IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eurpls/v21y2013i7p1046-1063.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Strategic Coupling to Recoupling and Decoupling: Restructuring Global Production Networks and Regional Evolution in China

Author

Listed:
  • Chun Yang

Abstract

The global production networks (GPNs) perspective, especially its focal concept of 'strategic coupling' has been widely applied to regional studies in the era of globalization. The 2000s, especially the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, has witnessed a dramatic restructuring of the governance structure of GPNs; the effects on regional evolution have, however, been understudied. Echoing to MacKinnon's [(2012) Beyond strategic coupling: Reassessing the firm-region Nexus in global production networks, Journal of Economic Geography , 12, pp. 227--245] recent plea for conceptualizing the types, degree and depth of strategic coupling in the GPNs framework, this paper postulates that regional trajectories have been reshaped by the transition from strategic coupling to recoupling and decoupling, as a result of regional selection and abandonment of transnational corporations (TNCs) in host regions in China. Based on updated field investigation and in-depth interviews during the period of mid-2008 and early 2012, this paper examines and compares the transformation of the cross-border production networks driven by Hong Kong and Taiwan-based TNCs, particularly their divergent engagements in decoupling from source regions in coastal China, e.g. the Pearl River Delta and recoupling with the inland provinces, such as Sichuan and Hubei. Particular attention is paid to the changing power relations among TNCs and concerned regions with the emergence of key supplier-led domestic market-oriented production networks in China. Through developing an evolutionary framework on strategic coupling, the paper puts forward pertinent topics on the research agenda to explore dynamic interaction between GPN restructuring and regional evolution in the contemporary global economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Chun Yang, 2013. "From Strategic Coupling to Recoupling and Decoupling: Restructuring Global Production Networks and Regional Evolution in China," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 1046-1063, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eurpls:v:21:y:2013:i:7:p:1046-1063
    DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2013.733852
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09654313.2013.733852
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09654313.2013.733852?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. Olivier Cattaneo & Gary Gereffi & Cornelia Staritz, 2010. "Global Value Chains in a Postcrisis World : A Development Perspective," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2509.
    2. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2007. "Editorial: Constructing an evolutionary economic geography," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(5), pages 537-548, September.
    3. John Lovering, 1999. "Theory Led by Policy: The Inadequacies of the ‘New Regionalism’ (Illustrated from the Case of Wales)," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 379-395, June.
    4. Meric Gertler, 2010. "Rules of the Game: The Place of Institutions in Regional Economic Change," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(1), pages 1-15.
    5. Nicholas A. Phelps & Andrew Wood, 2006. "Lost in translation? Local interests, global actors and inward investment regimes," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(4), pages 493-515, August.
    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. Henrik Brynthe Lund & Markus Steen, 2019. "Make at home or abroad? Manufacturing reshoring through a GPN lens," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_09, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    2. Bill Pritchard & Elen Welch & Guillermo Umana Restrepo & Lachlan Mitchell, 2023. "How do financialised agri-corporate investors acquire farmland? Analysing land investment in an Australian agricultural region, 2004–2019," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(5), pages 1037-1058.
    3. Kangmin Wu & Yang Wang & Yuyao Ye & Hongou Zhang & Guangqing Huang, 2019. "Relationship Between the Built Environment and the Location Choice of High-Tech Firms: Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-21, July.
    4. Robert Hassink & Chun Yang & Tianlan Fu & Lixun Li, 2017. "Emerging Adaptation of Local Clusters in China in a Shifting Global Economy: Evidence from the Furniture Cluster in Houjie Town, Dongguan," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 214-232, June.
    5. Chun Yang & Canfei He, 2017. "Transformation of China's ‘World Factory’: Production Relocation and Export Evolution of the Electronics Firms," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 108(5), pages 571-591, October.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. Jiří Blažek & Anton Lypianin, 2024. "Geopolitical decoupling and global production networks: the case of Ukrainian industries after the 2014 Crimean annexation," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 24(1), pages 23-40.
    9. 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.
    10. Qidi Ji & Weidong Liu & Tao Song & Boyang Gao, 2022. "The Social Barrier of Strategic Coupling: A Case Study of the Letpadaung Copper Mine in Myanmar," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-19, June.
    11. Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2015. "Regional development in the global economy: A dynamic perspective of strategic coupling in global production networks," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, March.

    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. Robert & Claudia Klaerding, 2012. "Theoretical advancement in economic geography by engaged pluralism," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1202, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jan 2012.
    2. Andy Pike & Andrew Cumbers & Stuart Dawley & Danny MacKinnon & Robert McMaster, 2015. "Doing evolution in economic geography," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1532, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2015.
    3. Robert Hassink, Huiwen Gong, Fabian Faller & Huiwen Gong, & Fabian Faller, 2016. "Can we learn anything from economic geography proper? Yes, we can!," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1622, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2016.
    4. Grillitsch, Markus & Sotarauta, Markku, 2018. "Regional Growth Paths: From Structure to Agency and Back," Papers in Innovation Studies 2018/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    5. Lars Coenen & Bjørn Asheim & Markus M Bugge & Sverre J Herstad, 2017. "Advancing regional innovation systems: What does evolutionary economic geography bring to the policy table?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 35(4), pages 600-620, June.
    6. Hassink, Robert & Gong, Huiwen, 2017. "Sketching the Contours of an Integrative Paradigm of Economic Geography," Papers in Innovation Studies 2017/12, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    7. Robert Hassink & Chun Yang & Tianlan Fu & Lixun Li, 2017. "Emerging Adaptation of Local Clusters in China in a Shifting Global Economy: Evidence from the Furniture Cluster in Houjie Town, Dongguan," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 214-232, June.
    8. Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2015. "Regional development in the global economy: A dynamic perspective of strategic coupling in global production networks," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, March.
    9. José Quesada-Vázquez & Juan Carlos Rodríguez-Cohard, 2019. "Subsidiary upgrading and regional innovation policies: The case of Valeo lighting Systems Spain and the Andalusian Plastic Innovation Centre," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 37(5), pages 908-928, August.
    10. Jun Zhang, 2011. "Related Variety, Global Connectivity and Institutional Embeddedness: Internet Development in Beijing and Shanghai Compared," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1110, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jun 2011.
    11. Aarstad, Jarle & Kvitastein, Olav A. & Jakobsen, Stig-Erik, 2016. "Related and unrelated variety as regional drivers of enterprise productivity and innovation: A multilevel study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 844-856.
    12. Cristina Chaminade & Monica Plechero, 2015. "Do Regions Make a Difference? Regional Innovation Systems and Global Innovation Networks in the ICT Industry," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 215-237, February.
    13. Roberto Antonietti & Ron Boschma, 2021. "Social capital, resilience, and regional diversification in Italy [Social capital, innovation and growth: evidence from Europe]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(3), pages 762-777.
    14. Emil Evenhuis, 2017. "Institutional change in cities and regions: a path dependency approach," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 10(3), pages 509-526.
    15. John Lovering, 2001. "The Coming Regional Crisis (And How To Avoid It)," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 349-354.
    16. De Backer, Koen & Miroudot, Sébastien, 2014. "Mapping global value chains," Libros de la CEPAL, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 37176, May.
    17. Tieng Kimseng & Amna Javed & Chawalit Jeenanunta & Youji Kohda, 2020. "Sustaining Innovation through Joining Global Supply Chain Networks: The Case of Manufacturing Firms in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-17, June.
    18. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2010. "The Aims and Scope of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Piotr Zientara, 2008. "Polish Regions in the Age of a Knowledge‐based Economy," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 60-85, March.
    20. Kurikka, Heli & Grillitsch, Markus, 2020. "Resilience in the periphery: What an agency perspective can bring to the table," Papers in Innovation Studies 2020/7, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.

    More about this item

    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:taf:eurpls:v:21:y:2013:i:7:p:1046-1063. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEPS20 .

    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.