Global Value Chains

Global Value Chains (GVCs) are increasingly attracting attention in the academic and practitioner worlds. Complex forms of coordination between independent actors that are geographically-dispersed but functionally integrated continue to evolve amidst shifting alignments of multilateral trade, production and innovation networks in the emerging digital economy. This process also leads to changes in local geographies, so that it has important implications for understanding how multinational enterprises (MNEs) and locations co-evolve over time. The co-evolution of MNEs and locations defines the upgrading and innovation opportunities for all the stakeholdersof embedded in GVCs. This track invites contributions that look at issues including (but not limited to): GVC coordination; MNEs orchestration of external agents; learning and upgrading within GVCs; customer-supplier interaction for innovation; fine-grained location decisions including microgeography; impact of new digital technologies on participation/coordination of GVCs; implications of GVC-oriented strategies for home and host country policies; and the role of new actors (e.g., large suppliers, civil society organizations) in shaping GVC development.

Keywords:
global value chains; governance; upgrading; relocation of production; re-shoring; regionalization; industry 4.0; global suppliers.