Role In Global Production Networks Research Articles

Governing the scalar politics of solar energy: Global production and national regulation in Kenyan and Indian off-grid solar markets

Global production is largely considered a ‘silver bullet’ that can achieve sustainable energy access for all by 2030. Off-grid solar (OGS) power generation systems are a widely studied case for accelerating energy transitions for the global poor. While OGS is often analyzed at national or subnational levels, little is known about the role of global production networks (GPNs) in scaling energy access in the Global South. The present study addresses this research gap by applying a neoGramscian approach to examine interactions between GPNs and national regulatory frameworks by considering cases in the Indian and Kenyan OGS sector. Employing a comparative research design, 39 qualitative expert interviews were conducted in Hong Kong, New Delhi, and Nairobi. The study identifies two different avenues taken by coalitions of public and private stakeholders to embed GPNs in the Indian and Kenyan OGS markets. In India, a competitive approach was found to governing GPNs, whereas a distribution of labor was predominant in Kenya. Future research should further investigate how and why GPNs become part of energy transitions in the Global South to stabilize assumptions regarding the future of energy systems.

The Role of Global Production Networks in Indonesian Exports

This study looks into Indonesia’s participation in fragmented structures within the Global Value Chain. By using a global input-output dataset and splitting gross exports into distinctive elements of value-added, the study measures vertical specialization of Indonesia against its four largest trading partners (NAFTA, East Asia, European Union and ASEAN) covering 29 countries for three periods: 1997, 2004 and 2012. Value-added is computed according to the initial source country and in the last destination. The paper also compares Indonesia to its ASEAN partners. The results show that Indonesia moved from exporting 50% of its value-added through finished products in 1997 to being a supplier of intermediates goods in 2012 (nearly 60% of its value-added). Foreign inputs in Indonesian exports account for 12%, a lower share versus ASEAN regional partners (35%) who are more vertically integrated. A total of 21% of Indonesian goods will be further exported to third countries. The degree of vertical integration in Indonesia in 2012 is 32.3%, up from 26% in 1997. Indonesia advanced in integration with East Asia and ASEAN countries (region), while it lowered its share of value-added traded with the North America and the Europe. Indonesia gained more than any other ASEAN partner in intra-regional trade

Business services and the financing of global production networks: the case of global law firms in Southeast Asia

AbstractFinancial and business services (FABSs) as intermediaries play a significant role in global production networks (GPNs). Yet, the mechanisms through which they influence the activities of lead and supplier firms in GPNs have received little in-depth attention. This article addresses the shortcoming and examines how global legal business services configure the financial discipline of transnational corporations (TNCs) in Southeast Asia. It documents the way FABS articulate financial imperatives and encourages the reproduction of ‘global financial architectures’. It also shows, however, that temporal dynamics and spatial specificities in the power relations between FABS and TNCs generate variegated financial configurations. Southeast Asian TNCs adopt and adapt in ways that serve their interests. This implies that the governance effects of FABS have important temporal and spatial contingencies that need to be accounted for in analyses of GPNs.

Occupational diseases in the automotive industry in Czechia - Geographic and medical context.

The automotive industry represents the most important industrial sector in Czechia. The objective of this study has been to analyze the occurrence of occupational diseases (OD) in the automotive industry during the period from 2001 till 2014. Data on OD cases was retrieved from the National Registry of OD. Further, we conducted a survey in automotive companies with focus on occupational health services and positions of the companies in global production networks (GPNs). An analysis of OD distribution in the automotive industry was performed (age, gender, company size and its role in GPNs, regional distribution of studied companies, and regional unemployment rate), and was accompanied by assessment of the quality and range of occupational health services. Employees older than 40 years old have nearly 2.5 times higher probability of OD occurrence as compared with employees younger than 40 years old (odds ratio (OR) = 2.41, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.05-2.85). Occupational diseases occurrence probability was 3 times higher for women than for men (OR = 3.01, 95% CI: 2.55-3.55). Occupational diseases incidence rates increased with the size of the company (0 OD/10 000 employees in micro enterprises to 57 OD/10 000 employees in large enterprises). A particularly steep rise in OD incidents in the automotive industry was observed in the Plzeň Region between 2001 and 2011. An association between OD incidents and the unemployment rate was not statistically confirmed. A statistically significant increase in OD incidents dependent on company size may be arguably attributed to a higher quality of occupational medical services in bigger companies, which ensures better detection and diagnosis of OD. In the Plzeň Region, the rapid increase in OD incidents was mainly caused by a change in the production process of automobile textiles in one factory due to the introduction of a glue containing isocyanates, which are potent allergising agents. This led to an increase in occupational allergic diseases - bronchial asthma in particular. Int J Occup Med Environ Health 2017;30(3):455-468.

Developing an analytical framework for study of emerging country multinationals’ operations management

The rise of emerging country multinationals (EMNEs) is opening new perspectives for the study of international operations management (IOM). Research may address issues which are inexistent when the object of study is long-established developed country multinationals (DMNEs). One of the issues that may be noticed, and will be studied in this article, has to do with the design and implementation of new international operations networks. In contrast to DMNEs, internationalisation of EMNEs is strongly influenced by two further factors: country-of-origin effects and role in global production networks. Therefore, studies of EMNEs’ international operations networks must embrace two other analytical levels besides the network level: the strategic level of the headquarters and the operational level of the subsidiaries. The analytical framework in this study has been developed through the use of constructs and concepts from both IOM and international business literatures. Such framework applied to three Brazilian multinationals leads to relevant insights on the internationalisation of EMNEs as well as the design and implementation of international operations networks for such late-moving firms.

The Irish pharmaceutical industry over the boom period and beyond

The pharmaceutical industry was one of the strongest performing sectors of the Celtic Tiger era. During the past two decades, employment growth in the sector has been strong and continuous, even when, in recent years, employment in other manufacturing sectors has been contracting. Although positive in itself, from a dynamic regional development perspective it is important to explore the qualitative changes in the types of activities that are conducted in Ireland. Adopting a global production network approach, the paper examines Ireland’s changing role in global production networks within the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on the different components of manufacturing and research and development (R&D). The analysis shows that Ireland’s involvement in manufacturing has shifted in the direction of relatively higher value generating activities. Within R&D, although the level of value creation has increased substantially, Ireland’s involvement nonetheless remains concentrated in the (relatively) lower value generating activities of the global R&D network. In addition, the sector remains strongly dominated by foreign companies so that a large share of the created value is not captured within Ireland.

A dissection of the growth of regional disparities in Chinese labor productivity between 1997 and 2002

This paper quantifies the effects of some proximate causes for the regional productivity disparities of China in 1997 and their growth in the five years thereafter. A novel shift-share approach based on input–output data is used to divide the regional differences, so that explicit attention is paid to the regional consequences of China’s specific role in global production networks (with a focus on sectoral value added coefficients). In the process, a new method is proposed to deflate the data in constant prices. The results show that regions with high labor productivity levels in 1997 generally experienced increases of the employment shares in sectors with high productivity levels.

China's Role in Global Production Networks

Vertical specialization is one of the most notable trends in the international organization of production (Hummels, Jun and Yi, 2001; Yi, 2003; Desai, 2009). Thanks to reductions in communication, transportation and other trade costs, multinational firms are slicing up their value chains and are dispersing their production activities across multiple countries. This means that a single final good is often worked on in many countries, with each sequential node in the value chain performed in the location that is most advantageous for the process.China has been a large beneficiary of this vertical specialization process, with multinational firms integrating the country into their global production networks by offshoring labor-intensive final assembly activities to the country (Branstetter and Lardy, 2006; Amiti and Freund, 2008). However, at least a few questions about China’s role in these global production networks are left unanswered. First, in which type of industries is China integrated into global production networks? The answer to this question will be important to understand the driving forces behind the rapid technological upgrading trajectory of China’s exports. Second, what factors have driven multinational firms to offshore assembly activities to China? Existing studies generally attribute this to the country’s relatively low labor costs and its favorable export promotion policies. But, as we will discuss below, China’s heavy reliance on imported inputs for its assembly activities suggests that its geographic location may also have played an important role. Finally, how important is Canada as a supplier to these global production networks?

Is China Climbing Up the Quality Ladder?

There is an ongoing debate in the literature about the quality content of Chinese exports and to what extent China imposes a threat to the market positions of advanced economies. While China’s export structure is very similar to that of the advanced world, its export unit values are well below the level of developed economies. Building on the assumption that unit values reflect quality the prevailing view of the literature is that China exports low quality varieties of the same products than its advanced competitors. This paper challenges this view by relaxing the assumption that unit values reflect quality. We derive the quality of Chinese exports to the European Union by estimating disaggregated demand functions from a discrete choice model. The paper has three major findings. First, China’s share on the European Union market is larger than would be justified only by its low average prices, implying that the quality of Chinese exports is high compared to many competitors. Second, China has gained quality relative to other competitors since 1995, indicating that China is climbing up the quality ladder. Finally, our analysis on the supply side determinants reveals that the relatively high quality of Chinese exports is related to processing trade and the increasing role of global production networks in China.

Is China Climbing Up the Quality Ladder?

There is an ongoing debate in the literature about the quality content of Chinese exports and to what extent China imposes a threat to the market positions of advanced economies. While China's export structure is very similar to that of the advanced world, its export unit values are well below the level of developed economies. Building on the assumption that unit values reflect quality the prevailing view of the literature is that China exports low quality varieties of the same products than its advanced competitors. This paper challenges this view by relaxing the assumption that unit values reflect quality. We derive the quality of Chinese exports to the European Union by estimating disaggregated demand functions from a discrete choice model. The paper has three major findings. First, China's share on the European Union market is larger than would be justified only by its low average prices, implying that the quality of Chinese exports is high compared to many competitors. Second, China has gained quality relative to other competitors since 1995, indicating that China is climbing up the quality ladder. Finally, our analysis on the supply side determinants reveals that the relatively high quality of Chinese exports is related to processing trade and the increasing role of global production networks in China. Keywords: Chinese exports, vertical product differentiation, quality ladder, global production networks, discrete choice model, COMEXT database JEL Classification: F1, F12, F14, F15, F23

Is China Climbing Up the Quality Ladder? Estimating Cross Country Differences in Product Quality Using Eurostat's COMEXT Trade Database

There is an ongoing debate in the literature about the quality content of Chinese exports and to what extent China imposes a threat to the market positions of advanced economies. While China’s export structure is very similar to that of the advanced world, its export unit values are well below the level of developed economies. Building on the assumption that unit values reflect quality the prevailing view of the literature is that China exports low quality varieties of the same products than its advanced competitors. This paper challenges this view by relaxing the assumption that unit values reflect quality. We derive the quality of Chinese exports to the European Union by estimating disaggregated demand functions from a discrete choice model. The paper has two major findings. First, China’s share on the European Union market is larger than would be justified by its relatively low average prices, implying that the quality of Chinese export products is relatively high compared to many competitors. Second, China has gained quality relative to other competitors since 1995, indicating that China is climbing up the quality ladder. The relatively high and improving quality of China’s exports may be explained by the increasing role of global production networks in China.

The Irish pharmaceutical industry over the boom period and beyond

Abstract The pharmaceutical industry was one of the strongest performing sectors of the Celtic Tiger era. During the past two decades, employment growth in the sector has been strong and continuous, even when, in recent years, employment in other manufacturing sectors has been contracting. Although positive in itself, from a dynamic regional development perspective it is important to explore the qualitative changes in the types of activities that are conducted in Ireland. Adopting a global production network approach, the paper examines Ireland's changing role in global production networks within the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on the different components of manufacturing and research and development (R&D). The analysis shows that Ireland's involvement in manufacturing has shifted in the direction of relatively higher value generating activities. Within R&D, although the level of value creation has increased substantially, Ireland's involvement nonetheless remains concentrated in the (relatively) lo...