IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bwp/bwppap/ctg-2010-03.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Production Networks: Developing a Framework for Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Barrientos
  • Gary Gereffi
  • Arianna Rossi

Abstract

A key challenge to promoting decent work in global production networks is how to improve the position of both firms and workers integrated into value chains in which lead firms play a dominant role. Analysis of global production networks and value chains has focused mainly on firms, often overlooking the role of labour. This paper develops a framework for examining the linkages between the economic upgrading of firms and the social upgrading of workers. It examines studies which indicate that firm upgrading can but does not necessarily lead to improvements for workers. Different trajectories and scenarios are explored in order to consider under what circumstances both firm and workers can gain from a process of upgrading.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Barrientos & Gary Gereffi & Arianna Rossi, 2012. "Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Production Networks: Developing a Framework for Analysis," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series ctg-2010-03, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    • Handle: RePEc:bwp:bwppap:ctg-2010-03
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.capturingthegains.org/pdf/ctg-wp-2010-03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. C. Dolan & J. Humphrey, 2000. "Governance and Trade in Fresh Vegetables: The Impact of UK Supermarkets on the African Horticulture Industry," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 147-176.
    2. Gary Gereffi & Evgeni Evgeniev, 2008. "Textile and Apparel Firms in Turkey and Bulgaria: Exports, Local Upgrading and Dependency," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 3, pages 148-179.
    3. Stephanie Barrientos & Andrienetta Kritzinger, 2004. "Squaring the circle: global production and the informalization of work in South African fruit exports," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(1), pages 81-92.
    4. Barrientos, Stephanie & Dolan, Catherine & Tallontire, Anne, 2003. "A Gendered Value Chain Approach to Codes of Conduct in African Horticulture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1511-1526, September.
    5. Andy Cumbers & Corinne Nativel & Paul Routledge, 2008. "Labour agency and union positionalities in global production networks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 369-387, May.
    6. Bair, Jennifer & Gereffi, Gary, 2001. "Local Clusters in Global Chains: The Causes and Consequences of Export Dynamism in Torreon's Blue Jeans Industry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(11), pages 1885-1903, November.
    7. repec:ilo:empelm:2007-06 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Catherine Dolan & John Humphrey, 2004. "Changing Governance Patterns in the Trade in Fresh Vegetables between Africa and the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(3), pages 491-509, March.
    9. Jagdish Bhagwati, 1995. "Trade Liberalisation and ‘Fair Trade’ Demands: Addressing the Environmental and Labour Standards Issues," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(6), pages 745-759, November.
    10. Gereffi, Gary & Fernandez-Stark, Karina, 2010. "The offshore services value chain : developing countries and the crisis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5262, The World Bank.
    11. Thomas I. Palley, 2004. "The economic case for international labour standards," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 28(1), pages 21-36, January.
    12. Richard LOCKE & Thomas KOCHAN & Monica ROMIS & Fei QIN, 2007. "Beyond corporate codes of conduct: Work organization and labour standards at Nike's suppliers," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 146(1-2), pages 21-40, March.
    13. Gereffi, Gary, 1999. "International trade and industrial upgrading in the apparel commodity chain," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 37-70, June.
    14. John Pickles & Adrian Smith & Milan Bucěk & Poli Roukova & Robert Begg, 2006. "Upgrading, Changing Competitive Pressures, and Diverse Practices in the East and Central European Apparel Industry," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(12), pages 2305-2324, December.
    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. Keshab Das, 2016. "Situating Labour in the Global Production Network Debate: As if the ‘South’ Mattered," The Indian Journal of Labour Economics, Springer;The Indian Society of Labour Economics (ISLE), vol. 59(3), pages 343-362, September.
    2. Timm B. Schützhofer, 2014. "Can Decent Work and Export Oriented Growth Strategies go together? Lessons from Nicaragua’s Export Processing Zones," ICDD Working Papers 11, University of Kassel, Fachbereich Gesellschaftswissenschaften (Social Sciences), Internatioanl Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD).
    3. Keshab Das, 2015. "Situating Labour in the Global Production Network Debate: As if the ‘South’ Mattered," Working Papers id:6665, eSocialSciences.
    4. Shinyekwa, Isaac, 2013. "Economic and Social Upgrading in the Mobile Telecommunications Industry: The Case MTN Uganda," Research Series 159671, Economic Policy Research Centre (EPRC).
    5. C. Veeramani & Garima Dhir, 2019. "Reaping gains from global production sharing: Domestic value addition and job creation by Indian exports," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2019-024, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.

    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. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Gary GEREFFI & Arianna ROSSI, 2011. "Economic and social upgrading in global production networks: A new paradigm for a changing world," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 319-340, December.
    2. Linqing Liu & Shiye Mei, 2016. "Visualizing the GVC research: a co-occurrence network based bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 109(2), pages 953-977, November.
    3. Terheggen, Anne, 2010. "The new kid in the forest: the impact of China's resource demand on Gabon's tropical timber value chain," MPRA Paper 37982, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. MILE 02, Anirudh Shingal, 2015. "Labour market effects of integration into GVCs: Review of literature," Papers 1109, World Trade Institute.
    5. Christina Niforou, 2015. "Labour Leverage in Global Value Chains: The Role of Interdependencies and Multi-level Dynamics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 301-311, August.
    6. Pipkin, Seth & Fuentes, Alberto, 2017. "Spurred to Upgrade: A Review of Triggers and Consequences of Industrial Upgrading in the Global Value Chain Literature," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 536-554.
    7. Yoshimichi Murakami & Keijiro Otsuka, 2020. "Governance, Information Spillovers, and Productivity of Local Firms: Toward an Integrated Approach to Foreign Direct Investment and Global Value Chains," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 58(2), pages 134-174, June.
    8. Vagneron, Isabelle & Faure, Guy & Loeillet, Denis, 2009. "Is there a pilot in the chain? Identifying the key drivers of change in the fresh pineapple sector," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 437-446, October.
    9. Stephanie BARRIENTOS & Frederick MAYER & John PICKLES & Anne POSTHUMA, 2011. "Decent work in global production networks: Framing the policy debate," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 150(3-4), pages 297-317, December.
    10. Maertens, Miet & Verhofstadt, Ellen, 2013. "Horticultural exports, female wage employment and primary school enrolment: Theory and evidence from Senegal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 118-131.
    11. Matanda, Margaret Jekanyika & Freeman, Susan, 2009. "Effect of perceived environmental uncertainty on exporter-importer inter-organisational relationships and export performance improvement," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 89-107, February.
    12. Riisgaard, Lone, 2009. "Global Value Chains, Labor Organization and Private Social Standards: Lessons from East African Cut Flower Industries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 326-340, February.
    13. Anna Giunta & Domenico Scalera & Francesco Trivieri & Jeffrey B. Nugent & Mariarosaria Agostino, 2011. "Firm Productivity, Organizational Choice and Global Value Chain," Working Papers 2011R09, Orkestra - Basque Institute of Competitiveness.
    14. repec:ilo:ilowps:369852 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Maertens, Miet & Swinnen, Johan, 2015. "Agricultural trade and development: A value chain perspective," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2015-04, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    16. Maciej Grodzicki, 2018. "Prices of Value Added and Competitiveness in Global Value Chains," SPRU Working Paper Series 2018-14, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    17. Navas-Alemán, Lizbeth, 2011. "The Impact of Operating in Multiple Value Chains for Upgrading: The Case of the Brazilian Furniture and Footwear Industries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 1386-1397, August.
    18. Céline Louche & Lotte Staelens & Marijke D’Haese, 2020. "When Workplace Unionism in Global Value Chains Does Not Function Well: Exploring the Impediments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 162(2), pages 379-398, March.
    19. Anne Tallontire & Maggie Opondo & Valerie Nelson & Adrienne Martin, 2011. "Beyond the vertical? Using value chains and governance as a framework to analyse private standards initiatives in agri-food chains," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 28(3), pages 427-441, September.
    20. Yoruk, Deniz E., 2019. "Dynamics of firm-level upgrading and the role of learning in networks in emerging markets," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 341-369.
    21. Lixia Mei & Dan Shao, 2011. "Too Cheap Hurt Farmers, Too Expensive Hurt Customers: The Changing Impacts of Supermarkets on Chinese Agro-food Markets," Millennial Asia, , vol. 2(1), pages 43-64, January.

    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:bwp:bwppap:ctg-2010-03. 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: Rowena Harding (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wpmanuk.html .

    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.