This article builds a theoretical framework to help explain governance patterns in global value chains It draws on three streams of literature ‐ transaction costs economics, production networks, and technological capability and firm-level learning ‐ to identify three variables that play a large role in determining how global value chains are governed and change These are: (1) the complexity of transactions, (2) the ability to codify transactions, and (3) the capabilities in the supply-base The theory generates five types of global value chain governance ‐ hierarchy, captive, relational, modular, and market ‐ which range from high to low levels of explicit coordination and power asymmetry The article highlights the dynamic and overlapping nature of global value chain governance through four brief industry case studies: bicycles, apparel, horticulture and electronics

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The governance of global value chains

The present historical moment may seem a particularly inopportune time to review Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam's latest exploration of civic decline in America. After all, the outpouring of volunteerism, solidarity, patriotism, and self-sacrifice displayed by Americans in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks appears to fly in the face of Putnam's central argument: that \"social capital\" -defined as \"social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them\" (p. 19)'has declined to dangerously low levels in America over the last three decades. However, Putnam is not fazed in the least by the recent effusion of solidarity. Quite the contrary, he sees in it the potential to \"reverse what has been a 30to 40-year steady decline in most measures of connectedness or community.\"' As an example of how the current \"war on terrorism\" could generate a durable civic renewal, Putnam points to the burst in civic practices that occurred during and after World War II, which he says \"permanently marked\" the generation that lived through it and had a \"terrific effect on American public life over the last half-century.\" 3 If Americans can follow this example and channel their current civic

Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community

The Rise of the Creative Class

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

This paper sets out to explore contexts for entrepreneurship, illustrating how a contextualized view of entrepreneurship contributes to our understanding of the phenomenon. There is growing recognition in entrepreneurship research that economic behavior can be better understood within its historical, temporal, institutional, spatial, and social contexts, as these contexts provide individuals with opportunities and set boundaries for their actions. Context can be an asset and a liability for the nature and extent of entrepreneurship, but entrepreneurship can also impact contexts. The paper argues that context is important for understanding when, how, and why entrepreneurship happens and who becomes involved. Exploring the multiplicity of contexts and their impact on entrepreneurship, it identifies challenges researchers face in contextualizing entrepreneurship theory and offers possible ways forward.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/j_1540-6520_2010_00427_x_wml.pdf?abstractid=1784106&mirid=2

Contextualizing Entrepreneurship—Conceptual Challenges and Ways Forward:

Global Production Networks - Dealing with Diversity

Des observations et des experiences sur les relations entre Anoplodactylus petiolatus et sa proie, Hydractinia echinata sont exposees. L'accent est mis sur l'alimentation, les mouvements et la protection contre la defense de la colonie de polypes. Des elements actifs (utilisation de la proboscis et de l'allure) et une sorte d'immunite sont pris en consideration. Meme apres avoir ete engloutis, les Anoplodactylus reussissent a s'extraire de la cavite gastro-vasculaire du polype sans blessure serieuse. En outre, les larves d'Anoplodactylus qui vivent en parasite dans des polypes de l'Hydraire transformes en « galles » sont evoquees.

Anoplodactylus petiolatus (Pycnogonida) and Hydractinia echinata (Hydrozoa): Observations on galls, feeding behaviour and the host's defence

To study zooplankton-phytoplankton relationships in the diatom-dominated plankton communities of the northern Adriatic we performed feeding experiments with diatoms and zoea I larvae of the brachyuran Xantho poressa. We found that zoea I of X. poressa feed on diatoms of different forms (centric, pennate, colony forming, single celled, with or without setae) and size classes. In a laboratory setup, we presented the zoeas with a mix of diatom species similar to communities observed during blooms regularly found in the northern Adriatic. We report that the grazing activity resulted in a decrease of the relative abundance of the toxic diatom Pseudo-nitzschia calliantha. For the colonial, bloom-forming diatom Skeletonema marinoi our results show a chain length reduction in the presence of zoea I. Of particular interest is the observation that the presence of larvae also resulted in an increased growth rate and abundance of S. marinoi, which resembles bloom induction by grazer presence.

Experimental evidence for shaping and bloom inducing effects of decapod larvae of Xantho poressa (Olivi, 1792) on marine phytoplankton

This article aims to substantiate how processes of valuation translate between different registers of value. We develop an analytical framework of how valuation is intertwined with geographic origi...

Dialectics of Association and Dissociation: Spaces of Valuation, Trade, and Retail in the Gemstone and Jewelry Sector

Contemporary economic globalization as a highly dynamic process has seen substantial changes in its organization, governance, geographies and impacts. These global shifts can be characterized by – among other aspects – increased functional and geographical fragmentation of production processes, various waves of outsourcing and off-shoring, changing geographies of production and consumption and associated labour market dynamics. At the same time, nation states and regional economic blocs aim at increasing macro-regional and global integration through bilateral and multilateral trade and investment negotiations, predicated on transformations in transportation and logistics technologies that enable the functioning of complex global production networks (GPNs) and link regional, national and supra-national economies. This paper aims to assess the consequences of what has been termed a ‘logistics revolution’ for economic and social upgrading in global logistics and client sectors. It starts by charting the existing research base and exploring the structure and dynamics of the global logistics industry, before addressing the potential of and obstacles to economic and social upgrading. The analysis highlights the often-neglected importance of logistics as a global industry: a major employer and value generator in its own right, with its own evolving GPNs. It demonstrates the increasingly diverse structure of logistics operations and labour markets, creating opportunities for upgrading through innovation and new technologies, but at the same time it shows the continued prevalence of ‘low-road’ logistics labour markets and workers often struggling to secure labour rights, decent wages and improved working conditions. These issues are illustrated and discussed for both the global logistics industry itself and the logistics activities in client sectors such as horticulture, apparel and mobile communications. The paper concludes with reflections on the contingent and variegated outcomes of logistics development and avenues for future research.

Martin Hess

Papers

Global Production Networks - Dealing with Diversity

Anoplodactylus petiolatus (Pycnogonida) and Hydractinia echinata (Hydrozoa): Observations on galls, feeding behaviour and the host's defence

Experimental evidence for shaping and bloom inducing effects of decapod larvae of Xantho poressa (Olivi, 1792) on marine phytoplankton

Dialectics of Association and Dissociation: Spaces of Valuation, Trade, and Retail in the Gemstone and Jewelry Sector

Economic and social upgrading in global logistics