Value Creation and Upgrading in Global Production Networks

: A Prolegomenon

Abstract

The global production network literature primarily draws on the concept of value capture to identify the way in which power shapes the developmental impact of involvement in global trade. The approach taken to this integrates broader debates on the identification of inter-firm power with a focus on how these processes take place both within and between defined territories, identifying specific institutions, workforces, and histories that shape corporate power. The emphasis on value capture seeks to understand how total value created is transferred between actors within a production network. The focus on value capture, however, represents only a limited understanding of what contributes to change and there is ambiguity within the global production network approach on how to understand the concept of value creation, or how it shapes explanations of the scale of value captured, rather than its relative transfer. This thesis – developed as a prolegomenon - will identify the impact of this for explanations of economic development by drawing on the extensive broader literature on value theory. It will identify both the ambiguous use of value creation within the current literature and identify areas in which its further development and use could provide significant contributions to the research literature. Specifically, the thesis identifies the extent to which the concept of value creation is essential for understanding the way in which production networks tend to devalue commodities and the consequences of this for value capture. This theoretical exercise is important as the relative extent of value capture is central to the complex outcomes of industrial upgrading evident the global south.

Date of Award	10 Dec 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Jeffrey Henderson (Supervisor) & Gregory Schwartz (Supervisor)