Natural Value Chain Research Articles

Measurement, Characteristic Facts and Policy Recommendations for China’s City-Scale Manufacturing Value Chains

This paper constructs and optimizes, for the first time, the decomposition framework of inter-city outflow and export from the urban scale and analyzes the basic characteristics of China’s urban manufacturing industry’s participation in the global value chain and national value chain from the perspective of temporal and spatial evolution. The results show that the participation index of the manufacturing industry in coastal cities is higher than that in inland cities, and inland cities are more inclined to rely on the domestic value chain to obtain superior resources for the development of the manufacturing industry. The indicators of the manufacturing industry in the cities of the province show excellent performance, while the indicators of the peripheral cities show poor characteristics. At the same time, the length index of the global value chain of the coastal city manufacturing industry is also consistent with the actual development of the urban manufacturing industry in China. The performances of China’s urban manufacturing industry in participating in the global value chain and the domestic value chain are different. Under the background of the new development pattern, the effective docking of the double chains should be realized to achieve high-quality development in the manufacturing industry.

Time Series Econometric Analysis of ODOP's Contribution to State-Level GDP Growth in India

This study examines the economic impact of the One District One Product (ODOP) scheme on state-level GDP growth in India using time-series econometric models from 2011 to 2023. The ODOP initiative, launched by the Indian government, aims to promote regional economic development by fostering unique local products from each district. By employing Vector Autoregression (VAR) and Johansen Co-Integration methods, the research quantitatively assesses the causal relationship between the ODOP scheme and GDP growth across various states. Preliminary findings suggest that ODOP significantly contributes to regional GDP, particularly through enhancing local production and market reach, thereby integrating regional economies into national and global value chains. This study underscores the importance of targeted regional policies in achieving broader economic objectives and fostering sustainable development. It also highlights the ODOP scheme’s role in promoting traditional products and skills, which aligns with the government's larger goals of a self-reliant India.

Mitigating digital trade barriers: Strategies for enhancing national value chains performance

This paper examines the impact of barriers to trade in digital services on the quality of national value chains (NVCs) and and explores production specialization as a mitigation strategy. Utilizing an integrated production and trade model, we measure the quality of NVCs using multidimensional indicators. The study analyzes data from 47 economies across 35 sectors over a period from 2014 to 2020, highlighting significant adverse effects of digital trade barriers, especially in economies that are high-income, highly open to trade, and extensively informatized. In contrast, our analysis suggests that bolstering production specialization within these value chains can effectively mitigate such detrimental effects.The research underscores the critical need for a strategic and responsive policy framework that encourages the diversification and enhancement of production capabilities.

From global to national: The role of urban agglomerations in China's new development paradigm.

Urban agglomerations (UAs), which serve as pivotal hubs for economic and innovative convergence, play a crucial role in enhancing internal circulation and strengthening external linkages. This study utilizes the China city-level multi-regional input-output tables, incorporating the Dagum Gini coefficient and kernel density estimation methods, to perform a thorough quantitative analysis. Disparities within the national and global value chains ("dual value chains") of Chinese UAs from 2012 to 2017 were assessed. Additionally, the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method was applied to disaggregate the drivers of both national and global intermediate inputs (NII and GII). The study's key findings include the following: (1) The national value chain (NVC) within UAs exhibits robust growth, contrasting with the decline in the global value chain (GVC). (2) The inter-UA disparity contribution rate significantly surpasses the combined rates of intra-UA contribution and super-variation density. (3) Distinct evolutionary peak trends are discerned among various UAs within the "dual value chains", highlighting diverse spatial polarization characteristics and expansiveness. (4) The growth of the NVC has transitioned from a negative to a positive impact on NII, while the decline in GVC has substantially counteracted GII growth. Economic and demographic factors notably drive positive improvements in both NII and GII, whereas the efficiency of outflows presents a negative driving effect. Based on these findings, this study offers strategic recommendations to facilitate the effective integration of UAs into the new development paradigm, thereby providing a scientific basis for related decision-making processes.

Foreign Direct Investment and Provincial National and Global Dual Value Chain Embedding——The Theoretical and Empirical Analysis under the New Development Paradigm

Foreign Direct Investment and Provincial National and Global Dual Value Chain Embedding——The Theoretical and Empirical Analysis under the New Development Paradigm

A Framework for Data Collection and Management to Support the Comprehensive Development of African Agriculture

Agriculture is a key source of food and health for humanity. However, the hazardous way this activity is still cared for in some developing countries like the Republic of Benin, with poor quality farming data collection mechanisms, can guarantee neither quality and sustainability of production, nor comprehensiveness and efficiency of agricultural interventions. Such shortcomings ineluctably contribute to the limited success of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) promoted by the African Union and its regional chapters, in most African countries. Based on these preliminary remarks, this paper suggests a systematic and automated monitoring, evaluation, learning, and adaptation (MEL) framework that will further be tested, consolidated, validated, and promoted, first in the Republic of Benin, and later in other African countries. This framework is made of local, regional, and national geographic information systems (GIS) which will further serve as databases for planning and interventions in the agricultural sector. The proposed GIS superposes lands’ details (sizes, soils’ characteristics, rainfall data, etc.), stakeholders’ details (demographics, crops, livestock, agricultural practices, etc.), and agricultural value chains’ details. Local, regional, and national agricultural value chains’ development platforms will bring stakeholders together, and serve as sources and co-users of the GIS data. Local, regional, and national MEL and GIS management skilled AEAS agents will facilitate systematic data collection and GIS database management. The data collection and treatment tools should allow the use of all kinds of data formats, including voice and image records, given the oral orientation of most agricultural stakeholders. This original idea emerged from observations during national and regional field experiences, and from the literature that revealed the efficiency of automated real-time and quality data for comprehensive and evidence-based decision-making in development interventions.

Value chain specialization and green economy performance: China's regional evidence

The process of international specialization has evolved from “intra-industry” to “intra-product,” resulting in the establishment of value chains that traverse all participating nations. However, it might lead to the “lock-in low-value” effect of global value chains (GVCs) and the consequential “pollution shelter” effect, which have both hindered the green transformation of the economy. Rather than solely focusing on promoting participation in GVCs, this paper seeks to expand its purview to include national value chains (NVCs) based on endogenous resource integration, with a focus on constructing and nurturing NVCs to enhance regional green economy performance index (GEPI). We find that improving NVCs positions can increase regional GEPI, while GVCs and NVCs participation inhibit GEPI. Moreover, the impact of GVCs and NVCs positions and participation on GEPI presents significant and spatiotemporal heterogeneities. Finally, the mechanism analysis demonstrates that GVCs positions increase human capital investment and NVCs positions increase the rationalization of the industrial structure, promoting green economy performance. Meanwhile, China's GVCs and NVCs participation increase the industrial proportion, which is not conducive to improving green economy performance.

Upgrading through global, regional or national value chains? Firm-level evidence from the East African textiles & apparel sector

This paper introduces the concept of value chain directionality to investigate how orientation to different value chains has implications for productive learning and industrial outcomes. We develop and test this concept building on a purposefully designed firm-level survey focused on the textile and apparel value chain in East Africa. Tanzanian and Kenyan textiles and apparel firms lie on a spectrum in terms of their engagement with national, regional and global value chains (NVCs, RVCs and GVCs), with outcomes varying with value chain directionality. GVC firms focus on a narrow range of lower-value functions (mostly garment assembly) while RVC and NVC firms perform a wider range of functions including vertical integration to textile manufacture and higher-value activities such as design and branding, but cases of functional upgrading were rare in all groups. GVC firms were closer to the technological frontier, but RVC and NVC firms were similarly engaged in process upgrading. GVC firms tended to have more complex products than RVC and NVC firms, and only GVC firms had recently engaged in product upgrading. Crucially, results in the area of end market upgrading confirmed the hypothesis that RVCs have the potential to serve as ‘learning grounds’, or ‘stepping stones’ to more demanding but potentially lucrative global markets. In other outcomes, GVCs appear to offer greater prospects for rapid employment generation but RVCs and NVCs tend to favour backward integration by incorporating more locally sourced inputs.

Tracing the regional dual value chains: Measurement on the production position and evidence from China

When there is insufficient internal and external impetus for developing countries’ economy, building a domestic and international dual circulation is conducive to promoting the regional industrial growth. On the basis of regional embedded international input-output tables, this paper extends the measurement framework of production position and proposes the concept of the dual value chain, which measure production position that unifies the national and global value chains from forward and backward industrial linkages. We decompose the national and global value chains into three categories and investigate the production position characteristics of China with a multi-dimensional perspective. Consistent evidence shows that a feasible path of technological progress in optimizing the production in value chains in which technological progress plays a crucial role on the pure national value chain across the high-tech manufacturing sector, the eastern and central regions. Their posterior probabilities are 0.96, 0.21and 0.86, respectively. Moreover, the impact on the dual production is nonnegligible that the posterior probability of technological progress on the eastern and central regions is 0.40 and 0.92. In addition, the impact of the Chinese economic stimulus program and technological progress on the economic crisis has a certain moderating effect. Our proposed evaluation framework sheds new light that national value chain production can boost economic growth，and further promote the coordinated of regional industries for developing countries.

Research on the Construction of Manufacturing Industry Chain Ecosystem—A Case Study of Tianjin Manufacturing Industry

This study takes Tianjin as an example to analyze how to build the manufacturing industry chain ecosystem. Based on the ecosystem theory, the related literature of manufacturing industry chain and value chain, and combined with various action plans for the development of manufacturing industry in Tianjin, the structure chart and construction roadmap of industrial chain ecosystem were drawn. Based on the input–output data of 42 sectors in Tianjin, this study calculated and analyzed the changes in embedment degree of various manufacturing industries in Global Value Chain (GVC) and National Value Chain (NVC) in Tianjin from 2010 to 2017. It is found that the industrial chain ecosystem is mainly composed of four elements: the enterprises on the industrial chain, the information flowing among enterprises, the goods circulating among enterprises, and the external environment of enterprises. The connection of supply and demand chains, enterprise chains, space chains and value chains forms an industrial chain, and the value chain is a crucial relationship chain in the connection mechanism. In addition, 2015 is a turning point for Tianjin manufacturing industry to embed in GVC and NVC, mainly due to the industrial economic adjustment in Tianjin, the global economic turmoil, and the establishment of the manufacturing industrial park. In terms of R&D intensity, high and medium high-tech manufacturing industries tend to be embedded in GVC, but are easily affected by enterprises and environmental factors. However, low and medium low-tech manufacturing industries still have ample space to integrate into GVC, information and products are important factors to determine the upgrading of its industrial chain. Therefore, in order to better construct the industrial chain ecosystem of manufacturing industry and enhance the industrial competitiveness of Tianjin’s manufacturing industry, it is necessary to give priority to the development of high-tech manufacturing industry, expand the international openness of low-tech manufacturing industry, support regional advantageous industries, and carry out dynamic regulation of industrial ecology.

Business Environment and Resource Allocation Based on the Perspective of the National Value Chain.

China is actively upgrading its industrial structure through industries transferring between developed and undeveloped areas; however, the overall level of the national value chain is still not high, and the asymmetric competition pattern between the upstream and the downstream has not been broken. Therefore, this paper establishes a competitive equilibrium model for the production of manufacturing enterprises, with factor price distortion, under the condition of constant returns to scale. The authors derive the relative distortion coefficients of each factor price, calculate the misallocation indices of capital and labor, and construct an industry resource misallocation measure. Furthermore, this paper applies the regional value-added decomposition model to calculate the national value chain index and matches the market index of the China Market Index Database with the Chinese Industrial Enterprises Database and the Inter-Regional Input-Output Tables through quantitative analysis. From the perspective of the national value chain, the authors study the improvement effect and mechanism of the business environment on the resource allocation in industry. The study shows that industry resource allocation will be improved by 17.89% if the business environment level is improved by one standard deviation. This effect is most prevalent in the eastern and central regions, not so much in the west; the effect of downstream industries in the national value chain is higher than that of upstream industries; the improvement effect on capital allocation is higher in downstream industries than in the upstream industries; and the improvement effect on labor misallocation is basically the same in both the upstream and the downstream. Compared with labor intensive industries, capital intensive industries are more influenced by the national value chain, while the effect of upstream industries is weaker. At the same time, it is well documented that participation in the global value chain can improve the efficiency of regional resource allocation, and the construction of high-tech zones can improve resource allocation for both upstream and downstream industries. Based on the results of study, the authors propose suggestions for optimizing business environments, suiting the national value chain construction, and improving resource allocation in the future.

The Effect of Global and National Value Chains on Environmental Innovation and Research and Development: An Analysis of Ibovespa Companies

The Effect of Global and National Value Chains on Environmental Innovation and Research and Development: An Analysis of Ibovespa Companies

An Overview of Characteristics and Condition of High-Tech Industry in Indonesia

This research aims to better understand the high-tech industry in Indonesia so that business owners and the government can determine the best strategy for utilizing their resources. It use a descriptive and qualitative analysis approach, presenting a general profile of industry data and characteristics through national news and information. Indonesia's high-tech industry generally relies heavily on imported components or raw materials (chemicals, pharmaceuticals, computers and electronics, electrical equipment, machinery and equipment, motor vehicles, and other transportation equipment). The chemical industry significantly contributes to the economy because it can absorb large amounts of capital, create jobs, and generate added value. Because of the enormous domestic market opportunities, the pharmaceutical industry tends to build a national value chain. The electronic, optical, and electrical industries all favor indigenous innovation. To address the issue of global warming and climate change, the machinery and equipment industry must emphasize sustainable innovation by utilizing the latest technology. In contrast, the transportation industry must focus on optimizing integrated transportation services, transportation safety, and developing environmentally friendly sustainable transportation. Following the pandemic, the development of the high-tech industry began to show growth, indicating that the Indonesian economy would recover.

The dynamic change of energy supply and demand structure within China: a perspective from the national value chain.

The complexity of the national value chain (NVC) has significantly impacted the level of energy consumption embodied in domestic trade. This paper aims to measure embodied energy and its spatial transfer between provinces and determine the dynamic change in the energy consumption supply and demand structure within China. This paper applies the multiregional input-output model (MRIO) to establish three accounting frameworks from forward-linkage, backward-linkage, and trade in value-added (TiVA) perspectives to comprehensively track energy consumption transfer along the NVC during the period 2007 to 2017. The results reveal that provinces acting as net energy importers are primarily in developed and coastal regions (Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong). The net energy exporters are concentrated in Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, and other energy-intensive provinces. By and large, China's interprovincial energy transfer pattern gradually evolved from one of "shifting from inland provinces in the northwest and central regions to developed provinces in the east" to one of "shifting from the northwest, northeast, and central provinces to southwest and southeast provinces with the Yangtze River Delta and central provinces as pivots" during the period 2007-2017. By comparing the embodied energy transfer measured in three accounting frameworks, we find that this embodied energy transfer tends to be exaggerated from the forward-linkage and backward-linkage perspectives due to multiple cross-border trading of intermediates and double-counting. These findings indicate that complex domestic businesses, especially intermediates, exert a significant impact on energy transfer, resulting in more complicated energy flows. This article has significance for better understanding the energy transfer pattern and evolution process.

Role of local club in developing value chain of high performance national tennis athlete

This paper discusses the role of local clubs in developing high performance junior athletes as a critical part of the national value chain to produce national athletes. Local clubs serve as entry points for kids and their parents into the world of tennis. Local club is a hub that connects three main actors involved in the development of kids into tennis players: (i) Coach, (ii) Athlete, and (iii) Parents, regarded as grass root athlete development. This paper identifies the typical tennis player pathway in Indonesia. Value chain of local club and its relation with other regional, national, and global stakeholders’ value chain in developing national athletes are presented. Benchmark of journey from grassroots player to high performance/elite players and structure of value chain in established countries are discussed. It is concluded that local clubs are playing a significant role in creating a massive pool of talent and developing grass-roots players into high performance/elite national tennis athletes. Strong collaboration between stakeholders and completing structure the value chain are important to develop country performance in sustainable way.

Exploring the hurdles that remain for control of African swine fever in smallholder farming settings.

To honour the 100 years anniversary of the first publication about African swine fever (ASF) a webinar with a particular focus on disease control in the smallholder sector was organized. This article is based on the webinar, summarizing the early history of ASF research, reflecting on the current global disease situation and bringing forward some suggestions that could contribute towards achieving control of ASF. The first description of ASF by R. Eustace Montgomery in 1921 laid the foundations for what we know about the disease today. Subsequent research confirmed its association with warthogs and soft ticks of the Ornithodoros moubata complex. During the latter half of the 21st century, exponential growth of pig production in Africa has led to a change in the ASF-epidemiology pattern. It is now dominated by a cycle involving domestic pigs and pork with virus spread driven by people. In 2007, a global ASF epidemic started, reaching large parts of Europe, Asia and the Americas. In Europe, this epidemic has primarily affected wild boar. In Asia, wild boar, smallholders and industrialized pig farms have been affected with impact on local, national and international pig value chains. Globally and historically, domestic pigs in smallholder settings are most frequently affected and the main driver of ASF virus transmission. Awaiting a safe and efficacious vaccine, we need to continue focus on other measures, such as biosecurity, for controlling the disease. However, smallholders face specific challenges linked to poverty and other structural factors in implementing biosecurity measures that can prevent spread. Improving biosecurity in the smallholder sector thus remains an important tool for preventing and controlling ASF. In this regard, interdisciplinary research can help to find new ways to promote safe practices, facilitate understanding and embrace smallholders' perspectives, engage stakeholders and adjust prevention and control policies to improve implementation.

Path Selection and Optimization of Chinese Manufacturing Industry Participating in Global Value Chain Reconstruction

This paper focuses on the path of China’s participation in global value chain reconstruction and concludes three ways to reconstruct the global value chain: embedding in the global value chain, reconstructing the national value chain, and leading the regional value chain. Based on the value-added accounting system and the latest statistics of the TiVA database, we construct an index system for the path selection of global value chain reconstruction and put forward a more suitable path for different manufacturing industries in China. According to the VRCA index and ranking of each type of manufacturing industry, our study concludes that: transportation equipment manufacturing tends to embed in global value chains; textiles, clothing, leather, and related manufacturing; wood products, paper products, and printing; chemical and non-metallic mineral products; base metals and metal products; computer, electronic, and electrical equipment manufacturing; machinery and equipment manufacturing; and other manufacturing industries tend to dominate the regional value chains; and food and beverage manufacturing and tobacco industries tend to restructure national value chains. Finally, our paper gives suggestions and prospects for path upgrading; promoting the integrated development of e-commerce and the manufacturing industry can enhance the competitive advantages of China’s manufacturing industry and achieve path upgrading and optimization. Furthermore, the two-way nesting of the “Belt and Road” regional value chain and global value chain can help China’s manufacturing industry eliminate the dilemma of low-end lock-in and upgrade from the original low-end dependent embedding mode to the middle high-end hub embedding mode.

THE REGIONAL ROLES ALONGSIDE THE EVOLUTION OF CARBON TRANSFER STRUCTURE WITHIN CHINA: A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE NATIONAL VALUE CHAIN

To strengthen the national efforts to meet Paris Agreement Targets, China has announced its carbon neutrality goal in 2020 and launched the national carbon market in 2021. Regional carbon emissions accounting is important for the allocation of regional mitigation targets and emission allowances in the policy-making of the national carbon market. This paper integrates the trade in value-added (TiVA) accounting method to comprehensively analyze the evolution of the carbon emissions transfer network in China along the national value chain (NVC) and further clarifies the changing roles of regions participating in the network during 2007–2017. The results indicate that the inter-regional carbon emissions transfer structure in China has changed from the pattern of “transferring from inland areas to developed areas” to a new pattern of a “carbon emissions transfer network with the Yangtze River Delta and the Central regions as pivots”. This paper provides insightful results for China to strike a balance between economic development and environmental governance among regions in achieving carbon neutrality.

Digital innovations for transitioning to circular plastic value chains in Africa

ABSTRACT The paper analyzes the current state of plastic value chains in Africa and the potential of digital innovations adopted by African entrepreneurs to contributing to a circular plastic economy. We provide an overview of plastic waste trade to African countries and an assessment of existing digital solutions that can support the transition to a circular plastic economy. The findings show that various digital innovations are being applied by entrepreneurs including web-based solutions, mobile apps and 3D printing. The case studies also show that multinational companies, especially consumer facing brands, are major players in the national plastic value chains in African countries, acting as seed funders for start-ups as well as buyers of recycled plastics. Current initiatives that are underway are positive signs that changes are in progress to address the environmental and social impacts of plastics value chains in Africa. However, to achieve a transition to sustainable circular value chains, changes at policy level will be required to enable scaling-up of local start-up businesses, address regulatory barriers to digital solutions, create markets for recycled plastic materials and implement extended producer responsibility regulations.

The fragmented politics of sugarcane contract farming in Uganda

AbstractIn the last decade, contract farming has regained momentum among policymakers and global development agencies as a tool to promote inclusive rural development and responsible investments. Integrating smallholders within global, regional and national agricultural value chains, we are told, represents the sine qua non for alleviating rural poverty. In Uganda, under the label of out‐grower schemes, contract farming is currently undergoing massive expansion, driven especially by the boom in sugarcane cultivation. Drawing from three case studies of sugarcane contract farming in Uganda, the paper re‐politicizes the debate around contract farming by looking at the power relations within which these schemes are embedded. We argue, what is seen in Uganda's expansion is a political dynamic derived both from the major dislocations and dispossessions required to establish the plantation estate and its work force, as well as from the effort to bring many smallholders using unimproved methods on land with sometimes unclear tenure arrangements into contracted arrangements for supplying sugarcane. The result has been highly contentious politics around sugar's expansion, where struggles over land dispossession merge with those around exploitative wage labour, around the loss and transformation of livelihoods, and around debt, power inequalities and environmental harm, a matrix in which state violence and co‐optation are ever‐present.