Value Chains
The GVC approach offers the possibility of understanding how firms are linked in the global economy, but also acknowledges the broader institutional context of these linkages, including trade policy, regulation, and standards. More generally, the global production networks paradigm has been used to link scholarly research on globalization with the concerns of both policy makers and social activists, who are trying to harness the potential gains of globalization to the pragmatic concerns of specific countries and social constituencies that feel increasingly marginalized in the international economic arena. A growing number of international organizations are featuring the global value chains perspective in their publications, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (2004), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2010), the International Labor Organization (Gereffi 2006), and the World Bank (Cattaneo et al. 2010).
