TY - JOUR
T1 - Lead Firms in the Cocoa–Chocolate Global Production Network
T2 - An Assessment of the Deductive Capabilities of GPN 2.0
AU - Neilson, Jeff
AU - Pritchard, Bill
AU - Fold, Niels
AU - Dwiartama, Angga
PY - 2018/8/8
Y1 - 2018/8/8
N2 - Recent models of Global Production Network Theory (known as GPN 2.0) have attempted to theoretically explain the underlying determinants, or causal drivers, of particular industry network configurations, which in turn shape the territorial outcomes for regional development. To date, the ability of this ambitious conceptual model to thereby explain economic geography has remained largely untested beyond the select industry networks examined by its proponents, most notably the electronics, retail, and automotive sectors of East Asia. In this article, we stress test the causative model for the case of lead firms in the global cocoa–chocolate sector, and assess its ability to subsequently explain industry configurations and territorial outcomes in a particular country: Indonesia. Our application suggests that GPN 2.0 has considerable utility for directing empirical research, but challenges beset its fuller theoretical promise. We identify a problematic relationship between the deductive causality implied by GPN 2.0 and the inherent relationality of GPN 1.0 that remains, in our view, unresolved. As a result, we remain skeptical of the broader theoretical claims that GPN 2.0 possesses explanatory powers capable of deducing industry network configurations from a discrete set of supposedly independent variables.
AB - Recent models of Global Production Network Theory (known as GPN 2.0) have attempted to theoretically explain the underlying determinants, or causal drivers, of particular industry network configurations, which in turn shape the territorial outcomes for regional development. To date, the ability of this ambitious conceptual model to thereby explain economic geography has remained largely untested beyond the select industry networks examined by its proponents, most notably the electronics, retail, and automotive sectors of East Asia. In this article, we stress test the causative model for the case of lead firms in the global cocoa–chocolate sector, and assess its ability to subsequently explain industry configurations and territorial outcomes in a particular country: Indonesia. Our application suggests that GPN 2.0 has considerable utility for directing empirical research, but challenges beset its fuller theoretical promise. We identify a problematic relationship between the deductive causality implied by GPN 2.0 and the inherent relationality of GPN 1.0 that remains, in our view, unresolved. As a result, we remain skeptical of the broader theoretical claims that GPN 2.0 possesses explanatory powers capable of deducing industry network configurations from a discrete set of supposedly independent variables.
U2 - 10.1080/00130095.2018.1426989
DO - 10.1080/00130095.2018.1426989
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0013-0095
VL - 94
SP - 400
EP - 424
JO - Economic Geography
JF - Economic Geography
IS - 4
ER -