Paper short abstract:

This paper explores causal mechanisms involved in transformations of production practices related to sustainability challenges in local productive systems found within a global production network. A key focus is the roles and interactions of vertical and horizontal governance pressures.

Paper long abstract:

Global production networks (GPNs) connect producers in the creation of manufactured products. Within GPNs, diverse sustainability challenges can occur across fragmented stages of production. This paper seeks to understand governance processes taking place during the creation of a product. Theories of lead-firm governance developed to understand dynamics in global value chains and GPNs can provide insight into this issue (De Marchi et al. 2013; Gereffi et al. 2005; Gereffi 1994). However, these theories and the related empirical research have often focused on relationships between lead-firms and upper-tier suppliers. When manufacturing involves multiple processes that are fragmented across dispersed locations using different forms of technology, understanding producers' experiences becomes more complex. More research is needed on governance processes taking place in lower-tiers of supplier networks.

The proposed paper is based on examining cotton garment production in India. Three distinct cases of local productive systems responsible for different stages of garment production are considered. Each has undergone significant changes to production practices related to a sustainability challenge. Using data from field research, along with documentary evidence and published materials providing details about the changes that took place in each case, the analysis considers how producers in GPNs are embedded in network and territorial locations (Henderson et al. 2002; Hess 2004; Coe and Yeung 2015) and subject to vertical and horizontal governance pressures. Exploring the causal mechanisms in these cases provides insight into how different types of governance pressures can effectively create changes across diverse local productive systems within a GPN.