-related production activities in the global value chain, we analyze the characteristics of Asian countries from inter- and intra- Asian regional value chain (ARVC) perspectives between 2009 and 2019. Then, we investigate how Asian countries' inter- and intra-ARVC positions influence their gross output in the global value chain. The results illustrate that the inter-ARVC position is positively correlated to the gross output for countries with large economies of scale. Furthermore, the inter-ARVC position is employed as the threshold variable to evaluate Asian countries' performance in the intra-ARVC. When their inter-ARVC position is below the threshold value, increasing the intra-ARVC position cannot increase their gross output for all Asian countries. Countries with large economies of scale could benefit through intra-ARVC with a higher threshold value of inter-ARVC position compared with countries with small economies of scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms in developing countries can learn advanced technology and management know‐how through foreign direct investment (FDI). The extent (or the lack) of transmission of technology and knowledge depends on the structure of production networks. In the automotive industry, networks consist of vehicle assemblers and their layers of parts suppliers. We used the South African automotive industry as a case study to examine how the behaviour of assemblers and parts suppliers is linked. Based on statistical analysis using the original firm‐level data, we found that the first‐tier suppliers significantly increased their production with the regional expansion of automotive production. However, such growth linkages were not observed among lower‐tier suppliers. Further, we obtained the suggestive evidence that only multinational (and not local) first‐tier firms improved their production efficiency, indicating the importance of production networks among multinationals in transmitting technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Value Chain (GVC) is an essential aspect of sustainable economic growth and environmental quality in countries that participate in it. Therefore, comprehending the relationship between GVC and economic growth and carbon emissions is critical to achieving global climate neutrality targets. However, there is a paucity of knowledge regarding the impacts of disaggregated levels of GVC on economic growth and carbon emissions in countries with different income levels. In this study, we utilized the SYS-GMM model to explore the relationships between backward and forward GVCs and the economic growth and carbon emissions of 42 lower-middle, 36 middle-upper, and 48 high-income countries using data from 1995 to 2018. Our key findings suggest that forward GVC significantly increases economic growth and reduces CO2 emissions. Conversely, backward GVC reduces the economic growth and CO2 emissions of high-income countries. We also found that upper-middle-income economies can enhance their economic growth and reduce CO2 emissions by increasing their backward GVC. In contrast, lower-middle-income economies can increase their economic growth by participating in both forward and backward GVCs. However, higher levels of participation in both GVC components result in increased CO2 emissions. Our findings emphasize the importance of considering income levels when analysing the impact of GVC participation on economic growth and environmental sustainability. Overall, the relationship between economic growth and CO2 emissions with backward and forward GVCs varies significantly across country categories.

Global value chains (GVC) have recently become an important developmental issue and have become prominent within the development community. Empirical studies on the peculiar nature of firms (small-scale) in the GVC are sparse, especially in Africa. Thus, the present study empirically examines whether or not the size of the firm matters in their GVC participation in Africa. It also investigates if a firm’s geographical location spurs GVC participation. The study answers the above research questions using the World Bank's Enterprise Survey database for two African countries, namely: Nigeria, and Rwanda. Adopting a logit regression model, the findings show that firms in Africa are predominantly small-scale and sole proprietorships. The size of the firm, the legal status of the firm, firm access to ICTs, managerial experience, and the geographical location of the firm are crucial drivers of firms' GVC participation in Nigeria and Rwanda. Policy implications and recommendations for the AfCFTA are discussed in the paper.

Abstract This paper identifies several governance factors that enable economic upgrading and the link between economic and social upgrading /downgrading of smallholders and Abusa sharecroppers in Ghana's cocoa value chain (GCVC). The findings are based on qualitative interviews and focus group discussions with various actors in GCVC. Our findings suggest two types of economic upgrading: process and product upgrading, achieved by smallholder producers and Abusa Sharecroppers in GCVC. While process upgrading is enabled by governance factors such as price stabilization and controlling opportunistic behavior, transparency in the sale of certified beans and premium management is key for product upgrading. Regarding the link between economic and social upgrading, we reveal that process upgrading leads to the same outcome of social upgrading and downgrading for smallholders and Abusa sharecroppers due to governance factors such as production and purchasing policies and lack of resources and capabilities. However, product upgrading links to social upgrading and downgrading for smallholders and Abusa sharecroppers respectively owing to governance factors such as controlling resources and bargaining power. We provide insights into key actors and their interests, drivers of change and effects of incentives that play crucial roles in shaping governance factors that influence economic and social upgrading of smallholders and Abusa sharecroppers in GCVC. In our conclusion, we identify how regulations, institutional support and conflicts of interest are key for enabling upgrading of developing countries’ agricultural value chains.