IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/streco/v58y2021icp256-266.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Value captured by China in the smartphone GVC– A tale of three smartphone handsets

Author

Listed:
  • Xing, Yuqing
  • Huang, Shaopeng

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the distribution of value-added by country and by task for three mobile handsets assembled in China: Apple iPhone X, Xiaomi MIX 2 and OPPO R11s. We adopt two baselines: production costs and retail prices. In terms of the production costs, it is found that the shares of domestic value-added for the three handsets are 25.4%, 15.5% and 16.7% respectively. For the iPhone X, Chinese firms collectively captured more value--added than the first generation iPhone 3G and performed relatively sophisticated tasks beyond simply assembly. For MIX 2 and OPPO R11s, the teardown analyses further reveal that no indigenous Chinese firms are involved in the manufacturing of components mounted on printed circuit board assembly. In terms of retails prices, the shares of domestic value-added for Xiaomi MIX 2 and OPPO R11s are 41.7% and 45.3% respectively, higher than the corresponding figures for production costs, suggesting that developing indigenous brands before overcoming technology deficiency is an alternative strategy to move up the value ladder along the value chains.

Suggested Citation

  • Xing, Yuqing & Huang, Shaopeng, 2021. "Value captured by China in the smartphone GVC– A tale of three smartphone handsets," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 256-266.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:58:y:2021:i:c:p:256-266
    DOI: 10.1016/j.strueco.2021.06.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X21000655
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.strueco.2021.06.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Meng, Bo & Ye, Ming, 2020. "Smile curves in global value chains: multinationals vs domestic firms; the U.S. vs China," IDE Discussion Papers 802, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    2. K. J. Arrow, 1971. "The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: F. H. Hahn (ed.), Readings in the Theory of Growth, chapter 11, pages 131-149, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Bo Meng & Ming Ye & Shang‐Jin Wei, 2020. "Measuring Smile Curves in Global Value Chains," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(5), pages 988-1016, October.
    4. Imai, Ken'ichi & Shiu, Jingming, 2007. "A Divergent Path of Industrial Upgrading: Emergence and Evolution of the Mobile Handset Industry in China," IDE Discussion Papers 125, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    5. Dedrick, Jason & Kraemer, Kenneth L. & Linden, Greg, 2011. "The distribution of value in the mobile phone supply chain," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 505-521, July.
    6. Ram Mudambi, 2008. "Location, control and innovation in knowledge-intensive industries," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(5), pages 699-725, September.
    7. Yuqing Xing & Neal Detert, 2010. "How iPhone Widens the US Trade Deficits with the PRC?," GRIPS Discussion Papers 10-21, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    8. Andrew B. Bernard & Teresa C. Fort, 2015. "Factoryless Goods Producing Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 518-523, May.
    9. Keun Lee & Jaeyong Song & Jooyoung Kwak, 2015. "An Exploratory Study on the Transition from OEM to OBM: Case Studies of SMEs in Korea," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(5), pages 423-442, July.
    10. Hummels, David & Ishii, Jun & Yi, Kei-Mu, 2001. "The nature and growth of vertical specialization in world trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 75-96, June.
    11. Mike Hobday, 1994. "Export‐led Technology Development in the Four Dragons: The Case of Electronics," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 333-361, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Youfu Yue & Junjun Hou & Nuoya Yue & Haofan Wang, 2024. "Relational Global Value Chain Carbon Emissions and Their Network Structure Patterns: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-24, August.
    2. Yue, Youfu & Hou, Junjun & Zhang, Meichen & Ye, Jiabai, 2024. "Does the sticky relationships of global value chains help stabilize employment? Evidence from China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 632-651.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Halit Yanikkaya & Abdullah Altun & Pınar Tat, 2023. "Once again “smile curve”: Is chain upgrading possible?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 62-88, February.
    2. Xiao Jie Liu & Haiyue Liu & Shi Yi Liu & Jim Huangnan Shen & Chien‐Chiang Lee, 2022. "Profit sharing, industrial upgrading, and global supply chains: Theory and evidence," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 2454-2493, November.
    3. Wannaphong Durongkaveroj, 2022. "Employment effects of joining global production networks: Does domestic value added matter?," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 1269-1285, August.
    4. Stöllinger, Roman, 2021. "Testing the Smile Curve: Functional Specialisation and Value Creation in GVCs," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 93-116.
    5. Lucía Bolea & Rosa Duarte & Geoffrey J. D. Hewings & Sofía Jiménez & Julio Sánchez‐Chóliz, 2022. "The role of regions in global value chains: an analysis for the European Union," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(4), pages 771-794, August.
    6. Keun Lee & Marina Szapiro & Zhuqing Mao, 2018. "From Global Value Chains (GVC) to Innovation Systems for Local Value Chains and Knowledge Creation," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(3), pages 424-441, July.
    7. Zhao, Yuhuan & Liu, Ya & Qiao, Xiaoyong & Wang, Song & Zhang, Zhonghua & Zhang, Yongfeng & Li, Hao, 2018. "Tracing value added in gross exports of China: Comparison with the USA, Japan, Korea, and India based on generalized LMDI," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 24-44.
    8. Meng, Bo & Ye, Ming, 2022. "Smile curves in global value chains: Foreign- vs. domestic-owned firms; the U.S. vs. China," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 15-29.
    9. Federico Riccio & Lorenzo Cresti & Maria Enrica Virgillito, 2022. "The labour share along global value chains. Perspectives and evidence from sectoral interdependence," LEM Papers Series 2022/11, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    10. repec:ocp:rpaper:pp-0722 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Duarte, Rosa & Espinosa-Gracia, Adrián & Jiménez, Sofía & Sánchez-Chóliz, Julio, 2022. "New insights on the relationship between the involvement of countries in global value chains, and intra- and inter-country inequalities," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 320-329.
    12. Andrea Coveri & Antonello Zanfei, 2023. "The virtues and limits of specialization in global value chains: analysis and policy implications," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 50(1), pages 73-90, March.
    13. Zhu, Kunfu & Guo, Xuefan & Zhang, Zengkai, 2022. "Reevaluation of the carbon emissions embodied in global value chains based on an inter-country input-output model with multinational enterprises," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    14. Awate, Snehal & Ajith, V. & Ajwani-Ramchandani, Raji, 2018. "Catch-up as a Survival Strategy in the Solar Power Industry," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 179-194.
    15. Pleticha, Petr, 2021. "Who Benefits from Global Value Chain Participation? Does Functional Specialization Matter?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 291-299.
    16. Dario Guarascio & Mario Pianta & Francesco Bogliacino, 2017. "Export, R&D and New Products: A Model and a Test on European Industries," Economic Complexity and Evolution, in: Andreas Pyka & Uwe Cantner (ed.), Foundations of Economic Change, pages 393-432, Springer.
    17. Ya Liu & Yuhuan Zhao & Hao Li & Song Wang & Yongfeng Zhang & Ye Cao, 2018. "Economic Benefits and Environmental Costs of China's Exports: A Comparison with the USA Based on Network Analysis," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 26(4), pages 106-132, July.
    18. Thomas J. Hannigan & Alessandra Perri & Vittoria Giada Scalera, 2016. "The Dispersed Multinational: Does Connectedness Across Spatial Dimensions Lead to Broader Technological Search?," Working Papers 11, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    19. Kossi Messanh Agbekponou & Ilaria Fusacchia, 2024. "Positioning and bargaining power in agri-food global value chains," Post-Print hal-04666067, HAL.
    20. Tsakanikas, Aggelos & Caloghirou, Yannis & Dimas, Petros & Stamopoulos, Dimitrios, 2022. "Intangibles, innovation, and sector specialization in global value chains: A case study on the EU's and the UK's manufacturing industries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    21. Ahmadvand, Emad & Salami, Seyed Reza & Soofi, Jahanyar Bamdad & Tabatabaeian, Seyed Habibollah, 2018. "Catch-up process in nanotechnology start-ups: The case of an Iranian electrospinning firm," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 1-8.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    GVCs; Mobile handsets; Value-added; Smile curve; Functional specialization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L63 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Microelectronics; Computers; Communications Equipment
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:streco:v:58:y:2021:i:c:p:256-266. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/525148 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.