Paper short abstract:

This paper examines why the two dominant apparels firms in Uganda have adopted very different production strategies, highlighting how domestic political economy and the lack of government policies has failed to motivate changes in the firms' preferences.

Paper long abstract:

Industrialization has been increasingly prioritized across the African continent. Most governments have aimed to revive their nascent manufacturing sectors by focusing on export-led growth and accessing lead firm-dominated Global Value Chains/Global Production Networks (GVC/GPNs). However, there is variation in the strategies of firms located in developing countries, with some firms (often owned by domestic investors) preferring to produce for regional and domestic markets. This paper examines how the Ugandan government's industrial policies have evolved in an environment where its two largest apparel firms have different growth strategies (with one preferring to produce for the domestic market and the other targeting international markets in the long-term). The government has tried to enact specific industrial policies aimed at supporting locally based companies through public procurement (Buy Uganda, Build Uganda) and through increasing tariffs on used clothes.

Through an examination of Uganda's apparels sector, this paper explains that the existing GVC/GPNs literature correctly argues that multi-scalar embeddedness explains why different firms - one transnational firm and one indigenous firm - have developed two contrasting strategies; the former focusing on exporting to Western countries and the latter preferring regional markets. However, the GVC/GPNs literature, in focusing on the embeddedness of firms, has neglected the role of the state in shaping industrialization trajectories. An examination of the Uganda case shows why a broader understanding of domestic political economy pressures explains why firm embeddedness often wins out against industrial policies in developing countries where market-led reforms have been dominant in recent decades.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the role of a state-owned oil company in developing local supplier firms, focusing on the case of Malaysia's Petronas. Drawing on fieldwork, it shows how Petronas's commercial and developmental missions have simultaneously nurtured and disciplined successful supplier firms.

Paper long abstract:

Much scholarly attention has recently been given to role of local content policies in oil-based industrialization and the opportunity and challenges of firm upgrading in the supply chains of private 'International Oil Companies' (IOCs). Yet, the role of a state-owned 'National Oil Company' (NOC) as an industrial policy instrument for developing domestic supplier companies remains largely underexplored. This paper examines the role of Malaysia's fully state-owned NOC Petronas in the emergence and growth of large, internationally competitive Malaysian supplier firms. Drawing on corporate histories of the two largest domestic supplier companies and industry fieldwork in Malaysia, this paper demonstrates that Petronas - tasked with commercial, regulatory and developmentalist mandates - has nurtured high-performing, yet politically-connected supplier firms. Petronas - as an oil company with monopoly rights and largely driven by commercial interests to maximise revenue to the state - has not only allocated learning and technology rents to suppliers, but also disciplined them in various intended and unintended ways. Taking a political economy perspective, it is argued that the power dynamics in this NOC-supplier relationship matter. The balance of power between Petronas and suppliers has created the necessary compulsion for these politically-connected supplier firms to become internationally competitive on export markets.

Paper short abstract:

The Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh challenged the value chain strategies of global garments retailers, revealed weakness of state and opened a field for analysis of plural power play that spans anarchic global trading space, national political [un]settlements and street protests in Dhaka.

Paper long abstract:

The ready-made garment industry has been central to Bangladesh's economic achievement in recent years. Globally operating garment retailers developed contractual relations with factory owners in Bangladesh giving access to an environment that is low cost but risky because of ineffectual government regulation. Reputational damage following the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory complex in April 2013 [which killed more than 1000 people] led to two different collaborative trade associations, the ACCORD and The Alliance, representing leading European and US brands, which set up, funded and jointly governed factory inspection and certification processes to remedy this lack of safety. Collaboration on this scale involves difficult compliance issues on the part of the collaborators as well as the factory owners but both agencies want to demonstrate success. Many factories remained outside the orbit of ACCORD or The Alliance and did not participate. A sub-contracting culture further weakened control. In 2018 Government of Bangladesh withdrew recognition of this purchaser side process, perhaps to protect the country's 'low cost' status. The Alliance has ceased operations and ACCORD awaits the outcome of a legal challenge, putting an end to this chapter of 'transnational private regulation'. In examining the role of the governments [US, EU as well as GoB] in this scene, the paper will question whether 'ineffectual' is not in practice favoured 'low regulation' and whether political un-settlement is both outcome [in Bangladesh] and favoured strategy elsewhere in support of global corporate interests.

Paper short abstract:

This article challenges understandings of development in the context of GVCs through the case of pharmaceuticals in South Africa. It emphasises the significance of market-seeking imports, and their local development implications, highlighting state responses which go beyond a facilitator role.

Paper long abstract:

This article challenges understandings of development in the context of global production networks, and how the state seeks to shape such development. Drawing on primary research on South Africa's pharmaceutical industry, it looks at how the local industry is largely crowded-out by a dominant form of integration into GVCs oriented towards market-seeking imports. Local firms are limited to forming marketing and regulatory roles in partnership with importing companies and local industrial development is essentially a 'third wheel' to import dependent coupling. In such a context which is neither inside-out export-oriented development or outside-in asset seeking investment, the state's role in shaping value capture trajectories goes beyond facilitating upgrading within GVCs. While the facilitator and regulator roles have struggled, and the producer role has been mooted yet has not taken off, particular controversy has emerged over the influential role of the state as a buyer, through public procurement. Thus, considerable conflict has emerged within the state and over how to promote 'development' in the context of the pharmaceutical industry. Overall, the article questions how value capture trajectories are shaped within GVCs. It points to development beyond GVCs, the key role of the state as a buyer, and the conflict over development outcomes within GVCs.

Paper short abstract:

In the eastern DR Congo, domestic groups are upgrading to higher value-added activities in the country's gold sector through a locally-led process of mechanisation. Yet the Congolese state, acting on the behest of a Canadian transnational mining corporation, has repressed this process.

Paper long abstract:

In South Kivu of the eastern DR Congo, artisanal mining is the most important livelihood after agriculture, employing approximately 150,000 people. An emergent and relatively prosperous local (capitalist?) class of artisanal gold trader-managers drive the sector, creating, redistributing and (re)investing value in mining, but also in education, property, agriculture and commerce. In recent years, part of their reinvestment has included upgrading to higher value-added activities through locally-led processes of technological assimilation, capital formation and mechanisation. This has included electrification, machinery to deepen mine shafts, and the local manufacture and use of crushing mills, which grind large rocks into a fine powder at a faster rate than can be done by manual labour. Yet in some areas, this upgrading process has been taking place in a concession owned by the Canadian transnational Banro, resulting in the depletion of the corporation's deposits at a faster speed than was the case under artisanal production. In response, Banro has cut down the electric pylons and opened legal proceedings against the crushing mill owners, leading to the state's forced appropriation of around half of the mills in use on its concession. The proposed paper explores the theoretical significance of this story, which not only questions a number of assumptions about the low productivity and inefficiency of artisanal mining in Africa, but also asks what space is there for African mineral sector domestic upgrading in a context where African states, IFIs and development agencies continue to prioritise a TNC-led model of mineral sector (re)industrialisation?

Paper short abstract:

Through greater regional integration, Maghreb States could expand regionally the scope of their domestic pharmaceutical industry. This paper discusses policy options demonstrating potential impact on value chain development, highlighting the role of the States in unlocking regional markets.

Paper long abstract:

Maghreb countries (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) are experiencing a transformation driven by demographic growth, rising income and educational attainment, urbanisation and social pressures for greater democracy. These developments are accompanied by shifts in lifestyle patterns, bringing about demographic, nutritional, epidemiological transitions and stressing the need to meet domestic demand in terms of jobs, food security, and healthcare. The pharmaceutical sector - a traditional sector in the three countries - offers an opportunity space, for it could concurrently contribute to industrial transformation and deal with the growing demand for medicines in the region, carrying both export-oriented and import-substitution opportunities. Maghreb States have a critical role to play, not only individually but collectively. Regional pharmaceutical markets are influenced by idiosyncratic factors that give local producers a competitive advantage (consumers proximity). However, being subject to increasing returns to scale, the pharmaceutical industry in the Maghreb region, one of the least integrated in the world, is hindered by the narrowness of domestic markets. Creating a regional market would help local value chains scale up and upgrade, as this paper argues addressing two cooperation options that demonstrate how the nexus between the States and the industry could materialize in the promotion of regional value chains: 1) harmonization of the rules on the granting of marketing authorizations for pharmaceutical products; and 2) strategic implementation of a joint procurement policy for pharmaceuticals inputs and products. The paper shows that such initiatives could require protectionist measures, but most importantly, greater cooperation between Maghreb States and the domestic private sector

Paper short abstract:

We use the case of the timber sector in Myanmar to analyse how national regulatory framework and international ecological discourses affect small businesses.

Paper long abstract:

Myanmar's forest cover is still the largest in the Asia-Pacific region, but under a serious threat of deforestation. In 2016, a temporary national logging ban was put in place to counteract years of over-exploitation. The ban extends to timber production in the private sector, leaving the government's Myanmar Timber Enterprise as the only permitted producer of logs. Private enterprises can purchase these logs for processing. At the same time, the international community advocates for improved forest governance with a huge emphasis on timber legality.

Within this context, we analyse the regulatory framework under which enterprises in the wood industry operate and how international ecological discourses affect forest management and private business from the wood industry in Myanmar. In particular, how does the state absorb and apply to policy these requirements, while so many smaller businesses depend on timber to survive? Providing answers to these questions will improve our understanding of the role of national policies in shaping the wood value chain. It will also reveal implications of national policies to protect the environment and limit production for the livelihoods of enterprise owners and employees in the wood industry.

To achieve these objectives, we will use data from a survey of small and medium manufacturing enterprises in Myanmar conducted in 2017 and in-depth interviews with enterprise owners and other value chain actors conducted across country in 2018.

Paper short abstract:

This paper applies a 'disarticulations perspective' to GVC/GPN studies to elucidate unexplored production and regulatory connections between export and domestic agri-food value chains. Special attention is paid to the State's role in shaping production for these different markets.

Paper long abstract:

A disarticulations perspective centers uneven development in the study of global value chains and global production networks (GVC/GPN). It explores the relationship between strategies of incorporation and continued inclusion in GVCs, and forms of territorial and social unevenness in the global economy. This paper explores what this perspective can offer to the study of agri-food value chains. GVC/GPN studies in this area tend to focus on so-called non-traditional exports as farmers in the global South seek incorporation into new export markets in response to neoliberal development policies. Scholarly and policy focus on the terms of export value chain inclusion, however, may overstate the demise of 'national' agriculture -- that is, production dedicated to domestic consumption -- and its continued importance to rural development and state legitimacy. At a minimum, it fails to explore the significance of contemporary state interventions into domestic agriculture, including forms of social protection not only for low-income consumers, but also for farmers. In light of these observations, I suggest an approach to agri-food value chains that explores interactions and connections between farmers and policies directed towards these different end markets. By doing so, at least three areas of research come into view: uneven development of states' capacities and opportunities for domestic market protection versus export promotion; farmer strategies tied to production for both domestic and export markets; and, finally, the significance of global South farmers as consumers of global input value chains. I develop this argument through a case study of the Dominican Republic.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the informal institutions through which states regulate smuggling economies and illegal global value chains. It highlights implications for the study of informal institutions, the politics of smuggling economies, and development outcomes.

Paper long abstract:

Contemporary writing on smuggling and illegal global value chains commonly conceptualises them as ungoverned, under the radar of states.

This paper challenges that conception, demonstrating that the vast majority of smuggling activity in North Africa is in fact highly regulated through a dense network of informal institutions that determine the costs, quantity and types of goods that can pass through certain nodes, typically segmenting licit from illicit goods. While informal, the institutions regulating this trade are largely impersonal and contain third party enforcement, hence providing a direct empirical challenge to common characterisations of informal institutions in political science. The paper argues that revisiting the characteristics associated with informal institutions, and understanding them as contingent on their political environment, can provide a new starting point for studying institutions, the politics of informality, state capacity, and the regulation of illegal economies. It also highlights the importance of studying the intersection of states and smuggling economies in order to understand important sections of global value chains.

Paper short abstract:

Exploring global value chain lead firms' roles in shaping labour standards in production countries, this paper presents a typology of engagement that considers lead firms as collective vs individual actors and whether connections are to direct suppliers or broader local governance systems.

Paper long abstract:

Faced with the limitations of the prominent supplier compliance approach to labour issues in global value chains (GVCs), lead firms have been experimenting with new ways to influence production processes. We propose a new typology of buyer engagement, incorporating two often overlooked dimensions: buyers' collective action and efforts that go beyond compliance at supplier factories. This paper focuses on the activities of a group of 60 large garment brands and retailers that are based in Germany, Sweden and the UK and rely on dispersed global production bases. Analysing data from 87 interviews with these firms along with published materials about the firms' behaviours, we identify and illustrate multiple distinct forms of engagement. Cutting across the dimensions of the typology, firms are found to use compliance, capacity building, and political advocacy to bring about change. The perspective presented highlights how lead firms' interactions extend beyond direct buyer-seller relationships to incorporate a variety of other actors including other lead firms and local governance actors, such as governments and NGOs. It also draws attention to the broad types of changes to local productive systems that lead firms are seeking to promote. This article fills important gaps in the literature by moving beyond the dominating focus on workplace compliance strategies in private labour regulation studies and dyadic buyer-supplier relationships prominent in the GVC literature.

Paper short abstract:

This paper interrogates the gender dimensions of downgrading and upgrading in global value chains, drawing studies from Bangladeshi and Indonesian apparel. Sustainable upgrading requires more proactive strategies (private, public and social) to achieve positive gender equitable outcomes for workers.

Paper long abstract:

The majority of trade is now channeled through global value chains (GVCs) largely sourcing from middle and low-income countries. Hundreds of millions of workers are linked to GVCs, a significant proportion female. GVCs are governed by global and regional lead-firms coordinating cross-border supplier networks. Buyers pressure suppliers on cost and speed of delivery, whilst requiring quality and compliance with standards covering environment and social criteria. A development challenge is whether this leads to economic and social downgrading (lower value production with poorer conditions and rights for workers); or it can contribute to economic and social upgrading (higher value production with better working conditions and rights)? This paper interrogates the gender dimensions of downgrading and upgrading, asking why women are concentrated in labour intensive 'low skilled' work, and what are the opportunities for gender equitable upgrading? It draws on comparative case studies from Bangladeshi and Indonesian apparel to examine the emeddedness of gender subordination underpinning downgrading, and drivers of more gender equitable upgrading. It argues upgrading is journey involving a combination of social contestation, private and public and interventions challenging prevailing commercial strategies and barriers to gender equality within a workforce that is largely female. Sustainable upgrading requires more proactive strategies (private, public and social) to achieve positive gender equitable outcomes for workers.