Global value chain


In development studies, the global value chain describes the people and activities involved in the production of a good or service and its supply, distribution, and post-sales activities when activities must be coordinated across geographies. GVC is similar to Industry Level Value Chain but encompasses operations at the global level.
The concept of a value chain has been used to analyse international trade in global value chains and comprises “the full range of activities that are required to bring a product from its conception, through its design, its sourced raw materials and intermediate inputs, its marketing, its distribution and its support to the final consumer”.

In development

The first references to the GVC concept date from the mid-1990s and were enthusiastic about the upgrading prospects for developing countries that joined them. In his early work based on research on East Asian garment firms, the pioneer in value chain analysis, Gary Gereffi, describes a process of almost ‘natural’ learning and upgrading for the firms that joined GVCs. This echoed the ‘export-led’ discourse of the World Bank in the ‘East Asian Miracle’ report based on the East Asian ‘Tigers’ success.
This encouraged the World Bank and other leading institutions to encourage developing firms to develop their indigenous capabilities through a process of upgrading technical capabilities to meet global standards with leading multinational enterprises playing a key role in helping local firms through transfer of new technology, skills and knowledge.
Wider adoption of open source hardware technology used for digital fabrication such as 3D printers like the RepRap has the potential to partially reverse the trend towards global specialization of production systems into elements that may be geographically dispersed and closer to the end users and thus disrupt global value chains.

Analytical framework

Global value chains are networks of production and trade across countries. The study of global value chains requires inevitably a trade theory that can treat input trade. However, mainstream trade theories are only concerned with final goods. It needs a New new new trade theory. Escaith and Miroudot estimates that the Ricardian trade model in its extended form has "the advantage" of being better suited to the analysis of global value chains.
The lack of appropriate tool of analysis, the studies of GVCs have been conducted mainly by sociologists like Gary Gereffi and management science researchers. See for a genealogy Jennifer Bair. Studies by means of global Input-Output Table is starting.

Development and upgrading

GVCs become a major topic in development economics especially for middle-income countries, because the "upgrading" within GVCs became the crucial condition for the sustained growth of those countries.
GVC analysis views “upgrading” as a continuum starting with “process upgrading”, then moves on to “product upgrading” where the quality or functionality of the product is upgraded by using higher quality material or a better quality management system, and then on to “functional upgrading” in which the firm begins to design its own product and develops marketing and branding capabilities and begins to supply to end markets/customers directly - often by targeting geographies or customers. Subsequently, the process of upgrading might also cover inter-sectoral upgrading.
This upgrading process in GVCs has been challenged by other researchers – some of whom argue that insertion in global value chains does not always lead to upgrading. Some authors argue that the expected upgrading process might not hold for all types of upgrading. Specifically they argue upgrading into design, marketing and branding might be hindered by exporting under certain conditions because MNEs have no interest in transferring these core skills to their suppliers thus preventing them from accessing global markets for first world customer.

Current research on governance and its impact from a development perspective

There are motivations behind renewed interest in global value chains and the opportunities that they may present for countries in South Asia. A 2013 report found that looking at the production chain, rather than the individual stages of production, is more helpful. Individual donors with their own priorities and expertise cannot be expected to provide comprehensive response to the needs identified, not to mention the legal responsibilities of many specialist agencies. The research suggests they adjust their priorities and modalities to the way production chains operate, and to coordinate with other donors to cover all trade needs. It calls for donors and governments to work together to assess how aid flows may affect power relationships.
In his 1994 paper, Gereffi identified two major types of governance. The first were buyer-driven chains, where the lead firms are final buyers such as retail chains and branded product producers such as non-durable final consumer products. The second governance type identified by Gereffi were producer-driven chains. Here the technological competences of the lead firms defined the chain's competitiveness.
Current research suggests that GVCs exhibit a variety of characteristics and impact communities in a variety of ways. In a paper that emerged from the deliberations of the GVC Initiative, five GVC governance patterns were identified:
As capabilities in many low- and middle-income economies have grown, chain governance has tended to move away from quasi-hierarchical models toward modular type as this form of governance reduces the costs of supply chain management and allows chain governors to maintain a healthy level of competition in their supply chains. However, whilst it maintains short-term competition in the supply chain, it has allowed some leading intermediaries to develop considerable functional competences. In the long term these have the potential to emerge as competitors to their original chain governor. Other study outlines the initiative to promote inclusive GVC, three GVC patterns were identified:
The theoretical concepts often considered firms as operating in a single value chain. Whilst this was often the case in quasi-hierarchical chains it has become apparent that some firms operate in multiple value chains and serve both national and international markets and that this plays a role in the development of firm capabilities.

Summary of Unctad report: global value chains and development

In 2013, UNCTAD published two reports on GVCs and their contribution to development. They concluded that:
Gender plays a prominent role in global value chains, because it influences consumption patterns within the United States, and thus affects production on a larger scale. In turn, specific roles within the value chain are also determined by gender, making gender a key component in the process as well. Far more women than men are found in the informal sector, as self-employed workers or subcontractors, while specific jobs and broader fields of work differ between men and women.

Women in global value chains

Within the global value chains, it is often women who work in the weakest or most disadvantaged chains.
Carr et al. argue that “the vast majority of subcontract workers or industrial homeworkers, who earn some of the lowest wages worldwide, are women.”

Negative impacts of global value chains

Global supply chain management is facing the increasing difficulty in predicting demand variability in different areas. In addition, managing the production and transportation of goods over large distances to meet the peak demand represents another challenge.
Integrating global value chains requires all actors to adapt to technological changes, which is capital-intensive. Therefore, it is safe to say that this trend significantly benefits developed countries rather than developing countries.