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Global Production Networks (global + production_network)
Selected AbstractsThe Governance of Global Production Networks and Regional Development: A Case Study of Taiwanese PC Production NetworksGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2009DANIEL YOU-REN YANG ABSTRACT This article applies a global production networks (GPN) perspective to the trans-border investments of Taiwanese personal computer (PC) companies in the Northern Taiwan, Greater Suzhou and Greater Dongguan regions. The findings of extensive field research are used to illustrate two conceptual arguments. First, we show the on-the-ground complexity of inter-firm governance arrangements within the PC industry, thereby casting doubt upon attempts to reduce notions of governance to simplistic, industry-wide categorisations. Second, by comparing Greater Suzhou and Greater Dongguan, we demonstrate that even within a single production system, there is geographical variation in the nature of the strategic coupling between the GPN and local institutional formations. We argue that conceptualising such geographical and organisational complexity is critical to understanding the regional development potential of GPNs. [source] Transportation and the Geographical and Functional Integration of Global Production NetworksGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2006JEAN-PAUL RODRIGUE ABSTRACT The growing interest in the relationships between transportation and globalization has spurred many inquires in the nature of production, consumption and distribution, especially within transport geography. It is widely acknowledged that improvements in transport and distribution have contributed to significant changes in the geographies of production (and vice versa). In a context of intense global competition and diminishing profit margins, logistics and the formation of global production networks offer additional opportunities to improve the efficiency of production through distribution strategies. The spatial and functional fragmentation of manufacturing and attempts at reducing inventories have led to smaller, more frequent and synchronized shipments, transforming the logistics industry, but placing intense pressures on transport systems to support these flows. The benefits derived from global production networks thus cannot be achieved without improvements in logistics and supply chain management. This article seeks to assess the conditions driving the global forms of production, distribution, and transport mainly by looking at the levels of geographical and functional integration of global production networks in view of the high level of fragmentation observed within them. However, there are still many uncertainties and delays in distribution, which can only be compensated by a better organization of freight distribution systems supporting global production networks. [source] Global production networks, the developmental state and the articulation of Asia Pacific economies in the commercial aircraft industryASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 3 2007John T. Bowen Jr. Abstract: Asia Pacific economies , particularly Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore , play a large and growing role in the commercial aircraft industry, despite the fact that the region has no major independent plane-maker. Instead, Asia has secured a significant position in the increasingly elaborate global production networks of Boeing and Airbus. The wider Asian significance in those networks has been fostered not only by the region's deep capital and human resource assets but also by the catalytic actions of developmental states in the region. Moreover, decades of rapid air traffic growth have made Asia a crucial market for Boeing and Airbus. In response, the American and European giants have been compelled to outsource more of their business to Asia in order to win sales and to design new airliners tailored to the needs of Asian customers. Together, the increased importance of Asia in both the design and the manufacture of commercial aircraft point to a future in which Asia will capture an ever-larger share of the value created in one of the world's most technologically sophisticated and strategically significant industries. [source] Ireland's Foreign-Owned Technology Sector: Evolving Towards Sustainability?GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 3 2008PATRICK COLLINS ABSTRACT For some, Ireland's pursuit of an exogenous-led development model has proved to be the cornerstone of recent economic success. Others point to recent high-profile closures and argue that foreign-owned operations are attracted to Ireland solely because of the advantageous tax breaks and lucrative grants scheme offered by the Irish government. We pay tribute to both arguments by pushing the level of enquiry beyond that of supply and backward linkages to try and gauge the actual performance of affiliates themselves. This brings some interesting facets of the Irish foreign direct investment scene to light. We highlight complexity of process, attainment of broader investment remits, and the emergence of a managerial class as integral to the ability of affiliates to adapt to and exploit organisational change. By examining 10 case studies and making use of media searches and company interviews, we highlight evidence of Ireland's largest technology transnational corporation affiliates showing positive performance advances. With these movements come, what we term, increased nodal significance of Irish operations within the global production network of their corporations. We argue against policy and theories that see these movements as linear and provide evidence of how some Irish operations have leveraged control and gained significant regional and global remits that have resulted in their growing significance, both in the corporation and in the country in which they are based. In the same line we argue that embeddedness in terms of supply linkages does not fit the Irish case and instead employ the term "network anchoring" of affiliates as they increase their nodal weighting through increased mandates. [source] Extraregional Linkages and the Territorial Embeddedness of Multinational Branch Plants: Evidence from the South Tyrol Region in Northeast ItalyECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2006Markus Perkmann Abstract: This article reevaluates the regional embeddedness of multinational manufacturing branch plants in view of recent work on global production networks and extraregional links. It argues that the predominance of extraregional production linkages is not necessarily detrimental to regional economies and that such linkages can even compensate for weak territorial innovations systems in noncore regions. The arguments are supported by a case study of the South Tyrol region of Italy, using firm-level data from surveys and interviews, complemented by evidence on institutional conditions. The findings suggest that neither the branch plants nor the locally owned manufacturing firms are strongly embedded in the region in terms of material linkages and interorganizational relationships, indicating that the ownership status of firms is not a good predictor of embeddedness. Second, compared to local firms, branch plants are more innovative and hence contribute to a larger degree to regional upgrading processes. Third, South Tyrol's core institutional structures, such as those governing the labor force, play a decisive role in the competitiveness of branch plants and therefore create codependencies that bind these producers to the territory. The results suggest a more differentiated assessment of the role of branch plants within noncore regions. [source] Capital Versus the Districts: A Tale of One Multinational Company's Attempt to Disembed ItselfECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2004N. A. Phelps Abstract: The process of international economic integration in which multinational enterprises (MNEs) play a significant orchestrating role is a contradictory one of a space of flows, on the one hand, and a space of places, on the other hand. It is this contradiction that produces a variegated landscape of relations within and among MNEs and a whole range of territorially rooted organizations and institutions. As a result, interest in global production networks, as part of a broader relational turn in economic geography, has sought to highlight and uncover these webs of relations within which MNEs are embedded. In reviewing this literature, we emphasize the economic imperatives underlying such relations or, rather, their political-economic nature and the discontinuities in industrial restructuring they can produce. We then present an empirical illustration of these points and some of the key concerns within the literature on global production networks. We consider a recent round of restructuring by Black & Decker Corporation, focusing on the politico-economic ramifications of closing one of two European factories. Our reading of the literature, coupled with our empirical findings, suggests the continuing tendency for international integration as a space of flows to eclipse the coherence of places. Localized points of resistance can moderate the powers exercised by MNEs internally and across a network of organizations, although there are limits to the transferability of such tactics of resistance. [source] THEORIZING GLOBAL BUSINESS SPACESGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2009Andrew Jones ABSTRACT. Over the last decade, geographers have paid a great deal of attention to transnational firms (TNCs) and global production networks (GPNs) in the global economy, to the emergence of a mobile transnational business class and also to the development of global or globalizing cities. All three literatures have made important contributions to understanding the spatiality of global economic activity, but each adopts a fairly discreet theoretical and empirical focus. This article aims to outline a number of theoretical dimensions for thinking about how these key strands to the globalization debate can be brought together through the concept of global business spaces. It will propose a framework for understanding the spatialities of global economic activity that seeks to capture the complex interaction of material, social, organizational and virtual spaces that form the context through which it is constituted. With reference to business travel as a key form of economic practice which plays a central role in (re)producing these spaces, it assesses how these emerging spaces of global economic activity present problems for the conceptual categories commonly used by both urban and economic geographers. In so doing, it proposes a series of ways in which a different research agenda can produce new insight into the complex forms of social practice at the centre of global economic activity. [source] The Governance of Global Production Networks and Regional Development: A Case Study of Taiwanese PC Production NetworksGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2009DANIEL YOU-REN YANG ABSTRACT This article applies a global production networks (GPN) perspective to the trans-border investments of Taiwanese personal computer (PC) companies in the Northern Taiwan, Greater Suzhou and Greater Dongguan regions. The findings of extensive field research are used to illustrate two conceptual arguments. First, we show the on-the-ground complexity of inter-firm governance arrangements within the PC industry, thereby casting doubt upon attempts to reduce notions of governance to simplistic, industry-wide categorisations. Second, by comparing Greater Suzhou and Greater Dongguan, we demonstrate that even within a single production system, there is geographical variation in the nature of the strategic coupling between the GPN and local institutional formations. We argue that conceptualising such geographical and organisational complexity is critical to understanding the regional development potential of GPNs. [source] Globalization and Regional Change in the U.S. Furniture IndustryGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 2 2008MARK H. DRAYSE ABSTRACT Furniture manufacturing has experienced rapid globalization in recent years. This is mainly the result of global production networks established by large manufacturers and retailers seeking to reduce costs in a highly competitive environment. The industry's globalization has been facilitated by technological innovations and the global reduction of trade and investment barriers. In the U.S., furniture-producing regions are experiencing tumultuous change. Growing numbers of firms are outsourcing production to China, which is now responsible for about half of all U.S. furniture imports. Employment levels have plummeted. However, an analysis of spatial patterns of employment, output, and capital investment in U.S. furniture manufacturing shows that regional change is not uniform. Southern regions characterized by larger firms specializing in wooden case goods production have been especially vulnerable to job loss. [source] Transportation and the Geographical and Functional Integration of Global Production NetworksGROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2006JEAN-PAUL RODRIGUE ABSTRACT The growing interest in the relationships between transportation and globalization has spurred many inquires in the nature of production, consumption and distribution, especially within transport geography. It is widely acknowledged that improvements in transport and distribution have contributed to significant changes in the geographies of production (and vice versa). In a context of intense global competition and diminishing profit margins, logistics and the formation of global production networks offer additional opportunities to improve the efficiency of production through distribution strategies. The spatial and functional fragmentation of manufacturing and attempts at reducing inventories have led to smaller, more frequent and synchronized shipments, transforming the logistics industry, but placing intense pressures on transport systems to support these flows. The benefits derived from global production networks thus cannot be achieved without improvements in logistics and supply chain management. This article seeks to assess the conditions driving the global forms of production, distribution, and transport mainly by looking at the levels of geographical and functional integration of global production networks in view of the high level of fragmentation observed within them. However, there are still many uncertainties and delays in distribution, which can only be compensated by a better organization of freight distribution systems supporting global production networks. [source] Global production networks, the developmental state and the articulation of Asia Pacific economies in the commercial aircraft industryASIA PACIFIC VIEWPOINT, Issue 3 2007John T. Bowen Jr. Abstract: Asia Pacific economies , particularly Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore , play a large and growing role in the commercial aircraft industry, despite the fact that the region has no major independent plane-maker. Instead, Asia has secured a significant position in the increasingly elaborate global production networks of Boeing and Airbus. The wider Asian significance in those networks has been fostered not only by the region's deep capital and human resource assets but also by the catalytic actions of developmental states in the region. Moreover, decades of rapid air traffic growth have made Asia a crucial market for Boeing and Airbus. In response, the American and European giants have been compelled to outsource more of their business to Asia in order to win sales and to design new airliners tailored to the needs of Asian customers. Together, the increased importance of Asia in both the design and the manufacture of commercial aircraft point to a future in which Asia will capture an ever-larger share of the value created in one of the world's most technologically sophisticated and strategically significant industries. [source] Global Production Sharing and Sino,US Trade RelationsCHINA AND WORLD ECONOMY, Issue 3 2009Prema-chandra Athukorala F14; F23; O53 Abstract This paper examines Sino,US trade relations, focusing on the ongoing process of global production sharing, involving splitting of the production process into discrete activities that are then allocated across countries, and the resulting trade complementarities between the two countries in world manufacturing trade. The results suggest that the Sino,US trade imbalance is basically a structural phenomenon resulting from the pivotal role played by China as the final assembly centre in East Asia-centered global production networks. [source] Beyond the regional lifeworld against the global systemworld: towards a relational ,scalar perspective on spatial,economic developmentGEOGRAFISKA ANNALER SERIES B: HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2002Arnoud Lagendijk Recent writings in economic geography have questioned the way the literature has featured the regional scale in discussing issues of innovation and economic competitiveness, and called for a different conceptualization of scale. This paper takes up the challenge to go beyond what is called the ,regional gaze', by presenting a critical review of the regionalist literature and outlining an alternative approach. The critique of the ,regional gaze' is developed in two steps: first, by discussing the influence of strategic management discourse; and second, by invoking the twin concepts of lifeworld,systemworld. This critical account results in identifying various windows for elaborating an alternative conceptualization of the relationship between economic development and space. A first alternative is found in the dimension of the ,non,local' or ,extra,local', but the significance of these notions is considered to be limited. Drawing on recent work on scaling and the ,politics of scale', a relational,scalar approach is proposed that focuses on the question of how scalar qualities are socially produced and contested. What is called for is a geographical imagination that sees innovation and economic competitiveness as braced on spatialized networks rather than bounded territories scaled at the regional level. An illustration of how such a perspective may be elaborated is found in recent discussions on the concept of ,global production networks'. [source] | ||||||||||