GVC-Oriented Policies and Urban Manufacturing: The Role of Cities in Global Value Chains

Eleonora Di Maria,Luca Menesello,Selena Brocca,Stefano Micelli

doi:10.3390/su14010478

Eleonora Di Maria, Luca Menesello + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010478

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Abstract

Studies on policies oriented to Global Value Chains (GVC) focus much attention on developing countries and upgrading opportunities. Recent trends related to digitalization, market requests, and new consideration for value linked to manufacturing challenges GVC-oriented policies in developed countries. Such policies may refer to the attractiveness of foreign investments or increase the value captured through upgrading. At the city level, explicit policies promoted by municipalities are oriented to attract and support manufacturing activities to increase employment, entrepreneurship, and urban specializations while leveraging the new technological scenario. However, despite their interests in policies for economic growth at the national and cluster levels, research on the Global Value Chain has paid limited attention to cities and their role as production contexts within value chains. Linking to research on urban manufacturing and based on an empirical study on six cities (Barcelona, Detroit, London, Milan, New York, and Paris), the paper advances the theoretical debate on urban-related policies in the GVC framework by proposing three different policy directions related to (a) enhancing value related to urban production; (b) sustaining new urban entrepreneurship (digital craftsmanship); and (c) shortening GVC (Urban Value Chains).

Highlights

Academic Editor: NikosThe paper focuses on policies implemented at the urban level to attract and support manufacturing activities in developed countries and the implications in terms of the role of cities as nodes in global value chains (GVC)
This study introduced in Global Value Chain literature an element that has been limitedly observed before—Urban Manufacturing (UM)—seeking for the first time the relationship between urban manufacturing (UM) and Global Value Chains in the discussion on GVC-related policies
Cities of developed countries are locations for advanced services or places for consumption activities, but they could be important nodes in the Global Value Chains, where policies promoted at the urban level can sustain this trend

Summary

Introduction

The paper focuses on policies implemented at the urban level to attract and support manufacturing activities in developed countries and the implications in terms of the role of cities as nodes in global value chains (GVC). The GVC framework has been widely adopted by scholars and practitioners to explore globalization, how value chain activities are organized at the global level in different industries, by considering how value is produced and captured through different forms of power distribution (governance), as well as upgrading opportunities [1,2,3]. GVC-attraction policies aim at increasing the attractiveness of countries for foreign direct investments, where lead firms may find relevant resources and convenient locations for their sourcing strategies, enhancing economic development in the countries involved [9]. GVC-related policies may be focused on value capture, which refers to programs and initiatives of interventions aiming at increasing the amount of value produced within the GVC that remain in specific geographical areas and to local actors [2,10], connected to the mechanisms

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