Showing papers by "Stefano Ponte published in 2023"
TL;DR: In this article , a framework for analyzing entangled chains based on two dimensions: the relative importance of intangible versus tangible assets; and the orientation of firm strategy towards value creation or wealth accumulation activities is proposed.
Abstract: in recent decades multinational enterprises have developed ways to reorganize production and trade through Global Value chains (GVcs), and to manage assets and liabilities through Global Wealth chains (GWcs). this co-evolution has permitted the hyper-extraction of labor and natural resources through financial and legal technologies, entangling value creation and wealth accumulation. While scholars have separately acknowledged the role that GVcs and GWcs play in generating distributional outcomes, entanglements of production, trade, finance, and law are now so extensive that we need a sharper analytical lens to understand their inter-relations. in pursuit of such a lens, we propose a research agenda focused on chain entanglements. We argue that GVcs and GWcs are not governed by firms as separate or even sequenced processes, but rather that value creation and wealth accumulation strategies are imbricated in ways that merit careful study. We develop a framework for analyzing entangled chains based on two dimensions: 1) the relative importance of intangible versus tangible assets; and 2) the orientation of firm strategy towards value creation or wealth accumulation activities. Drawing on sector-level examples, we see a general trend in GVc-GWc entanglements towards activities that leverage intangible value and assets for wealth accumulation. We also note how labor and civic activism can highlight the failures of extant regulatory and fiscal systems and intervene on distributional struggles along entangled chains.
2 citations
TL;DR: In this article , the role of horizontal governance as a driver that underpins environmental upgrading processes in Italian wine value chains is emphasized, and the authors conclude that horizontal governance is playing a more important role than previously thought in shaping environmental upgrading.
Abstract: Much of the literature on environmental sustainability in global value chains (GVCs) focuses on how ‘lead firms’ (usually global buyers or retailers) can improve the environmental conditions of production among their various layers of suppliers. This approach focuses on the vertical governance dynamics of environmental upgrading along with GVCs. In our contribution, we emphasize the role of horizontal governance as a driver that underpins environmental upgrading processes. These horizontal elements include institutional support, pressure from civil society groups and political dynamics at the local level – which have been relatively overlooked in this literature so far. We examine environmental upgrading in Italian wine value chains, focusing on the fast-growing but environmentally-contested Prosecco and Valpolicella districts. Our analysis suggests that firms within the same industry may follow different processes of environmental upgrading – through certification, going ‘back to tradition’, technological innovation and/or as an articulation of local politics – also depending on their size. We conclude that horizontal governance is playing a more important role than previously thought in shaping environmental upgrading and provide some suggestions for future research in this realm.