Digital Technological Upgrading in Manufacturing Global Value Chains (GVCs): The Impact of Additive Manufacturing

This article contributes to burgeoning literature on digitalization and technological upgrading in Global Value Chains. It focuses on the adoption of additive manufacturing – a particular type of ‘Industry 4.0’ technology – by manufacturing GVCs and its impact on process and production upgrading. Drawing on extensive qualitative research in Germany, the UK and the US, including 54 interviews and participant observation firms, it examines the AM industry and its adoption in manufacturing firms. The findings contribute to existing understandings of technological upgrading in GVCs by differentiating between different types of actors within GVCs, focussing on produce and process upgrading in lead firms and in OEMs and lower tier suppliers. It finds that OEM and lower tier firms are using AM to upgrade and capture value in different ways to lead firms, with implications for relationships between actors. The paper also highlights the sectoral variation in the adoption of AM and reflects on the contemporary and future role of this digital technology in manufacturing GVCs.