Joonkoo Lee

Global value chains and agrifood standards: Challenges and possibilities for smallholders in developing countries

The rise of private food standards has brought forth an ongoing debate about whether they work as a barrier for smallholders and hinder poverty reduction in developing countries. This paper uses a global value chain approach to explain the relationship between value chain structure and agrifood safety and quality standards and to discuss the challenges and possibilities this entails for the upgrading of smallholders. It maps four potential value chain scenarios depending on the degree of concentration in the markets for agrifood supply (farmers and manufacturers) and demand (supermarkets and other food retailers) and discusses the impact of lead firms and key intermediaries on smallholders in different chain situations. Each scenario is illustrated with case examples. Theoretical and policy issues are discussed, along with proposals for future research in terms of industry structure, private governance, and sustainable value chains.

US-Based Food and Agricultural Value Chains and Their Relevance to Healthy Diets.

This article examines the structure and health implications of two industries, chicken and tomatoes, that play prominent roles in US food and agricultural competitiveness. Both industries have become more concentrated over time, with powerful “lead firms” driving geographical, technological, and marketing changes. Overall, a processed food revolution has taken place in agricultural products that transforms the types of food and dietary options available to consumers. The nature of contemporary food and agricultural value chains affects the strategies and policies that can be effectively employed to address major health goals such as improved nutrition, food safety, and food security.

Globalization, Recession and the Internationalization of Industrial Districts: Experiences from the Italian Gold Jewellery Industry

Abstract Globalization and the recent recession crisis are significantly challenging Italian industrial districts (IDs), leading to deep transformations in their internationalization, innovation and organization strategies. With our empirical focus on a single industry (gold jewellery) and a specific country (Italy) and through the theoretical lenses of the global value chain (GVC) approach, the evidence in this article sheds light on the differences in how three IDs within Italys gold jewellery sector (Valenza Po, Arezzo and Vicenza) compete in the global arena. Our comparative analysis reveals striking differences among these districts with regard to their upstream and downstream internationalization strategies in response to two industry shocks: increasing global competition in the early 2000s and the world economic recession of 2008–2009. Our explanation for the varied gold jewellery district responses to these two global crises involves both internal and external factors: (1) structural differences between the three IDs; (2) distinct business strategies; and (3) how these districts are linked to the gold jewellery GVC.

The co-evolution of concentration in mobile phone global value chains and its impact on social upgrading in developing countries

Abstract This paper examines the relationship of economic and social upgrading in the global value chain (GVC) of mobile phone manufacturing. It specifically questions (1) how the GVCs of mobile phone manufacturing have changed the dynamics of trade, production and value creation and capturing in developing countries; and (2) how those dynamics have affected the social upgrading of workers in GVCs in terms of employment and wages. The paper identifies several key features of the mobile phone GVC. First, although mobile phone manufacturing was fragmented significantly over the past decade as a result of the relocation of production to developing economies, by the end of the decade it was characterized by the mutually reinforcing co-evolution of geographic and organizational concentration within the mobile phone GVC. Second, global mobile phone production is driven by a handful of lead firms. The consolidation of lead firms helps drive the consolidation of their suppliers, while lead firms capture much more value than their contract manufacturers do. Finally, GVC participation has a significant impact in terms of generating employment where manufacturing is concentrated, but it has a limited impact on wage increase.

Global Value Chains, Upgrading and Poverty Reduction

Global value chains (GVCs) are changing the way trade is conducted and value is created and captured. As more trade is organized through close coordination between buyers and suppliers, moving to high value-added activities, or economic upgrading, is critically determined by lead firms, particularly global buyers. However, growing evidence shows that economic upgrading of producers does not necessarily lead to social upgrading of workers, and the relationship is complicated by GVC restructuring in a post-crisis world. Dynamic monitoring of global and regional chains, joint public-private support for value chain upgrading, and improved trade metrics will provide more effective policy interventions for poverty reduction in a rapidly changing global trade environment.

Global Supply Chain Dynamics and Labour Governance: Implications for Social Upgrading

Global supply chains (GSCs) have become an integral part of the global economy, changing the patterns of trade, investment, and production in global industries. While the rise of GSCs poses new opportunities and challenges to workers, its impacts have yet to be fully understood. Building on a growing body of literature on GSCs and labour standards, this paper examines how the emergence and change of the fragmented cross-national production system affects social upgrading in developing countries, focusing on the impact of private governance on labour conditions and workers’ rights. It discusses emerging trends in GSCs during the post-crisis period and their impacts on social upgrading, highlighting the unevenness of social upgrading and the role of global buyers in the differentiation of labour conditions among workers. The paper discusses the role of private voluntary standards in governing labour relations in GSCs, and their limitations and tensions with buyers’ purchasing practices. It concludes with a discussion of the future of labour governance in GSCs in terms of improving the effectiveness of private governance and building a complementary and synergistic relationship across private, public and social governance for sustainable economic and social upgrading in GSCs.

Three worlds of global value chains: multiple governance and upgrading paths in the Korean animation industry

Abstract Cultural production is increasingly fragmented and dispersed organizationally and geographically as a result of growing offshore outsourcing within and across firms, giving rise to global value chains (GVCs). Yet, a GVC perspective has been applied limitedly to the study of cultural industries without serious consideration of inter-firm governance structure and its consequences on upgrading. Building upon the GVC literature on multiple governance structure, this paper examines three GVCs in Korea with distinctive governance forms: U.S. outsourcing chains, Japanese outsourcing chains, and international coproduction chains. The two outsourcing chains exhibited marked differences in various governance dimensions with distinctive upgrading patterns. International coproduction chains emerged as an alternative pathway of upgrading after the rapid decline of outsourcing exports, posing unique opportunities and challenges to firms and policy-makers. The findings are discussed in the context of multiple governance structure in GVCs and its implications to upgrading in networked global cultural production.

Globalization and Divergent Paths of Industrial Development: Mobile Phone Manufacturing in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan

Abstract Globalisation has challenged the way industrial development takes place. Fragmented and decentralised global production and the rapid growth of consumer markets in emerging economies demand a more sophisticated framework to analyse development paths than does the dichotomy of export orientation and import substitution. This article proposes a typology based on (a) specialisation in the global value chain and (b) market orientation to distinguish different development trajectories and then applies the typology to mobile phone manufacturing in four East Asian countries. This study finds that globalisation does not lead to the convergence of development paths, but promotes cross-national divergence depending on countries’ positions in the value chain and market niches. Both Korea and Taiwan emerge as key players in global markets, yet in different parts of the global value chain. Their common orientation toward global markets strikingly contrasts the inability of Japanese firms to translate their domestic success overseas. Finally, Chinese firms concurrently engage in different development paths, making the country’s multi-path approach unique. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of industrial development in East Asia in an era of globalisation.