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Creating strategic couplings in global production networks: regional institutions and lead firm investment in the Humber region, UK

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  • Stuart Dawley
  • Danny MacKinnon
  • Robert Pollock

Abstract

This article aims to unpack and analyse the institutional and political dynamics of strategic coupling from a host region perspective, adopting an actor-centred approach that focuses on regional institutions’ efforts to attract and embed lead firm investments within global production networks. We are particularly concerned with understanding the strategic agency and shifting coalitions of actors that create couplings and shape their evolution over time. This involves opening up the institutional underpinnings of strategic couplings by focusing more specifically on the key episodes in their creation and the organisation of the temporary coalitions that do the work of creating couplings. This approach is operationalised through a case study of the Siemens offshore wind turbine plant in the Humber region of England. In conclusion, we emphasise the need for regional institutions to develop adaptive coupling creation strategies that co-evolve with the reconfiguration of production networks and the reshaping of national institutional and political environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Stuart Dawley & Danny MacKinnon & Robert Pollock, 2019. "Creating strategic couplings in global production networks: regional institutions and lead firm investment in the Humber region, UK," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(4), pages 853-872.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:19:y:2019:i:4:p:853-872.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jeg/lbz004
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    Cited by:

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    2. Andrés Rodríguez‐Pose, 2020. "Institutions and the fortunes of territories," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 371-386, June.
    3. Manara, Martina & Pani, Erica, 2023. "Institutional work: how lenders transform land titles into collateral in urban Tanzania," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120208, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Manning, Stephan, 2022. "From mainstream to niche: How value regimes shift in emerging economy upgrading," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    5. Schulze, Marc Philipp, 2023. "Embedding offshore campuses in skill formation in Singapore: From ‘globalising’ domestic higher education to ‘localising’ foreign universities," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 144.
    6. Sarah Hall, 2023. "Anticipating Sino-UK fintech networks and the changing geographies of money as infrastructure," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 55(4), pages 931-948, June.
    7. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2021. "Costs, incentives, and institutions in bridging evolutionary economic geography and global production networks," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(6), pages 1011-1014, June.
    8. Cassandra C. Wang & Gary Gereffi & Zhigao Liu, 2021. "Beyond technological relatedness: An evolutionary pro‐growth coalition and industrial transformation in Kunshan, China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 2318-2341, December.
    9. Arne Isaksen & Emelie Langemyr Eriksen & Jan Ole Rypestøl, 2020. "Regional industrial restructuring: Asset modification and alignment for digitalization," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 1454-1470, December.
    10. Martínez-Reyes, A. & Lieu, J. & de Vries, G. & Hoppe, T., 2025. "Introducing a typology of energy regions: A systematic literature review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    11. Liena Kano & Eric W. K. Tsang & Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2020. "Global value chains: A review of the multi-disciplinary literature," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(4), pages 577-622, June.
    12. Gavin Bridge & Alexander Dodge, 2022. "Regional assets and network switching: shifting geographies of ownership, control and capital in UK offshore oil [Temporality and the evolution of GPNs: remaking BHP’s Pilbara iron ore network]," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(2), pages 367-388.
    13. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Global Value Chains from an Evolutionary Economic Geography perspective: a research agenda," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2134, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2021.
    14. Huiwen Gong & Robert Hassink & Cassandra C Wang, 2022. "Strategic coupling and institutional innovation in times of upheavals: the industrial chain chief model in Zhejiang, China [Institutional change in economic geography]," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(2), pages 279-303.
    15. Stephan Manning & Cristiano Richter, 2023. "Upgrading against the odds: How peripheral regions can attract global lead firms," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-23, March.
    16. Martina Manara & Erica Pani, 2023. "Institutional work: how lenders transform land titles into collateral in urban Tanzania," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(6), pages 1213-1236.
    17. Nunez-Picado, Adriana & Martinus, Kirsten & Sigler, Thomas, 2022. "Junior Miner internationalisation in the globalising mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    18. Huiwen Gong & Robert Hassink & Cassandra Wang, 2021. "Strategic coupling and regional resilience in times of uncertainty: the industrial chain chief model in Zhejiang, China," PEGIS geo-disc-2021_06, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    19. Grumiller, Jan, 2019. "A strategic-relational approach to analyzing industrial policy regimes within global production networks: The Ethiopian Leather and Leather Products Sector," Working Papers 60, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    20. Stephen J. Ramos & Umit Yilmaz, 2023. "Energy transition and city–port symbiosis in biomass import–export regions," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 25(2), pages 406-428, June.
    21. Martin Ron & Sunley Peter, 2022. "Making history matter more in evolutionary economic geography," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 66(2), pages 65-80, July.
    22. Qingyi Chen & Qinglan Qian & Zuolin Yao & Na Yang & Junyue Tong & Yujiao Wang, 2022. "Global–Local Knowledge Spillover Strategic Coupling Network: Biopharmaceutical Industry Study of GBA, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, November.
    23. Rongbo Zhang & Changbiao Zhong, 2022. "Can the Adjustment and Renovation Policies of Old Industrial Cities Reduce Urban Carbon Emissions?—Empirical Analysis Based on Quasi-Natural Experiments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-22, May.
    24. Chun Yang & David Yuen‐Tung Chan, 2021. "Market Expansion of Domestic Gaming Firms in Shenzhen, China: Dilemma of Globalisation and Regionalisation," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 112(3), pages 256-273, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Strategic coupling; coupling creation; global production networks; regional institutions; offshore wind;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • O43 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Institutions and Growth
    • L5 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy

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